Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1902-07-31
A SENATOR FROM PENNSYLVANIA
Hs Works Harder Than Any Average
BUSINESS Man In the State.


The bulk of Pcnnsylyania's bust
ness in Washington rests on the
broad shoulders OF Senator Boies
Penrose The Junior Senator has al
ways borne this burden. 1t is an heri-
tage of the office Quay did it when
Cameron was the senior Senator and
Penrose does it now that Quay is his
senior Here are a few statistics and
facts about the junior Senator's daily
work when congress is in session.
His daily mail averages between 400
and 500 letters II embraces every
thing from the prayer OF a broken
hearted mother whose soldier son has
been court maTtialed and for whom
she is begging a pardon, down to the
request of a farmer for an agricultural
bulletin on the destruction OF plant
lice Every mail is a mixture Of tear
stained epistIes, begging threatening
demanding and commencing letters.
Every letter is answered within
twenty-four hours of its receipt. Poo
pie imagine that Senator PcnrOse's
private secretary attends to all the
business Of his office, while the Sen
ator does nothing but make speeches
and sit in the cloak rooms. That IS
a dream of the canal boat era. To
attend to correspondence, file and tab
ulate it, so that any letter received
within five years can be produced in
five minutes, requires the services of an
assistant to the secretary and four
stenographers.
The rooms Of the Committe on I'm
migration is Senator PenrOSe's office
Here he receives hundreds Of callers
every day Secretary Andrews is in
charge and here letters and kilograms
are dictated. The actual work room is
over in the MaItby building. where all
day the "cIack'' of the typcwrlters goes
ceasclcssIy on. There are the docu-
ments, maps, plans, seeds, ana other
impcdimcnta of senatorial life are fold
ed, wrapped ana expressed.
Four persons are engaged in this.
In addition. two men are constantly
employed in visiting the departments
and gathering information in which
constituents are Interested In all a
staff OF eight persons is required to at
tend to his purely clerical and depart
mental work
Senator Penrose has the reputation
in Washington Of being the hardest
worked member of the United States
Senate His duties are executive rath-
er than legislative. as these facts dem
onstratc. Pennsylvania is larger than
New England with its II Senators and
the records OF the Senate post Office
shows that the mail of Pennsylvania
Senators is the largest that goes
through the office with the single ex
ception Of Senator Hannas, and he is
chairman of the Republican National
Committee
Senator Penrose has distributed more
public documents than all the New
England Senators combined. Last year
ne had demands for 10000 packages oI
seeds Each Senator is allotted a. 900
packages. BY begging from Senators
whose constituents were careless. Mr.
Penrose secured the whole amount de
maudod
At the last session Senator Ponrose
introduced ard had passed more bills
than any two Senators Pennsylvania
had more claims against the govern
ment than ail the rest OF the United
States put together They were border
raid claims. claims OF the state against
the National Government Of ship huiI-