El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-12-03

XV7HILE there are admittedly a
W. number of employees around
the senate and the senate Of
flee building who are tnece nlore be-
cause of pull" than ability, on the
whole it may be said that no legisla-
tive body in the world has stronger
corps of assistants than the senate or
the United States. There are many
men carried on the senate's pay roll
who have rendered themselves indis-
pensible to its deliberations.
Unique among the number is Ken
nedy F. Rea, clerk to the senate COM
rnittee on appropriations. He is unique
because only a few years ago he was
imported from the house committee on
appropriations. and last year was only
third in rank among the clerks of the
senate committee. The ranking clerk
was Thomas P. Cleaves, who, next to
Jim" Courts of the house committee,
knew more about government finances
than any one else around the capitol.
When Cleaves began to feel his infirm-
tiles of years he asked his friend Courts
to recommend him good assistant.
Courts decided that IL was a chance
for Rea and recommended him to
CleaveS- CleayeS was i'll all last win
ter and Rea proved his mettle by
breaking in senator Hale as the sue
cessor of the late senator Allison as
chairman of the committee. So pleased
was senator Hale with his work. that
although Pitman Pulsifer who had
made a record for himself as right
bower to senator Hale while he was
chairman Of the committee on naval
affairs. had been brought over to ap
preparations by senator Hale, he de-
cided to make Rea the clerk. Thus
are both Appropriation committees of
congress guided in their deliberations
by Democratic clerks.
Civil Service Skips Them.
Congress has applied the civil serv-
ice law TO all the departments, but per-
sfstently reserves the right to adhere
to the spoils system in its own affairs,
and there are only a few who are able
to render such service as to make them
immune when the political complexion
o. either branch changes. Superin-
tendent of the document room, George
H. Boyd Is another senate employe
who is sure of his job whoever comes
into power Mr.. Boyd was long an I'M
derstudy of the late Anzi Smith, and
the things Amzi Smith did not know
about government documents were not
worth knowing. He was as remark
able OF mind as was the late Ainsworth
r. Spofford, for so long the librarian
Of congress Each of them grew gray
il the service and each saw his work
expand more than a hundredfold. They
Kept track of every item of expansion,
and no senator ever thought of con-
sulting a document index when AMI
Smith was in reach. He was a human
index of the thousands of different
kinds Of documents in his charge He
trained Boyd along the same lines and
many has been the time when Boyd
has shown evidences of as retentive a
memory as Smith or Spofford pos
sessed- Such a memory is of inestim-
able value when a senator wants some
document. concerning which he knows
neither the number, the congress, nor
the session under which it was print
ed.
The Press Gallery Genius.
The senate press gallery affords an
other example of the way a man may
make himself so useful as to be be-
You'd the pale of the most insistent de- |
mands of patronage The superintend- |
ent OF the senate press gallery is Jas. !
ID Preston Every newspaper reader !
in the land is indebted to this genial I
citizen. His highest ambition seems to i
be TO make the work of the Washing !
ton correspondent easy and to assist 1
him that the whole world may know !
in its morning paper just what hap |
pened in the senate the day before :
Preston is the right bower of the !
standing committee of correspondents,
and looks after all details of official /
functions in which the members of the 1
press are concerned. He knows thor
oughly the tastes and idiosyncracies of
every correspondent. and whether as
of the senate press gall