The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-02-19
FOUR BILLION
CONGRESS SOON
Tawney Sounds Warning Note
With Regard to Proposed In
crease of Membership.
"CHIRPING OF CRICKETS"
NOT VOICE OF PEOPLE
President Taft's Daily Routine
Strenuous and Allows Only
Six Hours Sleep.
BY RALPH M. wHITEsIDE.

q
WASHINGTON, Feb. ia four
billion dollar congress sounds pretty
big, even for the United States, but
that g what's coming, if we do not
check up, is the opinion of Represent
ative Tawney of Minnesota. AS Mr.
Tawney has been for years chairman
Of the house committee on appropria
tions, his words must carry weight
In opposing the proposition to in
crease the membership of the house
under the new census Mr., Tawney out
of his long experience SAYS:
Members of congress do not con
s1der the question of appropriations
from national standpoint They are
more interested in the sum of money
they can secure from the federal gov
ernment for expenditure in their dis.
tricts than they are in the aggregate
of the annual disbursements that must
be made by the national Legislature
They are more concerned about being
returned to the house than about be.
ing citizens Of a sane and solvent re
public. They have thenr ears to the
ground, but they mistake the chirping
Of crickets for the voice Of the peo
pie.
'To increase the membership of the
house will be but to augment the de
mand for money from the federal gov.
ernment; to saddle on the federal
treasury burdens that should be born
by the states. And, by the same
token, the standard of individual mem.
bership in the house will be lowered.
Working on Salary Now
"In former days both rich and
poor were wont to como to congress
without regard to the salary that went
with the position. At present the
more item of salary alone is an lncen
tive to men who, in the natural course
of events, could not make $500 year
IN any business or profession to which
they might turn. All this is regret
table, but true, and is all intimately
connected with the proposition TO in
crease the membership of the house.
The Importance of this question can
not be exaggerated.
Seventeen years ago we had for
the first time billion dollar congress.
The country was shocked But Tom
Reed explained then that this was a
billion dollar country. If this reap
portionment bill is passed the annual
expenditures Of the government, which
are already increasing at an alarming
rate, will jump so much annually that |
soon somebody else will be called upon
to explain that this is not billion
dollar or billion-dollar, or four
billion dollar country, but no-limit |
land where the drain upon the federal |
treasury is limited only by demands Of
paternalism, the necessities Of num-
berless localities, and the rapacity of
members of congress, chosen collective"
ly to represent the whole people,
Taft Really Strenuous.
One Of the misfortunes of two much |
flesh is that its possessor does not !
get credit for what ho is or does. IT
is hard, for instance, to convince any |
body that a fat man is really i'll, and
the idea Of a man of $50 pounds or
more taking vigorous exercise excites
boots Of derjsion. The statement, |
therefore, that President Taft is really |
a more strenuous man physically than
was his predecessor will not be gen
orally accepted.
A glance at his daily schedule, how
ever. shows that Mr.. Taft is really a
tremendously hard worker.
He is up before Z o'clock and with
his physical director, DR., Barker, he
does some stunts which serve to give
him an appetite for breakfast. Mr.,
Taft leaves the executive mansion for
hjs office shortly after 9 clock, and
from the time he arrives until 1870 or
. o'clock he is constantly with the cab
met or with callers. Many a day he
shakes hands with scores of visitors
and talks with members Of congress
and other officials about important
matters.
After luncheon the president usually
comes back to his office for an hour or
moro Of work. Then he goes for long
walk of several miles through the CAPT
tal After the walk he sees more
callers, and frequently does not get
into the white house until close to 8
o clock, the hour for dinner.
Often Goes Out.