The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1910-02-17
WASHINGTON
From our Regular Correspondent.

The Joy rides of inketers"
might be used as a title for the side
line OF investigation which is being
conducted by the lower House of
Congress. The trans Atlantic ex-
pense account of the travels of the
immigration Committee in 1907 is
being examined by unfeeling fel
low Representatives who didn't go
and take delight in pointing out
that the commission spent nearly
seven hundred thousand dollars in
its summer jaunt. The records
have been searched and the items
Of expense show that the iunketers
i'll quest for immigration facts Wis
tied catacombs and ancient tombs,
sailed on the blue lakes of Killarn-
ey, trekked i'll fashion through the
poppy plains of Palestine, loitered
III the spicy gardens of Venice. In
the intervals OF travel they drank
wines and highballs without stint.
They were shaved and manicured
and brushed and massaged at Gov.
ernnent expense. They rode in
automobiles on the Appian Way,
took carriages back and forth from
dinners and luncheons at the En-
bassies, attended the Operas, jolted
in Jaunting cars, in Ireland, rode
in broughams to the Tower of
London, the British Museum, the
shopping districts of London, the
House of Lords and TO cut it short,
did a vast number of agreeable
things at considerable expense to
Uncle Sam that cannot be figured
out as necessary in quest for i'm
migration facts. There were six
members of the Commission and
seven employees. Most of them
were accompanied by their wives
and various other members of their
families. One OF the ladies of the
party was invested with the Order
of Kindness by the Sultan after the
party had participated in the gor-
geous festivities at the Turkish
Court for a period long enough, an
unsympathetic legislator from the
South asserts, would have been
sufficient for the whole investiga-
ton. 1t is up to the Commission
now to show what the Government
got in return FOR all this luxurious
"investig tting."
What did the Commission find.
out about the White Slave trade
while it explored the catacombs of
Syracuse What helpful discover
les were made in the ruins of Mes
sina ? What immigration reforms
were planned and executed over
all those bottles of black and white
and siphons of soda ? The immi-
grafton has been very busy ever
since its return telling how little the
country paid for the benefits that
resulted from the trip. 1t employs
more clerks than any other Com
mittee to sift, sort, and compile the
masses of discoveries it has made
with reference to immigrants and
immigration conditions. AS one
member puts it, "their clerks are
under every ones feet"
The truth of it is though, no one
cares what they did or how much
they learned. The time is ripe to
eliminate the junket from the ma
tional expense account. Railr lad
passes and corporation favors have
been cut out of the legislators per-
quisites. The idea that the public
office is a private graft has been
slowly going out of fashion. From
the view point of an outsider one
junket is as bad as another. They
are all based on the grasping mania
to get something without paying
for it. The idea is that Uncle Sam
is rich enough to give members OF
Congress and their families trips to
Europe. If the immigration Com
mission is to be made the scape-
goat for all the offenses Of the kind
of which Congress is guilty, it is
unfortunate for the Immigration
Commission but the public stand
ready to forgive and forget If all
the other committees signing for
travel will promise not to do it a
gain. The fact that the President,
then Secretary of War, led one of
the largest and most extravagant
paries around the world on a gov
ernment junket need not figure in
the scandal. The public is tired OF
muck raking but it wants Congress
to sit tight on the lid of the treas
ury when Committees propose trav-
cling investigations. "
~AT
The senate has adopted resolu,
ton which inaugurates the officiai