Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-12-28
Washington Just NowHas
Very Few Lawmakers,
Maine Men With Fine Records
In the Public Service.
Pulsifer Brothers, Thomas cIeaves
And Or. George 0. Smith.

ing the holidays, so that Uncle Amos
Allen OF the 1st Maine District, Reuel
Small of Portland, who is the best eX-
pert Stenographer among the force of
official reporters for the House, ard
the two Pulsifer brothers are all there
is Lett Of the Maine colony in Wash
ingtCn. Senator Hale started for New
England as soon as business had quiet
ed down in the Senate. The Vice Pres
idcnts gavel had hardly fallen in the
Senate before Senator Frye stivered
off the floor for the elevator, went to
his committee room, put on his high
hat and his big fur coat and called his
carriage for the railroad station, where
he bought a ticket for Patterson, n.
]. He proposes to pass the holiday
there with his granddaughter and her
husband, Mr.. and Mrs. Hobart.
The other Maine congressman well
coined the opportunity 10 get back to
the great festivity period at the Capt.
toll which incidentally is a do-nothing
period. The official handshaking at the
White House and the other New
Years jollities will all have passed be-
fore the Maine people begin to come
back. They will have their Christmas
and their New Year among their own
people.
Speaker Cannon hurried away to his
home in Danville and just as soon as
the House had adjourned for the holt
days Asher Kinds of Portland, the
House parliamentarian, grabbed his
gripsack, which was waiting all pack
ed in the Speakers big reception room,
and hurried off to the first train.
The Pulsifer brothers, Pitman and
Woodbury., are the alter egos respec-
lively of Senators Hale. and Frye.
whose secretaries they are and have
been for many years. The committee
on commerce could hardly transact
business unless DR.. Woodbury. Pulsi-
fer put in long days at the mahogany
rolItop in the corner looking alter
matters and keeping things IN snip
shape Since Senator Hale relinquished
his craftsmanship of the naval affairs
committee and became chairman of APP
preparations. Pitman Pulsifcr has
moved down to the big appropriations
room, where he is serving as assistant
clerk. Tho appropriations committee IS
the one committee of the Senate, where
the clerk has permanent tenure.
Thomas P. Cleaves of Maine, a BROTH
or Of the Ex-Governor, who has grown
graz in the service Of the Senate, is
still clerk of appropriations and could
not be spared. He knows more about
keeping appropriation bills in shape
than any other man at the Capitol. An
appropriation committee would be at
q loss how to get along without him.
He came to that committee when Lot
M. Morrill, was a senator from Maine
and was serving upon appropriations.
In late years Mr.. Cleaves' health al
ter more than three decades OF service
in the appropriations committee, IS
poor and the advent of Pitman Pulsl-
fer there is very welcome.
The latter is keeping up his work on ma
val statistics and as publisher of the Ma,
Wv Year Book. That publication, OF
which he is the originator and author,
has become an institution and even
though Mr.. Pulsifer now has no o1flclal
connection with the Senate committee on
naval affairs he expects to continue the
publication of the annual volume. 1t is
become a valuable handbook, which navy
officers and others in the departments IN
sist upon having. 1t is reference book
in every we'll equipped newspaper office.
1t has more information of concrete
character about the United States navy
than can be found anywhere else be-
tween two covers. Every year Mr.. Rulsi-
fer is adding something to it and is him
self regarded here and abroad as an au-
thority on naval matters.
The appearance of his annual volume is
notices and the additional data which he
has dug out about navics in general is
printed and reprinted and quoted in con-
gressional speeches till it becomes COM
mon property. Magazine proprietors in
New York lombard Mr. PulSifer with
commissions to write naval articles, but
he is a very modest man and heeds the
did adage about the shoemaker sticking
10 his last. lie is content to prepare one
volume year and let the other fellows
do the magazine writing.
DR.. George o. Smith of Skowhegan, Me,
director of the geological survey. not i'm
probably will be called as witness in
the forthcoming investigation by Con-
gress of the BallingerPinchot controver-
sy. Dr. Smith has had charge of extern
sive operations Of the survey in connec-
ton with public lands and forestry mat
tiers in the Western states and knows
mach about questions that are in contro-
versy between the secretary of the inte-
gior and the chief forester. During the
past summer he has had supervision over
extensive surveys of seml-arid lands, I'M
dertaken because Of an act of Congress
to allow homesteaders to take up 800
acres of scmi-arid lands, instead of 100
acres, the usual quota for many years.
The forestry bureau is understood to
have antagonized that survey and to have
been urging that the law should be re-
pealed. DR.. Smith. of course, took no
part in theScontentions, pro or con, as
Ms duties were purely of an executive
character haHng to do With the specific
ask of surveys. But he has Travelled
much in the West during the last 10 years
and is very familiar with forestry and
other problems there, with which the in
vestigating committee of Congress will
concern itself.
The alumni of Bewdoin College in