The National tribune., 1910-05-19
The LETTER WRITING
BUSINESS,
Such A Flood of Correspondence
Never Before Known.

Letter writing, particularly letter an
swerfng. has become a tremendous in
dustry in Washington. Altho Congress
has generously provided almost every
possible facility in the way of clerks,
stenographers, monographs, typewrft-
ing machines and even mimeograpb ap-
paratus for facilitating the letter-writ-
ing tasks of Congressman. a goodly
number of Senators and Representa-
tives have to put in many hours of hard
work getting ideas and answers down
upon paper.
Representative Victor Murdock the
kansas insurgent, said the other day
that letter writing was really the big
task of holding a seat in Congress for
many men. The letters come pouring
3n at the rate Of a. score or even hum
dreds 8 day in some cases.
And q vast number of people write
who have no particular reason to write
except that they like to receive a letter
from their Congressman" was suggest
ed.
.'Oh, yes, I suppose sov said the Kan
sas insurgent With some people let
der writing Is a form OF laziness. I am
satisfied that there are men who, when
urged to go out and chop some wood,
declare that they are toe busy. They
must write to their Congressman"
Much depends upon the constituency
and upon its location in the country.
! mere are IidHy liluuSdHtb VI pSoptG
in Mr. Murdock's district, OF course,
who occasionally have legitimate ex-
cuse for writing to Washington. That
ss true of nearly every district in the
land. But there are varying numbers
of people who write to Washington ask
ing all sorts of freak questions and also
making all sorts of freak suggestions
and giving advice of more or less
3reakish character. The wise Congress-
man, be he a Senator OF a Representa-
tive, generally acknowledges all those
letters, nc matter how freakish the
communications may be. 1t has come
to- be almost automatic that nothing
strengthens man more in public Office
than prompt and detailed attention to
his correspondence. And when Bill
Jones writes down to his Representa-
tive at Washington his denunciation OF
q legislative act or his opinion that such
and such a law ought to be passed Oh
his complaint against given condition
ne is reasonably certain nowadays tC
receive back in few days an envelope
bearing the frank of that Representa-
tive in the upper right-hand corner
And when he tears the envelope oper
he will find courteous, altho otter
Son-committal, communication of reply
Most of the Congressman sign theil
letters, but not all of them sign every
thing. Senators from some of the more
populous States and Representative
from some of the urban districts have
clerks who sign their names 10 ordinary
routine letters. And then there is the
handy rubber stamp with fac-simile
signatures. Scores of Senators anc
Representatives have these at the Cap
stol, and the rubber stamps can be useC
with certain kinds of ink, so that on,
1nust look a second time to determin,
that it is not the real handwriting o.
the man IL purports to be.
As a matter of fact. there is many
Senator nowadays whose daily CORE
spondence now is quite as large as wa,
the correspondence of the President o
the United States so years ago. Letter
writing has been made easy in moderr
times, and the occupants of Congress
onai offices have been as progressiv,
I'm keeping pace with it as have business
,nen in other walks of life. 1t was no
so many years ago that Senators ant
Representatives were able to answer
large part of their correspondence b.
land Within dozen years it was n,
House sitting at his desk writing letter
Earded as the most courteous thing fo
Jim to do while the House was in seS
sion, but he did it nevertheless. Nova
,iays is very rare to see Representa-
tive writing n lett r from his desk IL
the House. He goes to his office, CALL
for his clerk dictates the letter ant
later calls around 10 find that il is writ
len and ready for his Signature.
The people who make business OF
writing letters to Washington on al