Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-04-04
THE NEW CONGRESS.
By FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

years. in the House of Representatives.
He is now, therefore. in his forty-first
year of congressional service. His late
colleague, former Senator Hale came to
the Senate just eleven days earlier. He
had come to the House two years earlier.
but was defeated by a greenbacker in
1878 and was out of Congress two years
before he came to the Senate. He had
forty full years of service.
Not reckoning continuous service, the
oldest veteran in Congress now is Sena-
tor Shelby NJ. Cullom of Illinois,. He has
been in the Senate continuously since
1888, and. therefore. ranks next to Sena-
tor Frye as the oldest man in point of
service In that body. But Senator Gull
lom has served two terms in the lower
house, the first Of which began March 4,
1865: He is the only man now in Con-
gress who was a member of that body
when Lincoln was President.
~
One feature of the new Congress meet
ing today is unique. Never before has
the majority
Majority Party Today of the lower
Lacks in Experience. n fsw ma, mSu 81 81
experience as majority members. This
results from the fact that the democrats,
coming into power in the House. have
been in the minority for sixteen years
and that during that time nearly all of
their Old-time leaders have been retired.
Indeed, the split in the party that result
ed in the republican landslide of 1894
sent most of the od-time democratic
leaders into private life, from which they
never have returned.
Only three of the democrats Of the new
House ever sat under the gavel of DEM
ocrat1c Speaker. OF these William A.
Jones of Virginia ranks first. he having
two terms Of which were under Speaker
Crisp. Then comes Champ Clark, the new
Speaker, who has had sixteen years of
broken service, one term of which was
bolt of Maryland. who was in the House
away back In the days OF Speakers Ran
dali and Carlisle, and who came back to
Congress in 1865 after many years of re-
tirement.
But the unique fact IS that not a single
member of the new democratic majority
ever was chairman OF a committee; not a
single one ever presided over the COM
mittee of the whole. or over the House
in legislative session; not a single one
ever was responsible for the conduct Of
any important piece Of legislation for the
House. This results from the twin in
huences OF sixteen years of minority and
the overthrow of the old order in the
democratic party. Only once before in
the history Of the country has the demo-
cratic party been out of power so long,
and that was from 1850 to 1876, from the
beginning Of the republican party's power
until the reaction following the civil war.
But after that long period the democrats
sent many men to Washington who had
had wide experience in legislative affairs
there in the old days Of democratic as
cendancy.
X X
Even in the stress of the revolutionary
procedure by which the democrats tbday
organize tn Q
Long Service Counts House it will
in Democratic Plan. Pen, DC no.'s s.r .a
counts for more than anything else in the
distribution of committee places and
positions OF importance. The 128 new
representatives and the sixteen new
senators who began their active con-
gressional careers today may be the
abiest set of men that ever came to
Washington, but they will have very,
very little opportunity to demonstrate
that ability until they have added years
to their equipment. Even in the face of
the fact that all the committees for
sixteen years have been appointed by
republican Speakers the democratic COM
mittee on committees in all but a. very
rev instances has followed the precedent
of seniority in nominating men for COM
mittee chairmanships.
In the House eighty-four of the new
representatives are democrats, while
twelve of the new senator's also belong
to the democratic party. This does not
take into account the possible breaking
of the deadlocks in Iowa and Colorado,
which would. mean nineteen new sena-
tors instead of sixteen.
On account of the disagreeing politics
OF the two houses, on account of the
prominence of the always-vexing tariff
problem, on account of the large pro-
portion of new congressional blood and
on account of the liquid condition of
party lines in general there is little
doubt but that the new Congress. which
begins it's work today, will write some
interesting chapters into the political
history of the nation, for, while SEN
iority and length Of service usually con-
troll and dominate congressional affairs,
there has been one notable exception, and
that was the Twelfth Congress, which
met in Washington just a century agA
The new representatives and new sena- |
tors of 1911 may form a second Young
America movement comparable to that |
led by Clay and Calhoun in 1911.
TomOrrow-OYSTER PLANTING.