The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1908-01-23
THE NATIONAL CAPITOL.

| assignment 10 the COMMITTEE on
Banking and Currency was a rare
compliment, as l said at the time,
but it has involved vast responsible
tiles and much labor. Most other
COMMITTEES meet once week and
the members of them imagine that
such meetings take good deal of
time from their routine duties. But
the Banking and Currency Coiu-
mittee has been meeting every day,
since the re-assembling of Congress
after the holiday recess, aud this
week begins holding two Sessions a
Iday, in order 10 give fnanciers an
opportunity to express their views
at public hearings. A member Of
the Committee must attend all these
meetings in order to fulfill his du-
ties but he is not absolved from his
other Obligations as Representa-.
tive of the people in the Congress
of the country.
But Mr.. McHepry does more than
this. tie is one of the most useful
members OF the Committee, because
as one of the veterans of the House
expressed it the other day, she has
ideas that are helpful to his associ-
ates." Therefore he attends every
meeting, participates in the deliber
ations of the Committee and keeps
his routine work up better than
most of his colleagues, besides.
That is to say he has found time to
prepare and introduce several of
the most important measures of
general interest, referred to hither
to, besides great number of spec
ial bills providing for pensions, cor
recting military records, and kin
dred subjects of local interest. No
member has given more time to
such matters than he and no new
member has ever accomplished
more. If he were less energetic it
would be impossible for him to
achieve the results.
Since my last letter Mr.. McHenry
has introduced another bill of gen.
eral interest and much value. 1t
will be remembered that during the
last Congress a bill was passed pro-
viding for a pension for all soldiers
who had served three months or
more and were honorably discharg-
ed. 1t is known as The Act of
February 6, 1907" because it was
approved on that date and provides
that at the age of sixty-two years
veterans are entitled to pension of
$I2 month; at seventy years, SIS
month and at seventy-hve years,
$40 a month to the end of their
lives. Mr.. McHenry reasoned that
few, if any of the veterans are now
under sixty years of age and that
equally few live to be over seventy.
Therefore he has introduced an
amendment to the Act of February
Is, 1907, providing that at sixty
years the veteran is entitled to SI2
a month; at sixty-hve to SIS
month and at seventy and as long
thereafter as he lives, the govern
ment ought to pay him $50 a
month.
This change in the bill will add
little, comparatively speaking, to
the aggregate of the pension fund
but will contribute vastly to the
comfort OF many a veteran who has
lived beyond the Scriptural age of
three score and ten. Most men at
that age are totally incapacitated
for any kind of work aud though
the difference in the amount is
small it will help great deal to-
ward the maintenance of those he
roes who offered their lives for the
preservation of the Republic. Mon
ey is spent freely, not to say profit
gately, for less worthy purposes.
For example there are bills pending
for the Identification of Washing
ton," that will involve the eXpen-
diture of probably fifty millions of
dollars. l don't object to these
ambitious schemes and l don't be-
lieve that Mr.. McHenry does. But
l believe with him that money spent
to relieve or avoid suffering of vet
Grams of war, is more wisely appro-
priated.
The public hearings by the Com
mittee on Banking and Currency,
which begin this week, will be
both interesting and Illuminating.
Mr.. McHenry has arranged for
hearing of State Treasurer Berry of
Pennsylvania. No time has been
fixed, as yet, for this event, but it
is likely to be in the near future,
Mr.. Berry has some strikingly orig
iual ideas on the currency question
and predict when he addresses
| the committee some of the "haok