The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1910-11-26
CONG. FOSTERS LOSS
Will Give Up the Luxury Of Being
Committee Chairman
A washington correspondent says

Committee Chairman
A Washington correspondent says:
In the train of the change in the
party complexion of the majority OF
the next House of Representatives
will come a series of personal chang
es for the big men of the former ma
jority. The changes are not impor-
tant to the public nor of vast national
import, but for the statesmen to
whom these changes are sure to
come they bring discomfort, inconven
fences and the loss of some of the
sweetest perquisites of statesman
ship@ OF the present majority of the
House, sc congressman occupy the
enyiable positions of committee chair
men. 1t does not convey so much
significance TO those unfami lar with
life in the capitol, but to those in.
timately associated with the legisla-
tors 1t means much.
To begin with of the SO men who
will lose chairmanships next session
each enjoys the privilege of two or
I
/ committee room for the meeting of
the committee with usually one room
and in few instances a whole suite
Of additional rooms for the use of the
chairman. These rooms are elegant
ly furnished-some of them are truly
sumptuous. Then a committee chair
mans clerical assistants are more
numerous than those of a mere com
mittee member. The big committees
ways and means, appropriations, mil
itary and naval affairs, postoffices
and the like employ from three to a
dozen able assistants. The chair
mans private secretary is, moreover.
a class above the average of clerical
assistants. He gets more money. AS
a rule he is above the general run
of clerical employees. a member Of a
sort of aristocracy OF clerkdom for a
committee secretaryship pays from
$3.50 per annum up to $4,000, where.
as the ordinary congressman clerk
draws $500. From this the fact is
, self evident that the sort of a man
busy congressman wants for a sec
q rotary is not in the market for the
average run OF minority jobs.
After March A. 1911, there will be
a general exodus from the comforta.
BILE berths in the main building of the
capitol and the House office building
The places that during sixteen years
of uninterrupted power have grown
into daytime homes of the republican
members Of Congress. will now be
come haunts of strangers. No NOR,
can the sleek chairman lounge bacl
, in a big easy chair before a rudy
CRATE fire, stick his feet upon the
\ fender and say TO himself:
Let the bells ring and the whip
lash madly about looking for his
clansmen am but fifty feet awal
from the floor and can tell the tim'
q on the roll at which comes my turn
D 10 vote TO such nicely that / don
2 need to toddle in for ten peaceful
" minuter
n Then he could cast his eyes ceiling
D ward admire the daintily frescoe,
embellishments Of his den and EMO.
life.
How different Il viii be for him II
the sixtv-second Congrcssi TIL
House Office building is almost
@ quarter of a mile away. True. Their
y is an underground passageway cor
Meeting the Capitol with the Jesse
I building who're the statesmen ar
housed Judge Adamson, Of Georgi
one time christened 70 the "Snak
Hole" Through this quarter mil
Of bad air and electric light the chat
man OF a bygone congressional con
mittee must now plod. II he has bu
mess Of Importance TO transact in hi
Office he must forsake the floor an
:, while engaged In the work Of maxim
up pretty stories to tell his constitl
ents by letter. he must keep a shar
ear for the tinkle OF the little electri
bell which will summon him SOM
times twenty times in a day, from h
chosen duty TO the strife and strai
of the floor OF the House
George Edmund Foss. chairman
the committee on naval affairs leav,
brilliant and beautiful office. Georl
Edmund is known as one OF the lea
active men In Congress and the lor
walk will come hard for him. Beside
he will have to leave behind the on
finished set OF marine paintings in d
capitol-the collection OF a life tin
OF endeayor by his predecessors
the naval committee.
Foreign affairs has n pretty lii
suite OF two rooms up on the gale
floor. The chairman, David J. FL
- ter OF Vermont. has held his on
only a part OF a term. He succeed
the late James Breck Perkins,
April Of this year. so that he h
hardly had chance to acquire I
loafing habit He moves. however