Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1907-12-11
FROM WASHINGTON.
Senator Hale and the Committees
Rep. Burleigh Busy with Pensions.

4
WASHINGTON, D. c., Dec. 10 Especially
For time Senator Hale is in the shoes Of
Speaker Cannon. 1t has been . part Of
the Ellsworth senator's duties in the last
ten days to make up again the committees
4 for the so-cailed upper branch of Con-
gress. He has been digging away at his
committee-room by day, and at his resi-
dence by night, on just the same kind Of
work that Speaker Cannon has been doing
at the very same time in making up the
committees of the House.
chairman of the committee on COM
mittees" is not quite as Understanding .
title to the average citizen as speaker of
the House OF Representatives. None the
less the Senate republicans conferred .
very high honor upon Mr.. Hale when it
designated him for the third consecutive
time to say what new committee places
should be bestowed. He did not want the
place nor the extra work, and protested
against accepting, but the Senate intended
he should accept from the very start, and
he had to yield to the wishes OF his repub-
lican colleagues. They want him because
he knows how to do that delicate kind of
work better than any other senator.
/ There is always a committee OF sena-
tors to help, but the Maine man, as chair
man, bears the brunt Of the work, and il
any senator has any skickr to make he
makes it not to the committee but to its
chairman. However, there are few sena-
tors indeed who would care to make a
rumpus over anything Senator Hale had
/ IT. - -.
established. One who questioned his
decision as to where he should serve at q
committee could not get much sympathy
from the Senate.
Probably that is leading reason why
the republicans wanted Mr.. Hale to
accept. There are not many men in the
Senate whose judgment in such matters
would be acquiesced in so readily. 1t
used to be the practice that one senator
should serve only once as chairman of the
committee on committees. The practice
has been broken in Senator Hale's case,
and, whether he wants it or not, there is
every probability that he will have to
accept at the beginning Of every Congress
as long rs he remains in the Senate.
Representative BurIeigh came to Wash
ington this year along with quite dele
cation of New Englanders who ate their
Thanksgiving dinners at home. As
Thanksgiving was the last Thursday
before Congress opened the following
Monday, this brought them to town just
day or two before the session opened.
The governor and Mrs. Burleigh will live
on Vermont avenue this winter, q few
doors above the residence Of Speaker
| Cannon.
Congressman generally busy themselves
the early part of the session with setting
their Official houses in order. That means
/ drawing their seats in the big hall OF
representatives, paying duty calls upon
the President, the Speaker, and other
high officials, especially cabinet officers in
the departments where the Congressman
have more or less business to transact
during the session.
| Among the calls that Gov. Burleigh paid
was one at the Office of Secretary Strauss,
| OF the department Of commerce and labor
and at the Office of Secretary-of-the-
Treasury Cortelyou. The census bureau,
with which Gov. Burleigh has been in
close touch almost ever since he came to
Congress, is under the jurisdiction OF the
department of commerce and labor. All
OF the legislation, under which the GEN.
sus bureau operates, has been considered
and approved by the census committee of
which Gov. Burleigh is the second repub-
lican member. 1t will have more or less
legislation to consider At the coming ses-
sion, il President Roosevelt's recommen-
dation, as embodied in his annual mes
sage, for provision for taking the next
census, is carried out, as is probable.
The committee on public buildings and
| grounds has much to do with the treasury
department, which supervises the con-
struction of public buildings after these
are authorized by Congress. The bills for
these buildings originate in Gov. Bur-
leigh's committee, and in recent years he
has had immediate charge of all public
building legislative projects in New Eng
land.
During the first days session OF the
House, Senator Crane, of Massachusetts,, |
came over from the north end Of the capt.
tol and spent quite while visiting with
the representative from the third Maine
district. They are personal as well as
political friends, and cooperate fire.
quently in matters at the capitol
The passage of the service pension bill
has not materially lessened the volume of
business which members of Congress have
at the pension bureau. The third Maine
district, like many other congressional
districts with large population Of ex-
soldiers, comprises considerable consti- |
ttuency that is interested in pensions. |
Gov. Burleigh has always given very close |
attention to pension matters, in the way
OF looking up pending claims, and ascer-
tanning what could be done to further |
their sdiudil1kion.