The Portland daily press., 1897-04-15
ALL WANT THE BEST.
Applicants for Committee Places In
the House.
NEW MEMBERS DON'T HESITATE
TO STATE THEIR WANTS.


Judiciary Also Popular-Cleveland's
Civil Service Extension Sweeping
| Populists Want Recognition.
ESPECIAL TO THE PRESs.1
Washington, April 1.-THE work of
of Representatives this year is rendered.
trcu blesome by the general desire OF
members, especially the new ones, to get
onto certain favored committees There
are one hundred and fifty new memb bsrs
in the House and there axe perhaps two
are therefore one or two committee plates
for each new member, and if their desire
could be well regulated the problm
would be simple. But a large shareof
them have sat their hearts on having the
hest places. The case Of one Of the new
tinn pretty well. He succeeds memfer
who Lad been in the House ten Or a
dozen years, and by ability and hard
work had climbed up to very good con-
lnittes places. The new member wao
takes his place has asked the Speaker tor
places on the Appropriations aad
Judiciary committees, two of the grtat
committees of the House, and has ended
his application by saying that in oiss
these places cannot be given him he
would be satisfied with the commit5ee
places which his predecessor had. The
/ -, -,+ oop,v,ou danapd of tha paw man.
| ber is for the committee place of his PEE
decessor, who may have olim bed into the
place by long years of service. The
greatest drive this season seems to be or
the judiciary committee. There are seven
vacancies for which there are thirty nine
applications. There are thirty applita-
| tions for tho nine places CD the commit
tee on post offices and post roads; twenty
seven applications for the six places IN
naval affairs, although for the six
vacancies on the military affairs commit
tee there are only five applications. This
disparity in desirability between thess
two committees is hard to explain. The
social advantages OF association with
army men would seem to be as great as
with naval men. and one committees has
about as much WORK to do MS the other
4 It is probable that the building of the
new navy has made this branch of service
| most conspicuous, and that hence the
members baVe naturally turned to the
naval sffaiIs committee. They also turn
to the post offices and post roada commit
tea for the reason that they are familiar
With post Offices and mail matters to a
certain extent. The desirahility Of the
| judiciary committee is accounted for
readily by the fact that so many Of the
now members are lawyers, and see in
| that committee the surest path to u.eful-
ness and prominence. Another great
committee is that On.interstate and ign
commerce, and for the nine vacancies on
this committee there are thirty-two ap-
plicants. The generally disturbed state
of the world has also brought the foreign
affairs committee into prominence, and
| for tho six vacancies on that the appli-
cants number twenty. The need Of hank
ing and currency Legislation has m,gpi-
| fed that committee recently, and there
are twenty-six applications for the flvs
places. The appropriations committee
is always great and influential com
,nittee, and whoever is on it is petty
sure to gee ample opportunity for debate
or the floor in fighting through the sreut
appropriation bills. There are six vacan-
/ oies and twsntysix applicants. Thedis-
trict of Columbia committee is also de-
icir ac c nrt 0f q pf llor
men for the city of Washington, and
brings the members into social and ether
relations with the most prominentresi-
dents of the Capital city. For the aght
vacancies ON this committee there are
seventeen vacancies. Usually there is d
great scrambling for places Gu the rivers
ana harbors committee, but this year
Only twenty-five are applying for the six
places. There are sixtytwo committees
in all, 80 it will be seen thaJ largema-
jority are not considered particularly de-
| sirable.
This anxiety for the best committee
pinces Is very natural. With it's three
hundred and sixty members the Hpuse
offers little opportunity to man to get
prominence except in connection With
business from his committee. A member
cannot take the floor at any time and
| talk, as in smaller bodies. Such p1ivi-
| lege is too dear to be had at will. If a
members committee is one having much
business the chances to talk will be
numerous. But there are many comIit-
tees that will not get single bill bebre
the House in session. Such are geIer-
ally avoided.
The civil service extension made by Mr..
Cleveland are daily found to be more ex-
tensive than at first realized. All the
shipping commissionerships in the
country and all the immigrant inspectors
are under the system. The same is trse
of the pension examining surgeons in all
cases where the recompense is over s30Oa
year.
| 1t is probable that as often as the Houss