The Iola register., 1902-03-28

that have made him a good subject for
newspaper comment; but how many of
the readers of the REGISTER, who are
of much more than average informa-
tion and intelligence, can tell what
Mr.. Cannon does in Congress? I'M
and most influential of it's members,
and yet the question so often con-
temptuosly asked, when it is desired to
defeat a man who has been here two
or three terms "What has he ever
done? What great measure has he
originated" might be asked concern
ing Joseph Cannon and receive no re-
ply. He is simply the Chairman of
the Appropriation Committee. That
means that from the beginning of
Congress until the end he must dig and
dig and dig in the seclusion and OBJ
scurity of a committee room, fighting
the innumerable schemes that are de-
vised year after year to filch money
from the treasury; weighing the ex-
of the balance with the ac-
tual needs on the other side;
holding the purse strings of the ma
tion--surely a most important and an
invaluable service: a service for which
the country could better afford to pay
a studious, hard headed, discreet, i'm
corruptible business man a salary of
u million dollars than to secure for
nothing the services of a man less
studious and less gifted with business
sense and backbone, although just as
honest. But it is service which very
seldom brings the man who performs
it on to that particular spot on the
stage on which the calcium light is
playing. There is no politics in an
appropriation bill, and consequently
there are no stirring and electrifying
and reputation making speeches to be
made In connection with it. All it
means is that sold Joe Cannon" with
his hair disheveled; with a half burnt
cigar between hislips or in his fingers;
with his vest unbuttoned and his shirt
putting up in a disquieting way over
the waistband Of his trousers-is
running things" in the House. No
body else is paying any attention, be-
cause everybody knows that the bill
will go through, and that 1t is as right
as it can be made; and so they go out
into the lobbies to swap yarns, or sit
at their desks and read newspapers,
or write letters-while "Uncle Jcen
sees to it that the bill is put through
the prescribed parliamentary process,
to the end that the wheels of the Gov
ernment of the United States of
America may continue to go round.
~
The conclusion to be drawn from
these two instances is obvious. 1t
simply means that whether a member
of Congress gains a reputation and
popularity over the country generally
is largely matter of accident. Be-
cause everybody knows AS name and
nobody knows BIS, it by no means
necessarily follows that A has per-
formed more valuable service than b.
1t only means that it has been AS
good fortune to obtain committee
assignment which makes it necessary
for him to give special study to a
question in which all the people are in
terested and upon which protracted
and earnest debate may be had, while
b has had the hard luck to be as
signed to a committee which has to
consider only dull routine business.
Thus it happened that during his Sec
ond term in Congress, by reason of
his position as a member of the Ways
and Means Committee, it became pos
sible for Chester l. Long, of Kansas,
to make a special study of the Porto
Rican tariff question, by virtue of
which he was able to make a speech
which attracted the attention of the
whole country-not only because it
was good speech, but chiefly because
it was upon a subject that was at the
time very wildly in the minds of the
people. And it is by virtue of that
same committee connection that Mr..
Long has this winter been able to
associate his name with the Cuban
reciprocity problem in such way as
to receive honorable mention in at
least every daily paper, and probably
the majority of all the weekly papers,
of the United States. OF course this
opportunity would have availed
nothing to man who lacked the de-
cision to seize it, or the ability to
measure up to it. But it is no reAec-
ton on Mr.. Long-for he has himself
often snoken Of ito cav thot ba owas