Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1903-04-19
A new CONGSESSN1AN
IN WASHINGTON
WHAT VAN DUZER WILL FIND IN THE NATIONAL
HALLS OF LEGISLATION
The First Term is Training School For the Nations
Great Men

The people do not know that to al. |
1ntcntS and purposes the constitution |
of the United States was amended bv
the Reed rules. and that to be a men,
Der of the House in Washington is al |
together different thing from being |
a member of Congress at home. The |
House of Representatives of the Am
erican Congress has become large
advisory committee to the Senate.
The House suggests possible laws: |
the Senate passes on them; the House |
is the hopper: the Senate is the mill
that makes the grist.
The new Congressman. upon arrlv
ing at Washington, takes header in
to oblivion. No matter how muCI
fame he may have at home. no mat
ter what may be his achievements in
other than political work. no matter
how much or how little money he may
Fave. and no matter what may be his
family, the new Congressman in Wash
inGtOn is unknown. Department
clerks drawing 500 a month sniff a.
the new millionaire member OF the
House of Representatives. and refer
to him as "a little old dinky Con
2ressman.' His wife. who may be d
Van Rensselaer,, Pierpont or Jones
has to make the first call on the wives
of other members and the wives of
Senators and wives of members O.
the cabinet before the family can
have the slightest official recognition.
The new Congressman cant second
motion or move to adjourn without
getting some ones consent: his bills
are buried. and his resolutions come
to naught. He is the parasite on the
a.
Of the tail of the dog Of the boy
of the wife Of the wild man
OF Borneo 1t is barely possible that
he may agitate the flea. and rufiie the
hair, and wag the tail. and animate
the dog. and attract the boy, and
startle the mother. and move the Cd
man and get something done but 1t
IS highly improbable. The Congress
man is at the bottom Of the ladder:
and the only way he can climb up IS
by hard well directed work There
are not over two dozen effective work
ers in the House and they run it.
These House leaders form an aristOc-
racy. They are the House of Repre-
sentatives. The other members seem
to merely be Greek chorus. coming
on the stage at times. chanting the
praises or bewailirs the .niquities Of
the real actors in the drama.
And even though man may WORK
he cannot expect to get more than his
nose above the waters of oblivion by
his third term. Payne. the chairman
of the Ways and Means Committee
has been in Congress eighteen years
The average reader hadn't heard OF
Mr. Payne four years ago; yet Payne
was on his seventh term then. anC
he has always been hard WORKER
He had considerable power four years
ago. and was man to be consulted
but there is a wide difference between
power and fame. Indeed, though :
dozen or SO men have much power
less than a dozen have much fame
For the kind of effort that wins power
in the House of Representatives /:
not the kind that makes men famous
Take the case of Congressman Lon.
who came out of the West in 1894
He landed on the elections committee
He went over the evidence in cleo
ton contest cases and the Chairman
of the committee found him reliable
young man to lean upon Long stay
ed up nights with trivial details o
his work When he made report a
member Of subcommittee on
branch of a case the members OF tn
committee found that he had the RICH
of the matter They put him on tn
Ways and Means Committee-th
most important one in the House,
his second term. He gorged himsc'
with statistics and became fat wit
facts-the most undressing fac
that could by no possibility have any
thing to do with brilliant oratOry; IL
helped the more experienced member
of the committee to form their 1ud.
ments by furnishing them with facts
At the end of his second term the
gave him a chance to make speec
on the Porto Rican tariff; it was NJ
a speech that will ever appear in tn
school readers. When it was printe
it looked like a State Auditors r.
mort: it was bristly with statistic
But the members of Congress said
was the best presentation Of the II
publican position on the Porto Rlca
tariff that the session brought out
and the Republican national comm
tee used the speech as it's textbook
the subject. The next term the youn
man devoted himself to Cuban rec
nrocity General Wood. who was Go
ernor at the time when Long wa
studying the Cuban tariff. said in
speech recently that Longs Request
for information kept coming from tf
war department to Cuba until h
name used to make the CUBAN cieri
groan. They knew it meant work fc
them. But Long mastered his SUI
iect, and the when the Ways an
Weo,s Committee began to work o
the subject of Cuban reciprocity the
turned naturally to Long Tor mic
nation, On that branch OF leglslatio
he became one of the leaders OF I'll
House. And last month his Sta'
promoted him to the Senate. In
case of Long is used because II IS Z
pical of successful work in the hous