Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-03-19
TOPLINERS

EVERY year Congress votes that, so long
II as the clerkship of the House Committee
on Appropriations is held by "the present
occupant" the position shall pay one thou
sand dollars in addition to the sum ordina-
rily allowed for the job.
"The present occupant" is James G..
Courts, and that extra thousand dollars is the
tribute of the lawmakers to his unusual abil-
ity. He is a monarch of mathematics, not to
say a king of calculation, and what he
doesn't know about the Government and
the Governments finances is entirely inn
material Under the dome of the Capitol
they do not refer to old Euclid as the leading
figurer of history. Owing to their convic-
ton that "the present occupant" has Euclid
backed off the boards in such matters, they
refer to Courts as the wizard of numbers and
money.
He is the man who complies and puts into
final shape all the big appropriation bills
that are reported for passage to the House
by the powerful Committee on Appropria-
tionS. He is the man who, when such bills
are under discussion on the floor of the
House, sits at the right hand of the chairman
of the committee and tips him off as to how
to answer all the bewildering questions shot
at him by Representatives in course of de-
bate. And he is always able to give the
right tip.
"The present occupant" has been the
| coach and counsel of many chairmen; for,
while chairmen come and 60, he has
been on the job a long time. He went
to work for the committee in 1877, and
since 1888 has been clerk. In fact, there
has never been but one other clerk of this
committee, which was created by the
House in 1865. His predecessor, Robert J..
Stevens, held the clerkship from that time
until Courts took it.
In politics 1.-THE present occupant" is a
Democrat In action he is a human dynamo
of an improved type. In demeanor he is the
sort of person who could hand out pointers
to Lord Chesterfield.
Some idea of the value and importance of
the work done by Courts can be obtained
from the knowledge that, with few ex-
ceptions, his committee gets up and reports
on all bills appropriating money for operat-
ing the Government. If bill this year con-
tains paragraph conflicting in law or pur-
pose with paragraDh in another similar bill
passed last year or nfteen years ago, Courts
is expected to point out the dilemma. If a
question is asked on the floor in order to
show that the committee has overstepped
its privileges in bringing in such legislation,
Courts is the man who has the job of proving
that there are precedents for the action.
Many times the chairman of the committee
has this information; but, if he does not
have it, Courts is the court of last resort.
One of the leaders of the House once said,
@If you ask me who in this Capitol knows
more than any other one man about the law
and general operation of this Government,
should unhesitatingly say Courts"
sand" agreed Speaker Cannon, who was
standing near, 3you would be correct"
@The present occupant" is quiet TN
assuming man. He does his work on the old
fashioned theory that he should do it to the
best of his ability because it is there for him
to do. So we'll has this plan of action worked
that, in addition to the members of his COM
mittee, the general membership of the House
goes to him for information regarding knotty
problems about appropriations and Govern
ment operations. They realize that his years
of hard work and his applied ability have
given him wonderful knowledge of the SUBJ
jects with which they have to deal.
He got his early training in legislative
matters as an enrolling clerk of the House of
Representatives of Tennessee, and from that
job he went to Washington, where he imme-
diately got busy on the task of "making
good"
With the exception of two months in the