Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1912-10-24
CONGRESSMAN REEs TELLS
OF HIS OFFICIAL WORK
He stands Tor Protective Tariff
Legislation.

Au tuC ANCWo law WSN@- y -
attack on Congressman Rees pur-
porting to be BY maR named J.
II. Patten, who claims to represent
the Farmers cooperative Union, Il
was evidently a campaign document
and Mr.. Rees while here was asked
about the charges It made and Its
statements concerning bis congress
sional record.
"The article said he. does me
a gross injustice. He says that ac-
cording to the house files ] have In
troduced but eight bills and that
none Of these have passed the house.
In this he is somewhat in error, since
four Of them passed both houses have
been signed by the president and
are now part of the law OF the
land.
"The Ft. Riley bill which he mem
tions was to increase TT. Riley to a
division post for cavalry. sue
seeded in securing the Endorsement
of the war department for this
measure, but about this time, the
Democratic house voted to reduce
the army by cutting off five regi-
ments Of cavalry, of course this
ended any prospect for my bill at
that session.
"Mr. Patten says that l only spoke
once on a legislative matter, and
that was on a bill legalizing certain
conveyances of the Union Pacific
railway company. He fails to state
that my few remarks were in sup
port of an amendment, which made
the bill truly effective SO far as 1t
relates to Kansas, by giving the
proper designation of the railroad
as 1t was known when the grant
was made, and that the effect OF
the bill was to quiet the title OF
certain people along the right of
way Of the Union Pacific to a strip
some two hundred feet wide, which
that company claims in addition to
its 200 feet of right Of way which 1t
was generally supposed to have and
he also fails to state that my amend
ment was adopted and the bill as
amended passed.
''He then complains that failed
to speak on a number of matters.
among them the immigration bill,
which failed to come up for consid-
Grafton in the house, because some
Of the orators used so much time
on other measures that we never
reached that number on the calen-
dar. He also says that ! failed to
speak on the parcels post, and con-
cludes from talk he had with news
paper men and others that ! was
against this measure. He then pro-
ceeds to try to work up a little
prejudice by saying that ! was more
with the political imports
ance of the town that of the farmers.
He failed to mention that when the
matter came before the house in the
first instance the Democratic lead
ers tried to side-step and prevent
its consideration. by refusing to al
low Mr.. Mann to make a motion to.
recommit with instructions to bring
in parcels post measure on the
zone system, although he was clear
" entitled to recognition for that
purpose under the rules, and that
this prevented roll call at that.
time.
However. my learned critic, need
not have abandoned the record to
seek information from newspaper
men and others, If he wanted to
know my attitude on the parcels
post. Had this legislative expert
examined the record Of August 49,,
when the measure after passing the
senate came before the house and It
was sought to disagree to the parcels
post provisions, he would have dis.
covered that Mr. Mann made
motion to commit with Instructions
to report the bill with the parcels
post amendment, known as the
Bourne bill. An amendment was
then made to this amendment der
signed to weaken the force of the
parcels post amendment. voted
against the Moon amendment, and,
voted for the Mann motion as
amended. refer to page 12064 Of
the record.
''In this connection / want to say,
that, at least year before this vote
was taken / had written to consti-
tuents in both town and country
that was for the parcels post on
the zone system. and urged these
Views upon Senator Bristow who ]