Evening star., 1897-03-20

1 ~ :sns'sr. :'s,sss ss ss resssssne ssss%e
tatives. Poor men. ambitious for pecuniary
advancement. struggle for the same offices.
Yet l Is impossible to find a member of
either house of Congress who will confess
that his official salary enables him to more
than cover expenses. What Is it that they
are all to enjoy after they have won the
goal? First of all the annual salary of
$5D0-a tenth of that received from the
government by Mr. Mckinley. For repre-
sentatives add $1,000 allowed yearly for
clerical services, but whose expenditure
needn't be accounted for to any one. For
members Of both houses add s125 a year
allowed for stationary. the balance to be
drawn at the end Of each session If not all
used. 1t seldom happens that more than
$D Of this allowance Is expended.
In addition to this each senator and rep
resentative annually receives thousands of
packages of vegetables and flower seed, trea-
tiss on agrlcu tural science map and charts
from the government surveys. and d certain
number of Cuttings, bushes and plants fur
nished gratis by the government and mail
ed under frank to his constituents. The
howers which deck his house and adorn
MS w1fe and daughters are furnished free
by the botanical gardens. He seldom has
to buy a postage stamp. When he comes
from home at the beginning of a session
or returns at the end his railroad fare Is
PAID FOR. While at his desk he need only
press a button or clap his hands to have
any number of pages standing at his side
eager to wait upon him. The government
pays mounted messengers to his er-
randS between the Capitol and the city
He Is protected against certain penalties
by a constitutional right. He has the
pleasure of seeing all of his literary efforts,
no matter how poor, appear in print, laid
on his desk within twentyfour hours after
delivery, ard mailed to his constituents un-
der government frank. If he dies while
in office his funeral expenses will be paid
for by the goveynrnent, If a senator he
may take free Turkish baths and receive
free massage in the Senate bath rooms.
get free shaves hair cuts and shines in the
Senate barber shop, and drink his I'LL Of
apoliiraris lemonade paid for by the gov
ernment and kept IN the Senate cloak rooms
during hot weather. The perquisites in the
last paragraph. however, are not open to
member of the House. though a repre-
sentative may take ordinary baths with
free soap towels and perfumery.
Cutting Down Expenses.
There is no reason why thrifty man
even one accustomed to the niceties of nfe
should not save ole or two thousand dol
lars during each term in the House. 1t is
hardly possible for q senator to save how
ever. since he has to spend a great deal of
money to keep up with his greater social
duties in the "Millonaires' Club" The
truth of the matter is that many represeu-
tatives and a few senator's do manage to
save little. The richer the man In the
Washington official set the more is required
OF him. Over d third of the men who sat
In the Senate during the last Congress
economical by living at hotels or in ansrt-
ment houses. A half of the representatives
cut down expenses in the same manner
They thus avoided the unnecessary cost of
maintaining house, rented or leased, be-
tween sessions.
To the millionaire member NJ Cnp1ras,
the annual official salary is merely orna-
mental. 1t is the heavy swell thing for the
legislator OF this brand to turn over his
fve thousand year to his private secre-
tary. who generally has his EMPLOYERS
private interests to attend to in addition.
A number have done this already and it is
said that Mr Hanna not only gives his
secretary his whole salary. but a thousand
dollars per annum in addition From the
appearance of things in his office this mar
ticuiar secretary earns every cent of what
he Is given. but that is neither here nor
there. Mr.. Brice Is said to have given his
whole senatorial salary to his secretary.
while his social pilot probably receives even
more. But good things like Calvin seldom
blow into the Senate. except from Ohio
During the past week new members of
both houses have been pounced upon by
SWarmS or young men camoring for nri-
vate secretaryships and clerkshps. Under
the old order of things senator's secreta-
rfes, who received 81 a day during session
would now be topplinS over with mirth and
happiness because of the extra session
Sut now. those who have become ripe in
the business making wry faces and
tearing their hair. The salary of the SEN
atorial secretary was changed to 81 900 a
year. to be received in monthly payments
regardless of session or adjournments. If
was figured that under the new rule each
secretary would receive about as much per
Congress as he did before, but extra ses-
sions were not included in this reckoning.
Many senator's secretaries are undernaid
"A tss tll-n
ever. have the same amount of work to do
Some who hold chairmanships of unimport-
ant committees are supposed to use the
committee clerks for their personal cor
respondence, and are, therefore, not allowed
q secretary.
Make Good Secretaries.
The new senator representative who
employs green youth. from home, to be
his secretary will probably regret it. Wash
fngton is full Of bright young fellows. who
know the whole official routine like a
book, and who are fairly aching for con-
gressional secretaryships. Young men who
have reported for local papers or who have
assisted correspondents of outside dailies
make the best secretaries when thew can bs
procured. Nepotism has frequently been
resorted to in the selection of ccngressionai
clerks and secretaries. The president Of
the last Senate appointed his son as his
private secretary. and so did the Speaker
Of the Fifty-third Congress. Senators who
are chairmen Of committees are at liberty
to appoint whom they please as clerks to
their committees! The clerk to the Senate
committee on appropriations receives S3. 600
a year. and has an assistant clerk who
gets 1920. The clerk to the committee on
finance gets ST. 800 year. The present in
cumbent is the SON Of the chairman of the
committee on finance. There are three
ether grades of Senate COMMITTEES clerk
ships which pay 1920. g. 100 and 81 40 an
nually. In the last Senate altogether eight
chairmen appointed their sons as their com
mittee clerks G'There Is no reason why
senators' sons should not make good clerks
hut it frequently happens that clerks to
these committees are mere figureheads.
functionaries bluebooked as assistant clerks
or messenger doing all Of the actual
work. There was one case a few years back
where the son of a senator was nominalIy
clerk to one Of the most important COM
mittees Of the Senate. while in reality he
was attending college in a distant city Al
though given a menial title, the MESSENGER
to committee in the Senate is usually a
very important parsonage. In some cases
he does all of the committees stenography
and typewriting. He gets $1,44O a year
The messenger IS sometimes appointed by
the sergeant-at-arms outright but usually
through senatorial influence. There are
altogether ffty-seven messengers In the
Senate.