Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-01-07

Even bets are being made around the
| Capitol just now. in these cheerful days OF
| the business session. that before very long
! the House of Representatives will have a
| personally conducted restaurant, buy it's
| own provisions and supplies, employ its
| own cooks and walters and pay some good
| caterer a fat salary to run things to the
| satisfaction of everybody concerned and
| furnish meals to members at cost. This
| would certainly be an interesting and truly
| radical departure from the established or
| der of things, and to some 1t may sound
| like a fond and foolish dream. But those
who have watched the transformation that
the spirit of the House has undergone in
| recent years wouldn't be a bit surprised to
see the personally conducted cost price idea
hatch out almost any day.
| Last session, for the first time, the House
| barber shop was closed to the general pub
| lie. The Senate did the same thing fifty
| years ago. The tonsorial artists at both
| ends of the Capitol are idle for good
| part of the time in consequence, but the
member who is unfortunate enough to col
| lect unto himself a case of BARRIERS itch
| will at least have the satisfaction of know
| ing it is of the true legislative variety.
| House bootblacks have been forbidden to
| shine the plebeian shoes of strangers. That,
too, is a trick borrowed from the Senate
and isn't causing any one much worry SO
far as can be learned.
But now the House restaurant, for the
first time in its history, is plastered with
''for members only signs. That really
seems simple thing and a reasonable one
as well, for there are many other places in
the House end of the Capitol that are re-
served for members only. The House res
taurant is run for the benefit of the Repre-
senta tives or at least it is supposed to be,
and it seems reasona BILE to say so, politely
and unobtrusively, in gold letters on a black
background
Spell "Exclusiveness."
But just the anne the little signs are
very bright and new, and it took the House
many years to work up enough courage
and independence of spirit to put them
where they are. For they spell exclusive
ness or something very akin, and there is
nothing in all it's vocabulary that the
House. collectively or individually. breads
more The members of the House are
elected from the people, by the people, for
the people, as they are fond of declaring
when the acoustics in the immediate vicin-
ity are working properly, and of course
they want 20 stay close to the people. Con-
sequently they didn't desire to run or, more
accura tely, to be caught running the res
taurant al public expense and at the same
time keep the citizens of their respective
districts away from the tables unless espe-
cially invited to join the magic circle.
But there were many annOyanceS involved
in the conduct of public restaurant
where a representative had no more priv
ileges than the casual visitor and the COM
mittee in charge, after a deal of hard
thinking, decided to run the place for men,
bers only If no decidedly adverse COM
ment was heard it was planned to push the
other reforms, including the cost price
idea to speedy adoption Much to the sur
prise and delight of those members who
want to see the lower house engage in the
restaurant business as soon as possible,
the change has scarcely attracted any at
tention in Washington or elsewhere, and
this cheerful circumstance has given de-
cided impetus to the whole scheme of re-
form 1t is probable, however, that moth
ing will be done along this line until the
new three-million dollar office building, also
"for members only" is completed. That
structure will be run from the start on
mighty exclusive plan, and personally
conducted eating house will very probably
be one of its important features.
The Change That Has Come.
A mighty change has come over the spirit
of the House since the old days. The CLOSE
to the people idea real then, and the
representative daring enough to defend as
fitting and proper one-tenth of the privl-
leges and perquisites that are now enjoyed
by members as matter of course would
probably have been booted from the cham
her as an aristocrat-and something worse.
Even the Senate was more modest then'