The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-02-24
Make the Wheels Go Round
Men Who Look After Important Matters a the Capital.

upon me or to answer the letters on pubic
questions that viii be sent TO me. Busbey
Is a newspaper man who recognizes news
every time, and viii be able to see the
people / can't see and 20 answer the let
ters 1 can't find time even 10 read. !
want everything OF public interest that
happens in the Speakers room 10 go TO
the people in good shape, and I want all
inquiriug letters properly answered
Busbey has been filling the duties thus
outlined ever since. and he is one OF the
busiest men in the Capitol. or the whole
Capital for the matter of that. but hc
has the work so well in hand that he
never seems hurried in the least. one OF
his duties. not expected at first, is to sign
the warrants for the members pay. Mr.
Cannon is not afraid of work. but he has
as much TO do daily as the President him
self and he baked at making hundreds of
his signatures at the end of every month
So he asked if he couldn't let BusDey
sign the warrants. Experts in the law
said he couldn't unless "a special act
authorizing it We're passed.
wei, lets have such an act drawn UP
and passed" qUoth the Speaker; and It
was done.
Mr.. Busbey thereupon gave the sigma
ture j. q. Cannon as he would write it
10 the Treasury authorities and ever since
has signed the warrants Tor the Repre-
sentatives pay. If he were unable for
any reason TO sign them any month. an
other special act would have 70 be passed
before Mir. CannOn'5 own signature could
be accepted on the warrants.
J.. White Busbey began as a reporter
After some years he got on the editorial
page One day the owner of the paper
told him that he would have TO go 20
Springfield and report the legislature. The
young mans face fell
Don't you like it, he was asked.
We'll" said Busbey. i like my present
place pretty Wen and I hadn't thought OF
leaving it until / got a promotion"
1T viii be a promotion was the
answer. You Will be the paper az Spring
field You viii not have 10 watch the
editorial policy as 10 State politics ana
you won't be Inundated by a policy that
doesn't gee with what you write The
policy viii be made TO follow your writ
ing, which viii be printed as you send
it,"
So the young man went 10 Springfield
and wrote as he thought he ought to
write. After a while he felt that lie
should criticise the d0ings Of certain State
officials. Next day he cut things loose.
They resented it and went 10 Chicago 10
complain % the editor. They found that
the owner was out of town.
You'd better make your peace with
Busbey,' said the editor. its orders that
his copy shall go as he writes It. He Is
the paper so far as Springfield goes and
the chief is i'm Los Angeles. I can't help
You if I would, which I wouldn't"
They went back TO Springfield and wired
TO the owner. His reply was brief and TO
the point. In effect it was
See Busbcy"
That settled it. They went to him. made
their little bows and spoke their little
pieces. They explained that they hadn't
known he was the whole thing in Spring
field, but now that they knew it they
woul8 be good. After that Busbeys
sources OF State political news. which
hadn't been of the best. improved vastly,
ana ne did so well at Springfield thot a
rowing commission" was given 10 him
after the session ended.
Under il he Travelled all over the United
States, from sea TO sea, and from Lakes
TO Gulf. He campaisned with Blaine in
1885, with Reed in 1880, and with NcKia-
ley in 1894, when he made his then IN
precedently long speaking tours.
RusDey's paper was strong for Nc
Kinlcy's nomination until about the
time Busbey was sent 10 Washington
Then came the "favorite son" move
ment. engineered By McKinIey's op-
pOnents, and the paper. il seemed. had
to support an Illinois man for the Pres
idency. EUsbey wrote nothing but
news. dropping his correspondence. but
one day there came an opportunity for
him to send "a pispatch which showed
T. gT~s l..
kinlcy. Within day or so he received
a letter from the candidate which he
now prizes very highly. Il reads some
thing ike this:
Dear Busbey: I hear YOU have been
under the weather. I hope YOU are
wei again. but it's all right anyway.
WA. Mckinley, Jr-
There probably is no one in the
United States who knows a greater
number of men who are really worth
knowing than Busbey. lie came to
know many while he was working
under the rowing commission" TO 20
where ne liked and TO write what he
liked for the good OF the paper. His
experience ia the Speakers room has
kept his wide acquaintance up TO date.
The Speakers Other Hand.
2 IF Mr.. Busbey has often 10 be the
Speaker in the Speakers room" as
"Tncle joe says, Asher c. Kinds. who
carries the remarkable title of CLERK
to the Speakers Desk" has often to
be speaker" in another and not less
important sense. In fact, the two men
are like two hands TO the oyerworkcd
presiding officer OF the lower House.
z l.
which is the right and which is the left
hand.
1t is Mr.. Kinds duty TO keep tab on
technical parliamentary matters. and
he has had the job ever since Thomas
B. Reed was first made Speaker. save
when Mr.. Crisp, of the Democratic per-
suasion, was in the chair. Kinds was
editor of the Portland OIe.) Press.
and d strong personal admirer Of Reed,
when the latter was first elected. Kinds
looks the pure bred Yankee that he is.
He has all the true Yankees persist
ence. too. and because Of this trait has
become the most tboroughgoing par
liamentary sharp in the country in the
years he has hlled his present place
Soon after he assumed IL he saw the
value of precedent. and began to study
the records as no one had ever studied
them before No one who ever knew
Tom Reed failed 10 recognize his
great ability, but il IS no reflection
upon Reed to say that he soon began to
rely implicitly upon Kinds rapidly
growing knowledge of what had been
done by the earlier Speakers Reed no.
,ieed one day that Kinds was constantly
making notes from the records.
What are you making so many
memoranda for?" asked the Speaker.
well" said Kinds. Il find / can't re-
member all these precedents I'm dig
sing out and I'm writing them down.
mean TO arrange them so that I can
ind any one OF them at a moments no.