Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-05
BUT THEY SIGN NO NAMES
Tawney, Containing Wrath, Is q
Suppressed Volcano.
CHID1NG COMMITTEE MEETS
Problem Before It Difficult Of So
lution-Hot Talk Expected on
House Floor.

1.-The President is walking back
ward and stepping in his own tracks:
he thinks to disguise the fact that ne
has retreated at all"
"The President is a four flusher; it
is time the people of the United States
were waking up to the fact.
The President has side-stepped the
issue; he is audacious but ridiculous"
THE President is engaged in his IA
vorite occupation of obscuring the
issue by kicking up clouds Of dust"
1.-The President has much nerve and
little logc-a poor combination in the
long run"
Comments Not for Print.
These are a few comments made by
prominent members of the House Of Repre-
sentatives to a reporter for The Star to-
day on the subject of the Presidents
secret service message of yesterday.
1t would not be fair to mention these
members names. Their comments were
thrown off in conversation.
But several of these commentators have
already gone about the business of Sc
curing time to discuss the President on
tthe floor of the Hopuse. They promise
then to call him all these things and more
in parliamentary language.
The condition of the House of Reprsen-
tativeS today is reminiscent OF bee
hive just after a naughty but active small
boy has stirred up the occupants with
stick. There are mutterings and murmur-
ings and buzzings, and all congressional
bees whose stingers have not been dulled
or extracted are preparing for action.
Tney threaten to raise enough Jumps
all over the person of Mr.. Roosevelt to
keep him scratching and swearing from
now until the 4th Of March. when he
will retire to private life and prepare
for his descent upon Africa. Remember
membership is echoing the Wall street
admonition that ''every lion is expected
to do its duty"
'Undesirables" Are Heated.
Judge Walter 1. Smith of Iowa. promi-
nently mentioned by the President in his
message Representative Sherley Of Ken
lucky, in the same class, and Represents
tive Fitzgerald of New York. classed by
Mr.. Roosevelt among the undesirable also
rams, already have announced their sew
eral intentions of replying to the Presi-
dents criticisms and tntimations on the
floor of the House.
Chairman Tawney of the appropriations
committee, whom the President picked out
as head devil in the congressional move
ment against the secret service, Is red
faced, but nOn-cOmmittal.
Mr. Tawney was the n1addest man in
the House when the first blast from the
White House on the subject of the secret
service provision of limitation in last
years sundry civil bill appeared in the
Presidents annual message. His friends
say his first idea was to rise In his
place on the floor at the first oppor-
tunity and blow out the skylights with
the violence of his reply.
Whether or not this is the truth. Mr..
Tawney kept the brakes on in great
shape and relieved his feelings on the
subject of the President only when In
the seclusion of his private Office or his
bedroom
Up to Tawney Now.
Now, however. it is generally conceded
that Mr.. Tawney has been smoked out
and that he must reply. His hold upon
his congressional district is none too
firm. as was demonstrated by the result
of the election of last fall. If he doesn't
come across with something warm to Off
set the manner in which the President
tobogganed him into the Annanias Club
and slapped the undesirable" label on
his pulsing brow, his friends say he Is a
gone coon two years from now.
Republicans and democrats seem
equally indignant as result OF the mes
sage. In the House office building this
morning. before the House met. nine out
desks busily reading the Congressional
Record reprint of the secret service mes
sage. Some of them read it more than
once, too, with distressing effect upon
their dispositions and tempers
Then. after the House got together. 1t
was difficult to hear what was going on.
members chatted so much on the floor
concerning the Presidents methods and
the possibility of Jim Jones or Bill Smith
or Tom Brown delivering fine package
of oratorical goods in reply.
Committee to Chide Meets.
The Perkins special committee met at
O'Clock this afternoon to give further
consideration to the subject with which
it was appointed to deal, the ''rebuking'
Of Mr. Roosevelt.
good many members Of the House
considered the first resolution reported by
the special conlmittee-which called upon
Mr. Roosevelt for information upon which
he based his statement that the main
argument used to secure the passage of
the provision so obnoxious to him was
that the members of the House were
afraid of being investigated-as extreme
ly mild indeed. Now, these same MEM
bers are wondering what really would
have happened had the so-called "rebuke"
to the President been worthy the name.
Hardly anybody considers that Mr..
Roosevelt in his second secret service
message aimed anywhere near the DUH
eve. or even remained within range of 1t.
But they all admit that his reply was art
ful and calculated 10 make a hit with the
people. otherwise known as "our dear
constituents"
SO there is a great to do about ways
and means of getting back with dignity
and effect, or. If necessary. with a sac
rifice of dignity And that's why the
Perkins special committee is in session.
Committeeman Not So Warm.
Mr.. Perkins is slick. but there is no
gunpowder in his disposition. on this
proposition at least. Mr.. Weeks of
Massachusetts is in the same class.
A reporter for The Star asked Mr..
Perkins this morning what he thought
of the Presidents most recent secret
service outbreak. Mr.. Perkins replied
with a skyward glance of piety and de-
votion:
''Oh, delightful! Was it not? But.
then, anything our dear President has
to say to us Is of interest and value"
There Is not a member of the House
who is anxious to rise In his place and
discuss the President on the basis of "a
question of personal privilege" which
is the usual means of retaliation. If an
ordinary citizen of the United States
IC,ontjnued on Sncond Papel