The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-12-30

cd upon 4a4se premises But IN the mat
ter of reforming the congressional fu-
neral, for which purpose he has intro
duced a bill. he is undoubtedly on the
right track. and his efforts viii be sup
ported by popular opinion. His bill pro-
vides that when a member Of congress
dies in the District Of Columbia during
a session OF congress. the house Of which
ne was a member shall appoint a COM
mittee to see that the body is properly
prepared and incased. when it shall be
sent to the family Of the deceased in the
care Of a sergeant-at-arms of the body;
that the necessary expenses for the car
rying out of the purposes of the act shall
be paid by the government. but the gov
eminent shall not pay other funeral ex-
penses. The bill is aimed squareiy at the
funeral junket which has become a scan
dal 10 the congress, and II passed VIII
upset that function.
The speech delivered by Senator PETER
in support Of the bill. as printed in the
Congressional Record. gives some inter
esting information with regard to the
origin and growth of the funeral junket
custom. Congress had been established
twenty years before the members STUN
bled upon the idea that the death of one
of their number could be made an ex-
cuse for the spending Of public money
for private enjoyment. In 1909 Francis
Malone, a senator from the state of
Rhode Island died, and his remains were
buried in the Congressional cemetery.
Most Of the senators. very properly, at
tended the funeral, after which a frugal
collation. was served. a bill for the
Among the items charged were sixteen
pounds of crackers. So, and liz pounds
of cheese S2a The committee of audit
and control Of the contingent expense
fund allowed the cracker item. but dis
allowed that of the cheese. They did not
feel that it was the governments duty
or right to pay for such luxuries.
The allowing Of the cracker item, how
ever, was the entering wedge which final
ly opened the way for funeral junketers
to make the government pay for such
items as these: Shaving, s.; soloist and
male quartette, $S5; surpliced choir and
organist, $40; one-half dozen glasses. SIS"
These items appeared in the bill of ex-
penses for the funeral of a Michigan
congressman who died not long ago and
received a congressional funeral at
cost to the government of nearly 1850.
That, however, was a little high for
representatives funeral. The average
60,
years has been $l,275 each. Senators. be-
ing higher in political and social scale,
received more pretentious and expensive
obsequies. The average Senate funeral
during the last ten years has cost S4,5O2.
During that time one senator from the
Pacific slope was given a funeral for
which the government paid $21, S22.55.
1t has been charged frequently that on
some Of the funeral junkets champagne,
cigars, whisky, soda water. seltzer play
ing cards, etc, were counted in as nee
essary incidentals Mr.. PETER does not
mention any of these things and the most
suggestive item that he quotes officially
is. glasses, SIS" 1t may be that he will
so deeper into the subject later. The
! bill is pending. and it is understood that
there will be several speeches made upon
| it. 1t is to be hoped that some senator
will make an effort to show why the
| government should pay the expenses for
elaborate funerals for it's congressman.
! The people are in ignorance of any good
and sufficient reason why it should.
There is but narrow margin between
our present high state of civilization and
the merely animal state from which some
scientists insist that we came And it
takes a comparatively slight shock to send
us back across the boundary This was
/ illustrated in the fearful catastrophe in a
Baltimore theater on Friday night.
! The mere cry of fire threw a
whole auditorium full of people into the
widest panic. They instantly became
savages. Each fought blindly to reach
an exit Reason forsook its throne and
merely the Instinct of preservation re-
manned. In the mad stampede the weak
were swept down and trampled to death
under foot. A stampede of steers could
! have not been wilder or more reckless.
Disastrous as was the catastrophe, it Of
fers no lesson that will be learned. There
will always be one fool in every large
audience ready to cry fire upon the slight
est pretext, with or without reason, and
human nature in large assemblies will
probably always be frightened out of its
wits by that cry. The only safeguard
against such occurrences is to provide the
most ample exits for all large public halls.
The administration seems to be working
mighty hard to make itself unpopular with
the government employees in Washington.
In the good old times under republican adj
ministrations, about all that the clerks had
to do was to keep from falling over
each other during work hours-about
six hours day. And they had every hol-
iday in the catalogue, and on an average
of about one half-holday a week Under
Cleveland, however they have been re-
quired to work eight hours a day. and
| Candlemas, st. Patrick's day, Bunker Hill