The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-04-16

finds III Dtntcut To Trhnsact busihess'
some Amazing Facts For the Plain Peo-
pic 10 Dwell Upon.
WASHINGTON. April ID Special The
senate Is having u great deal of trouble In
re0rcanizing it's committees. Unfortunate
" for the Republicans they lack little OF
having majority of the whole number of
senator's. and as the opposition has COM
bined against them they can reach results
only BY way Of compromise. The senate
is a great place for committees. One would
scarcely suppose body consisting Of only
- members land now of only 81 would
have need for SO committees, but that i
the number the senate has. Only - CT -
Of these are of any Importance i'm conduct
ing the business of the senate Tie re-
mainder are purely ornamental They
were organized for the purpose Of providing
chairlnanships, committee rooms and com
mittee clerks for the use of senator's Eff
ty-nine committees require 90 committee
rooms, so clerks TO committees, % or 80
messengers assigned To committee rooms
and i'm some cases assistant clerks ana IA
sistant messengers.
Plenty of Servants.
The United States senate has great
fact, in proportion TO the amount of bust
ness turned out Step into the senate
chamber some day The vice president is
in the chair. There are desks Tor 90 sena
tors, but where are the senatorsy Only
Is or 90 are within view. Not much is
going on. Everything and every one ap
pear 20 be sluggish and indifferent. Sure
ly an easy going body like this does not
require the services of 430 clerks, assist
ants, messengers, helpers, etc, does 1t;
Yes, that is approximately the number of
persons regularly employed by the United
States senate.
In the Office of the secretary of the sem
ate there are 25 clerks on the pay rolls,
two messengers and five laborers. The
vice president has private secretary and
. messenger. There are telegraph oper
ator and a telegraph page. There is the
senates chaplain and for wonder he Is
not provided with private secretary, a
messenger and n room. There are 63 clerks
and assistant clerks To committees, and 3
messengers carried on the rolls as assigned
TO committee rooms Most of the other
committee rooms have messengers detailed
from the staff of the sergeant. alarms.
Attached to the Office of the scrgeant-at-
arms are seven clerks and assistants and
40 d1urkepcers and messengers. The post
Office of the senate employs II men just TO
look after the mail of senator's, including
four riding pages, whose duty 1t Is TO carry
notes for senators and members of their
families.
In the document room, where copies OF
bills, resolutions and reports are kept are
six employees. In the folding room, where
speech,s arc Irc pa rcd for he mails, % per-
sons are regularly employed. and in cam
paign seasons e.. is number often runs up
To 100.
The People Foot the ellis.
Down in the basement of the big capitol
and underneath lie great terrace '."rr are
engines and boilers, and veI..tli,.,g an
pa aus, ;,i.d electric nac.ia,s, all. ht..;-
Inc and cooling appliances. Here are re-
qGired the services of 4 engineers, II
s..lllCl mechanics, such as carpenters, ma
chinists, electricians, etc, and about 20
laboTers and fircmen. In other work about
the senate - other men, carried on the
rolls "a laborcrs, are employed. Three
men are kept in the senate bathroom, >
in the senate barber shop, are employed
as elevator conductors, are i'm charge of
the senate's telephones. On the floor of
the senate Is pages are constantly en-
ployed attending To the wants Of senator's
Thirty senators, being without committee
chairnanships and the services of commit
tee clerks, are given clerk each at 81 200
a year.
Forty men compose the squad of capitol
police, who are stationed in the scnate's
wing of the capitol captain, lieuten-
ants and SO privates and watchmen. The
pay of these officers runs from $16.6 so per
month for watchmen and 1913 30 for pr
f.rl II. .,.1
for the captain.
Six men are employed in the senate sta
bles where there are about 20 horses and
as many vehicles. An average of half
dozen persons are hired to repair senatorial
furniture and clean senatorial carpets.
Twenty messengers, janitors and fremen
are employed at the Maltby, sort OF SEN
atorial annex where senators have private
rooms Twelve persons are employed as
official reporters Of debates and assistants
| thereto An average Of Ii or go persons
| are employed i'm special work for the sen
| ate or for it's committees, such as stenog
raphy, translating, compiling statistics, etc
other Luxuries.
On the whole, the senate is rather ex-
pensive luxury The salary paid the 80
| senator's Is less than half the entire
cost of maintaining this part of the legis
lative branch Of our government. The
expense Of running the senate year may
be summarized as follows:
Salaries, 20 senator's at IS, OO0....... S450,0O0
| Mileage OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. 5000
| Salaries. officers and employees ...... t05, 900
| Contingent expenses stationery and
| newspapers ..............,............ 10, SoO
| Horses and wagons .................. 5000
| Folding speeches. .................. 1000
/ N,U