The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-20
THE RUMPus IN THE HOUSE.


 THE RUMPUs IN THE HOUSE.
 We have tried to find something in thu laccount of the exciting life of the House ol Representatives at Washington during thu | past few days that is not on the surface We have asked for private information gotten on the spot. We can learn noth | ing, however, that is not open to ever, reader, of the Washington dispatches. report was handed in by Chairman Over \ stfeet.o of the PostofEice Committee with { statement of the nature of the contents l of the report and with @ further state rnent that the Committee did not con slider it worth while to print or to take any action except to let the document lie upon the table. Instantly a storm broke There had been whisperings that a large | number of Congressman in both Houses had been aspefsed and every man was anxious to see whether he was Included or not. There was much bantering and badgering. there was talk of its being q roll of honor and that unlucky members whose names did not appear would have much to do to explain their neglect of duty in caring for their constituents. Hepburn of Iowa boldly took the posi- | ton that he gioried in his name being on the list; that a search over longer period would have found him guilty of more than thousand violations of tue law if s,the acts charged in the report were so be deemed-not honorable to him. but dfshonorahls. +s Nevertheless. the members whose names did not appear we're gfad. They had and have, no explanations to make. Where the shoe pinches with the Con gressmen reported upon is the fear on their part that everybody will not under stand. To be pilloried in an official doc- ument on charges the mere publication of which might provoke misunderstanding and criticism, however innocent and have been in fact, was enough to make them stare and gasp. "You are charged. .' the report said, with influencing the de- cisions Of an officiai oG' the Postofice De- partment. Guilty or not guiltyT' That is like asking a man if he has left off beating his mother-in-law. Yes or no. he Is convicted of beating the ever amiable woman.
 The Congressmen who are now so aroused and indignant may depend upon | 1t, that there will be no nasty judgment | by the people of their participation in running the Postoface Department. A great many mentioned are placed there on the most frivolous grounds-as for ex- ampIe--Senator Pettus of this State. On showing from the entire population of Union Springs he recommended certain Improvements in the postofice at that place and the improvements were made. Senator Pettus was doubtless annoyed to have his name bulletined as 1t was all over the country as a department lobby ist simply because he wrote a letter in favor of better accommodations for the people there were anxious. to secure these On the other, hand such members as appear to have exerted themselves improperly and apparently in their own individual interest, whether they live at the North or the South, may expect their constituents to raise their eyebrows at least The report will make Congress- men more cautious in the future and VIII in this way do good. It appears that one curious and unexplained endorsement on one document had much to do with pro- yoking the storm in the House. The words ''White House." were found and the Republicans in particular smelled about and parked at this for all the world like a pack of dogs that had eornered A bear but were afraid to close in on him. They relieved their feeling, by demonstration over Speaker Cannon for the Presidency, an outburst that must have caused that rugged old veteran to laugh aloud when he was alone in his room.
 We have in this outbreak against Roose- welt renewed evidence that that gentle man is not really popular with the infiu- ential men of his party. They do not know where to find him; they do not know how to take him. He rests on their stomachs by day and night like heavy stone and they would most gladly throw the stone off. They regard him as bur den not because he is honest, but be- cause he is eccentric. They look on him as a powerful explosive, exploding and being recharged once a minute. T must take a shot at something in St. Paul." he said, when there, a candidate for the Vice. Presidency. He jerked out pistol and fired at pile of coal, That's Roose- welt as Congressman look at him.