Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-02-01

err. Mr.. Reed can go to sleep at any hour
OF the day or night when he needs rest,
and easily cancels the debt he owes to ma
ture for straight twenty-four hours of
labor or for any other unnatural strain.
Only orce at this session OF Congress
has the Speaker robbed himself of sleep
without making uo for it later That was
when ne was making up his committees.
He was at work then night and day, late
and early. The story of the way the COM
mfttee places were distributed has not
been told yet. l am going to tell 1t here.
1t is an illustration of the method Mr..
Reed pursues in dsposing of the business
before him. That he is a man of method is
made evident by the tale that is told OF
his school-teaching days. when 1t is said
he kept boy in after school on the last
day of the session because he did not know
his lessons. This trait is still better shown
in his work as Speaker of the House.
In the fist place. il must be stated that
II is not true, as reported, that MI Reed
had much of the work of distributing the
committee places mapped out before he
came here. He was resting this summer
and he gave little thought to committee
selections. He probably fixed in his mind
the cha!rmer of the principal committee
Dingley for ways and means, Hit for for
eigE affairs, Cannon for appropriations
But the rank and file he had not consider
ed at all. On his way to Washington, Mr..
Allen procured some large sheets of card
board from a massachusetts manufacturer.
On these he pasted the names of the mem
bers of the House arranged alphabetically
from the printed list prepared by the clerk
Mr.. Reed had received great many re-
quests from members that they be ap
pointed on particular committees. There
were fifty requests for membership the
rivers and harbors communication some of
the committees there were no requests al
all. He had received also from many
quarters Endorsements of certain men for
certain committee places. There were re-
quests, too from state delegations. All these
requests and recommendations We're
members were arranged alphabetically.
There was also an alphabetical list of COM
.Dlttees with spaces to enter the names of
members.
Arranging the Committees.
Mr.. Reed took the list Of members names
and studied it carefully. He weighed the
availability of each man for the position
for which he was suggested. or. if no sug
gestion had been made, he considered for
what committee work ne was best equip
ped. If he was not sure about a member
he sent for him and talked with him, or
sent for some one else and got an estimate
of the man from him.
When he had determined that man was
fitted for work on a particular committee
and had weighed his claims in the bal
ance with those of others, if he decided to
give him certain place he entered thu
name OIL the committee IN the alDhabet1-
cally arranged book. Then under the
members name on the big card his secre-
tary wrote I'D on judiciary" or whatever
his committee place was to be. Often one
OF these entries was erased because it was
found necessary to make adjustments so az
to divide the committee places as evenly as
possible, and particularly not to put any
democrat on SO many committees that he
would be overworked. So there was con-
slant shifting, and the man whose hearts
desire might have been realized under the
plan OF one day was scheduled for bitter
disappointment on the next. All this work
Mr.. Reed did with only clerical assistance
from his secretary and from his stenog-
Srapher. 1t kept him very busy for two or
three weeks and it cost him a great deal
of that sleep he values so highly He
seems to have recovered his losses since,
Tor he IS now in the pink of condition. He
can sit uD till 1 o'clock any night,
writing essays, and never feel the exertion,
The most significant piece of literary
work Mr.. Reed has done for some time is
an introduction to the~ works of Henry
Clay. which is to be brought out in the
near future. Mr.. Reed is a great admirer
of Clay, and he devoted great deal of
time to oerfecting his knowledge Of that
ernipent American before he undertook to
write this introduction. Oddly enough enc
or MI Reeds competitors for the republi-
can nomination for the presidency-ex-Goy.
Mckinley-is writing the "tail-piece" for
this publication.
The fact is. Mr.. Reed enjoys the quiet
hours which he spends in his study or
with his family much more than he docs
the hours which he devotes to public du-
ties. To some one who said to him recently
that he would feel lost is he should ever
drop out of public life, he replied that he
would be probably great deal more con-
tented.