Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-02-15
Mastery Work Of a Maine
Par|iamentarian.
The Presiding Officers Of
The Upper Branch.
Congressman BurIeigh Busy With
Work for Maine People.

Washington, D. c., Feb. IL
SpeciaD.-Every office room in the
big House Office building nowadays has
the nucleus of a library. Half a dozen
unusually large volumes are reposinS
there, so many that one wonders
where all of them came from. If the
owners learn a small fraction of all
there is inside the broad covers of
those volumes the House OF Repre-
sentatives would become the most
marvellous parliamentary body of all
the world.
The author of the big volumes is Mr..
Asher Kinds, of Portland, Maine,
clerk to the Speakers table and famed
all over the country as the parlia-
mentarian Of the National House The
Government Printing Office has COM
pletcd a set of the volumes for every
one OF its members and the porters
have carried the books around to see
that they got into the hands of the
proper persons. If there is anything
about the rules and precedents of the
House, not inside those volumes there
is no living man, other than Mr. Kinds
himself. wise enough to discover it.
His great work on parliamentary
stand for generations and will be a
great monument to years of untiring
and patient effort on Mr.. Kinds part.
1t has occupied all Of his spare moments
for the last fourteen or fifteen years
and probably will be consulted by fu-
ture Recommendations for a hundred
wears For the volumes are the
Foundation of the history of the
parliamentary procedure OF the House
and it is extremely improbable that
any one else will find the time or nave
the inclination or could make it worth
while for centuries to explore the held
that Mr. Kinds has so thoroughly
covered On the other hand his great
work will probably be the basis Tor
many manuals on parliamentary law
as years go by.
1t is not often that Senator Frye
takes the gavel of the Senate Tor an
entire afternoon, but his opportunity
came the other afternoon, when the
Senate was delivering eulogies on the
late Senator Allison of Iowa. Because
of the death of a near relative OF Mrs.
Fairbanks, the Vice President mad 10
be out of town. 1t is the second time
he has absented himself from session
of the Senate in four years. There-
fore Senator Frye has little oppoE-
tunity to exercise his functions as
President pro tempore of the senate
Az Senator Frye is an excellent presld-
ing officer. of long experience, the
Senate likes to see him try his hand
occasionally II things renamed as
they used to be in the older days Mr.
FRYE would be welding the gavel most
of the time. Forty or fifty years ago IL
was nothing unusual for a Vice Presi-
dent TO be awav from Washington half
of the time and it has even been known
that q Vice President would not come
TO Washington for an entire session 81
the Senate.
That custom probably will not be
revived Vice President Fairbanks has
already set the example OF being "on
the Job" daily, which his successors IN
office will observe in the main. ana
vet Vice President Sherman may not
be quite as punctilious about beng IN
the chair every morning at IL CLOCK
and Senator Frye may yet nave con-
siderable opportunity during the next
four years to keep his hand III as
gavcl wieIdcr.
While Ohio has come to be known as
the mother of Presidents, New York 'S
almost equally the mother OF vice
Presidents and Mr.. Sherman comes I'll
TO accentuate that fact. Arthur, MOI
ton. and Roosevelt have been vice
Presidents from New York during the
last thirty years. although they nave
served in the aggregate but a lew
wears in that office. Vice President
Arthur had but a brief experience as
the presiding officer Of the Senate, bc-
fore he was called to the Presidency.
Levi p Morton served four full years
and was a very popular preSldlhs
officer of the Senate. Mr.. Roosevelt
presided there only a few days, cover
inc q brief extra session of the senate
following the second Inauguration OF
President Mckinley. Neither MT.
Arthur nor Mr.. Morton was Vice Presl-
dent long enough to become famlliar
with the rules and practices OF the
Senate. Mr.. Sherman is already
known as an excellent presiding off1c@r,
having had much experience in the
House as chairman of the Committee
of the whole.
Ever since he was member OF the
House. Representative Burlelgh mas
haen an advocate Of large improve
ments to further the navigation OF the
Kennebec. one of the first things ne
accomplished as member or the
House was an additional appropriation
for deepening the channel between
Augusta and Gardiner. Some years
ago he and Representative Littlefleid
took a leisurely voyage down the river
to INSPECT conditions at various points,