Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-05-21
,HAT is the best starting point for
NJ the man who wants to go to Con
wv greSS?

~HAT is the best starting point for
M the man who wants to go to Con-
w gress?
The answer would seem to be: The law
office. Next to that stands the state
legislature: below that the vocations OF
business life. and still farther down the
time-horored trade of farmer
-Sixtv-four per cent of the members OF
Tire House Of Representatives and ~ per
cent Of the members of the Senate are
LAWYERS Here are some hgurs, taken
from n complete study of the biographies
of the senators and representatives IN
the Sixty-second Congress that throw
some light on the qualifications or the
nations lawmakers:
Senate (present membership eD: Law
yers f6: business men, IA; farmers, o.
papermen, 3; doctor, ]; historian, l.
House (present membership. $780, Law
yers 269; business men. Al; lumbermen'
q: bankers, II; farmers. 21: newspaper
men Il. authors 2; labor leaders, 4:
telegraphers, 8; college president, i: naval
architect, l; mechanical engineer l. ooc-
tors. =.
This is but the later experience, how
ever. OF the men who make up the ma
lions legislative body. Back of the vo-
cations shown in this summary there Is
an astonishing range of experience
brought to the making OF federal laws by
the senators and representatives from
the resp ectfve states.
There are in Congress II teachers. 81
mayors, 100 prosecuting attorneys, .
United States attorneys, 26 city attor-
news. ~ Judges, IL school superintendent,
Ii state o1.7eers. a former cabinet MEM
Der, a forr1,ar government trust-buster,
.c-tn QctR svAn
25 city counNihneR. 3 prison wardens. 2
sheriffs. y coaf miners and a kIondike
miner. , former. legislative page boys, a
hank examiner. ship calker. hotei
skeeper an actor. a dentist. now in the
contracting business; newsboy- bootblack
and men who have followed many other
Interesting and typically American trades.
) Ii is a noticeable fact that the path
To the House of Representatives most
frequently leads thr tough college. the law
office and the state Legislature, while the
route to the United States Senate leads
over the same ground, adding the lower
house of Congress or the state governor
: There are "a former governors in the
Senate. and IS former members or the
House of Representatives Seven men
Z new in the Senate have gone through the
House into the governors chair and
1 back TO the Senate: but there is not a
I member of the House who has been
governor
-
Z m state Iegis atures. 3 of them as speak
erS: in the nlembershtp of the House. las
have been state legislators. 10 of them
s6rvins as speakers 1t is not necessary
always that man be a lawyer TO gradu-
I at from the legislature into Congress,
for - representatives and senators who
are not lawyers have come into WASH
fngton by the legislature route.
The proportion of college-bred men In
Congress is 6I1a per cent The Senate,
with OIL members, has 63 college gradu-
ates; the House, with $50 members, has
261 college men.
The universities leading in the number
of graduates are:
Michigan 26fwashingtpn and Lee 10
Virginia ..... 10 Wisconsin 3
Harvard ...-.....- is Georgia !
Yale .......... IA Cumberland Z
Princeton, Columbia. Vanderbilt and the
state universities of Mississippi, Mis-
: souri,, Texas and Iowa. each; Dart
mouth, Pennsylvania. Bowdoin, Arkansas
city of New York, Amherst and Tulane
5 each: North Carolina and Kansas,
z-each: Minnesota, South Carolina, Ne
braska Chicago, Washington and Jeffer-
son, Knox and the University of the Pa
cific, each. Syracuse, Williams, Purdue
Cornell. Notre Dame. Swarthmore and
several more well known colleges are
represented by one or two graduates
each.
Normal schools have graduated 10 mem