The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1911-04-10
PIE COUNTER
ALMOST EMPTY
Democrats Find Very Little
Patronage of Value.
ONLY MINOR JOBS ARE LEFT
The Pro Ratn Assignment of the
Pay Roll VIII Not Be Over 81 900.
Representative Sims in a Oman
diary Regarding the Position OF
Committee Messenger.

Democrats Of the House are discov-
erfng that places at the pie counter look
much better from a distance than close
by
Within a week the market value of
House patronage has dropped just 81 zoo,
and instead of being able majeStcalfy to
marshal a political henchman or two
into Washington and put them 10 work
on fine jobs the average Representative
on the ma jorfty side Of the House Is
figuring Just what luck he Is liable to
have at drawing straws to determine
whether his district shall have any pat
ronage at all
Immediately following the Democratic
caucus of April l it was given out that
the patronage of each man who was
not a committee chairman would be In
the neighborhood of s2.7OO- A few days
later a committee on organization was
formed Word was passed out that an
exact division Of the patronage did not
make S2,leo, but somewhere near it On
Saturday last there came, with the pro-
verbal sickening thud, the news that
the average Representative would be ac-
corded the privilege of filing positions
aggregating just S1.GO in salaries One
chagrined Democrat remarked on hear
ing this bit Of information:
They have Us down to a page apiece
now If they keep on. We won't be al
lowed even a paragraph
Slim Picking for Democrats
There are few official positions at the
top of the House list which pay between
S2,O06 and s, 600. The rest of the places
are composed mainly of messengers, po-
Hcemen, and places which in salary run
all the way down to $500 1t is said that
if two or three districts are willing to
get together and draw lots to see which
locality shall secure an appointment
while the others go without entirely, the
better positions may be readily disposed
of. On the other hand, if Congressman
are not Sporty and are unwilling to
hang their luck on a STRENGTHENING. it
is going to be difficult to see how the
better positions are to be disposed Of at
all, for no Representative wants to give
up his opportunity to get al least one
Of his personal friends up to the pie
counter.
The patronage committee is stin wres-
Ting with the Troublesome problem of
distribution, and its members are said TO
Ot Ceiling gray Will
In the meantime, the Democratic com
mittee chair1nen are beginning to send
up walls of complaint over not being al
lowed a freer hand in patronage than the
furnishing of their committee places A
number of the committees require expert
clerks, and u is mad iSahle to change
those who were employed by the Repub-
leans On the Appropriations Com
nnttee. for instance, Representative Fitz-
VAIL J-ln no THTa r 1ar lF
Courts, although the latter is from Ten
nessee. This means just one New Yorker
out of a place, and just that much pat
ronage charged of against Representa-
tive Fitzgerald
The Committee on Naval Affairs is
headed by RepreSen tative Padgptt, a
Tennesseean- In all Tennessee there is
no man capable of doing the clerical
work of the Naval Committee, so the for
u1er clerk, Mr.. Theall, in all probability
viii be asked to remain, and Mr.. Pad
Eetts constituents will wait in vain
for the drawing of one of their number
to serve at Washington.
Representative Sfms' Protest.
Representative Sims, of Tennessee, is
cutSpoken concerning the general hard
ship imposed upon committee chairnen
by the regulation that none other than
committee patronage is coming to them
Look at the position of janitor," said
M Sims yesterday, with a woe-begone
expression "a janftor to a committee
IS paid very little, and it would not be
worth while for me, as chairman of the
War Claims Committee, to send home
&c Tennessee 10 rake up a new appointee
for this position Yet this patronage is
charged against me, and am precluded
by an these circumstances from giving
places to those who have voted for me
Committee patronage ought to be
charged up to the committees, and not
to their chairmen."
With all the dicllering and worry, how
ever, the various places about the House
are gradually being filled. Old faces are
missing from this station and that, and
in their places are those OF new indi-
viduals, to whom working for a legiSla-
tive body IS strange but pleasant As
messengers at several Of the House en-
frances are number of Southern boys
who frankly admit that they know the
faces of very few of the members but
that they hope to learn them all within
a short time The soft, meIodious dia-
Iect of old Virginia has displaced the
stentorian tones of a Michigander at the
reading clerk desk