Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-10-23
Big Story Suppressed

NclOpS almost romantic situations.
Big Story Suppressed
WITH two correspondents interviewed
" progressive leader of the House re-
Gently. 1t was during the lull between the
rules revolution of last March, when the
| Speaker was oustcd from the Committee on
Rules, and adjournment. The insurgent
members districts were demanding that Mr..
Cannon be deposed.
What are you going to do about it? we
asked the insurgent.
I'll tell you, if you agree not to print
it," he parted. I'VE intend just before adj
chair vacant. The Democrats will join with
us, of course, and the Speaker will be de-
posed. Then, instead of electing a new
Speaker, or, what is more likely, deadlocking
over the election for weeks, we shall carry a
motion to adjourn and let the country de-
eide by nominations and elections the issue
of Cannonism."
The publication of this would have made
what is known as great story The
Cannon stalwarts could have turned it to
their own uses in a way that might have
| ruined the entire progressive program. 1t
happened that the plan was not carried out,
further revision of the rules and a remark
able show of docility on the part of the Speak
in the view of progressive leaders, unneces-
sary. But we three kept the story sealed.
We did not discuss it ourselves. And l will
warrant that the Congressman who told us
never worried for a moment about his con-
fidence being betrayed. 1t is printed now
after the dynamite with which it was loaded
has all been discharged by the impact of
events, and after the time during which it
| was to be held incommunicado.
Putting Ideas Together
THE Washington correspondent, of all
men doing newspaper work perhaps,
can construct an article out of least actual
! material. This statement may come back,
| unlike Jeffrles, and my readers facetiously
| assert that | am proving it hereby; but l
| refer to a talent for associating ideas which
comes with writing national politics. If
some event affects the Department of JUS
| tice, and the next day Mr.. Wickersham, the
Attorney General, should have a long con-
ference with the President, it would be a
rare correspondent indeed who could not
construct readable recital of their probable
conversation. So experienced in the sequence
and result of political systems of government
does a correspondent become that he can
often forecast accurately and without much
information the exact outcome of situations.
For these experiences, this capabilitv,
these responsibilities. and for holding him
self during sessions of Congress in state of
perpetual open eyed and open cared readi-
ness, the Washington correspondent receives
an average salary of forty dollars week.
Living is high in the Capital, and therefore
most of the corps attend to papers other than
the one they primarily represent. The aver
age earning is nearer sixty or seventy five
dollars week. If he has the time and a
wife who welcomes it, Washington cor
respondent may be as much of society man
as he chooses. Most of the corps, however,
are to be found at work or at home during
the progress of official receptions; for he who
loves sweetmeats least is the confectioner.
| 1t appears that, at the conclusion of this
article, | am in the position of Eustace
Clever, whom Kipling brings to "A Con-
ference of the Powers Clever was a liter
AIRY man; but the opportunity of making
merry with army men from India led him
to tell, somewhat unprofessionally, some of
the tricks of his trade and to disparage them.
Whereupon observes Kipling:
| But | knew that Mr.. Eustace Clever,
esthete and color man in words, was libeling