The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1911-04-20
Our Washington Letter.

ious to the opening of the extra ses-
sion, and the great pity of it is that
the whole American nation could not
have been in that chamber and heard
and seen just what occurred.
! In the first place the stage-settings
were appropriate for a dramatic
scene. For the first time in Is years
the democrats were meeting as the
majority-not the minority-of the
house Of representatives. The great
day for which many thousands of
democra in this country had waited
SO long, had at last come. Time and
| again success had been dispaired Of,
but at last the nation had said:
| democrats, the people of this re-
public now turn to you. They place
the control of the house of repre-
sentatives in your hands. The peo-
pie do not expect unreasonable things
of you. They simply ask for square
ideal. Give them government for the
general interests, and they will be
satisfied"
Harmony was a striking feature of
this caucus which will live in his
| tory
There was one thing, however,
which impressed even more than the
spirit of harmony. The 227 men
| before me We're serious-faced and
grave! In the faces of one and all
| there was expressed something which
indicated those present realized only
| too we'll coupled with the honor
which the people had bestowed upon
them was a great weight of RESPONSE
bility. In place of a noisy demon
stratiOn of victory there was only
silent realization of responsibility.
| The picture before me recalled an
Cid wood carving from the pages Of
long ago used school history por-
traying the meeting at which the
constitution was framed. The wood
carried gravity, earnestness and
patriotism that in measure was
sensed in the very atmosphere of the
hag-draped hall of congress in which
the democrats were now passing res
olutiOns pledging mOmentous re-
forms in the government of the peo-
pie.
And the soberest looking man of
all was Champ Clark. He seemed
weighted down with the cares and
responsibilities of the last thousand
years. The deep earnestness and
gravity depicted in his face made him
a figure, almost pathetic, as he sat
nearly always alone, in one of the
| rear seats, listening intensely and
apparently approvingly to everything
that was taking place, but with one
exception only taking no part in the
proceedings himself. The face Of the
big man was an interesting study.
The worry lines in his face had in
creased seemingly a hundred fold.
He, evidently, even more than the
rest, was thinking not Of the honor,
but of the grave responsibility that
had been placed upon him.
Among those who made deep i'm
preston on the membership of the
caucus was A. Mitchell Palmer, of
Pennsylvania, member of the ways
and means committee. Mr.. Palmer
is young man, and hard earnest
worker.
myself and two others were Sc
lected as the most cold blooded men,
bers OF the committee, to seek out
and abolish the useless Offices said
Palmer, bringing forth laughter and
breaking for the first time the high
tension that had gripped all present
"We have endeavored to do the work
allotted to US as hard-headed bust
ness men might do it. Our report
recommends the abolishing of six
useless house committees, each of
which is an expense to the people
and none of which have had a meet
ing in years. Then we abolish 1O1
house positions, reducing the annual
expense of running the house by
$4,000.
| ''Wn have ODD hic in
the capitol police force. The excuse
for the present standing army of
policemen about the capitol offers a
good illustration of how the peoples
money has been wasted During the
Spanish war somebody's friend told
somebody's friend that a friend of
their friend had overheard some one
say that plot was on foot to dyna-
mite the capitol. Nearly one hun
dred extra policemen We're detailed
to duty. They have been here ever
since. And we have limited the num-
Der of doorkeepers to two to door,
in some cases where there have been
six. They were much in each others
way. We found that the assistant
clerk to the doorkeeper was the 49,
year-Old daughter of the doorkeeper,
| A1SA " do CN1ucuCS " US Ludl Luc
place was unnecessary and We have
abolished it.
Another illustration: Before the
invention of the telephone there was
occasional need of communicating
with the war department on short
notice and so telegraph line was
constructed between the capitol and
the war department. But when the
telephone came into use it was found
to be much quicker to telephone than
to telegraph. But the jobs of two
telegraphers, strange to say, were
never abolished. We have abolished
them.
The only time Champ vlarK took
an active part in the caucus. was
when he endorsed Palmer's retrench-
ment program saying: II congratu-
late Mr.. Palmer and his associates
upon their report. I congratulate
them with all my heart and strength.
endorse every word of the report.
II am in favor of going still further.
| 7 am in fo vor of ovorv