Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1910-08-26

@ the vital subject TO winch
we give the somewhat fog
gy title of political Reform" The
article, for obvious reasons anOny-
nous, is written by a member of
mgr who, the editors Of the
Worlds Work say, has served for
more than ten years in the house Of
representatives, has acted on many i'm
pOrtant committees, and has been. sue
cessful in getting things" for his
constituency. The article is described
as Showing the reason why the pork
barrel, special tariff favOrs, and pri-
vate pension bills become law" the
reason being, to quote the words of
the author, that the dictum of the
constituency to the congressman is
Get all you can for US There are
no restrictions placed upon his meth
cd of getting 1T. :.
Until the American people themselves
become more national and less local,
until constituencies cease to regard
their congressman as solicitors at the
national treasury, congress will o.
tinue to enact Ubiquitous groups Of To-
cal avOrs into national legislation"
This serious charge against the
American people-for which there is
u~nquestionably altogether too much
justifcation-the author proceeds to
substantiate by relating some of his
own experiences with constituents
which, however surprising they may
seem to the general reader, will seem
almost commonplace to all who know
how the average constituency does in
actual practice treat it's congressman.
The writer sets forth the fact that,
IN the first place, ninety per Cent. of
the letters which a congressman re-
Ceives are requests for special favors
to be obtained In some way or other.
directly or indirectly, from the United
States treasury. FOr instance, while
the Payne-Aldrich tariff law was I'M
der discussion, this particular con-
gresham received in May, 1909, the
following letter from the secretary of
a powerful commercial association in
his district:
II have been instructed by the BOARD
of directors Of this association to ad-
wise you that at special meeting May
20, a resolution, copy of which is in
closed, was unanimously adopted, urg-
ing our representatives in to
~ SFSly " nave liz p1CS-
ent tariff in (mentioning three of the
products of the industries referred to-
increased one cent per pound and the
present tariff on (mentIoning the 9TH
er two products) increased half a cent
per pound. I wish to further advise
you hat we nave heard from Senator
" and he informs us that he
will AXE care Of this matter in the
senate"
When the bill was finally passed,
the congressman succeeded in adding
half a cent a pound to the duty on
two of these products and in prevent
ing any reduction on the others. A
year later, when the popular clamOr
against the bill had become acute,
the same association that had asked
him to vote for increases wrote to the
congressman d~enouncing the bill as
the most Ubiquitous measure ever en-
acted by congress- and requesting
him to explain by letter why he had
voted with the Reactionaries" to pass
the bill. When it was pointed out to
the association that it had urged the
congressman to obtain an increase of
duty on the products in which it was
interested, 1t dropped it's demand for
an explanation. An influential news
paper published in his district edi-
torially commended him while the bill
was under debate for his Intelligent
efforts" to increase the duty on manu-
featured articles IN which the district
was interested, and a year later the
same newspaper in the same editorial
column denounced him as one of the
Legislative banditti responsible for the
Payne-Aldrich measure"
River and harbor legislation Is an.
other field in which local selishness
busies itself, to the exclusion of ma
tional needs. In this case requests
are not made by letter but by delega
tions which come to Washington be
sieging their senators and representa-.
tives. There is" says the franz
writer of this article, "fguratively
speaking. between $780, 0O, 900 and $50,
900, 900 on the table to be divided. The
committee divides 1t so that every n
is satisfied, at least to a reasonable
extent" Every one, that is, bat the
people at large. the people who have
no special interest to serve, and who
feel keenly indignant that the rivers
and harbors Of the United States are
developed in a fashion so inferior tc
that of Europe.
Nor are all the requests for legis
lation merely. One constituent de
sired to have this particular congress.
man put his name on the free mailing
list for all public documents. That
his would be impossible, because it
would mean delivering to the appli
can't several tons of documents every
month, does not in the slightest detract
from the interest of the fact ELECTED by
an investigation that the applicant was