The record-union., 1896-06-24
ommittees. as we'll as to the House it.

pie. | have jotted down some matters
here, and the light being poor L will
have to get my Spectacles on, that l
may call your attention to them l have
succeeded fairly well in getting recogni-
ton for this district. AS your honored
Chairman has said, / was a new MEM
her. 1t was looked upon almost as a
sacrilege for a new member to attempt
to say anything or to attempt to ask
for anything, and 1 had to try, and /
succeeded reasonably well. And l may
be pardoned for calling your attention
to these matters, because am making,
as l said, a report to you. | was your
agent, sent there not merely by the
votes of the Republicans of this district,
but, as 1 was proud to be able to say,
by the votes of a large number of 9TH
erS who did not belong to my political
party, who voted for me, believing that
[ would represent Sacramento City and
this district.
/ succeeded in obtaining a Postoffice
at Fair Oaks in this county. Now, that
does not seem as though it was very
much to do; but you go there and try 1t
once and find out; find out what it is
to write letters to this man and to that
man, and to call upon this officer and
that officer-and the men in office at
Washington sometimes are polite, some
times they are not polite, and they have
the say in the matter. And to succeed in
obtaining a new PostOffice is not al
ways an easy job. And I succeeded in
that, which is something for the benefit
OF this city and county. (Applause)
For years the people living on the line
of the road between Stockton and Mil
ton, and beyond Milton, in the counties
Of Calaveras and elsewhere, had been
endeavoring to obtain an increase in
their mail service, to obtain a postal
clerk, and they had failed. They wrote
to me in regard to the matter. | took
it up and had good luck in regard to
it. [ worked upon it hard and sue
ceeded in obtaining that for them 1t
is a little matter perhaps, but it was
great matter for them, and it was some
thing which required constant and con-
tinuouS work.
Again, the people in Butte County de-
sired to have an increase of their mail
service from Central House and other
points to Grdley. and to other points.
They wrote and asked for it, and 1 at
tended to it, worked for it, and re-
ing that it had been granted. The mat
ter was to them of Importance. 1t was
easy to have allowed it to sleep, but l
am egotistical enough to say that you
know that l never allow anything to
sleep that is intrusted to me. I kept
at it and succeeded in obtaining it.
You know somewhat of the labor i'm
posed upon a Congressman in reference
to pensions, but you do not realize it
unless you are there. / found a large
number of pension applicants from this
district. l found that a large number
of them had been neglected. l re-
ceived a number Of letters from those
applicants and those claimants, and
hope some of them are present here to-
night. L know some of them are in the
city. / took up the cause of every man
and every woman whose application
was sent to me; some of them We're
women.
Some of them had been lying there
for four years; some for five years. /
worked upon them night and day I
succeeded in obtaining a number of
pensions and succeeded in obtaining
action upon all the claims that were
sent to me, and you will be surprised,
fellow citizens, when I say that even
in this Second Congressional District,
where nobody would have supposed
there were many pensioners, even in
this district, l have personally caused
to be acted upon over 800 claims for
pensions, if I have correctly figured the
number. This is work of itself. Gap
plause)
I pledged myself, as you remember,
before election that whatever [ could
do for the honored soldier and sailor of
the Republic, to give him his pension
due, would be cheerfuly done. 1 have
performed my promise in that regard.
and number of pensioners in this and
other counties in the district can tes-
tify to that as well as myself. CAP
plause.)
Again, I found the Second Congress
sional District had not received its due
snare Of documents; that my predeces-
sor, owing perhaps to stress Of circum-
stances, had been unable to distribute
them, and when he found he had too
many, had turned them over to a Dem
ocrat, and not to his successor in office
because, perhaps, I was a Republican
L found that we did not have enough
documents. 1 attended to that, and I
believe have fairly distributed them
all over the district.
1t is a matter perhaps of not much
rtoment but still ] speak of it as show
ing that have been in that, as in every
thing else, endeavoring to attend to the
duties of the position, and have distri-
Duted them as | have distributed the
seeds that were entrusted to US And
by the way, II you knew what a job
tnat is a good word-what a hard job
it was to get those seeds through, you
would feel that a Congressman had
earned his salary, and had earned the
thanks of the people upon that alone.
The Secretary of Agriculture a very
estimable gentleman, no doubt, had
considered that it was improper to is
sue those seeds, and refused to do it;
that it was necessary that we should
have resolutions passed by Congress-
and it took some time and trouble to
do that Then it was necessary, or he
required of us, that we should make
out list of names and send them to
him, and he would distribute them
We Were not permitted to distribute
them ourselves, as Congressman, but
we sent the names in; and if anybody
has not received any seeds, | wish to
say that it is not my fault | sent in the
names of everybody up to the number
that / was allowed and to a few more,
and endeayored to remember all that ]
thought would care to receive those
seeds; and inasmuch as he called upon
us, in my district, and said that we
would be entitled to between 5000 and
1000 names, that of itself was quite a
job.