The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-04-21
IN CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ARE SIGNS Clear Evidence of Coming
 Campaign REPLETE WITH SOBS Every Day Record Is Fat and Bulky With Speeches Made for Cam paign Purposes and "The
 Dear People"
REPLETE WITH SOBS

Washington, April Special J.
 Every issue of the Congressional Rec
 ord nowadays contains evidence that national campaign Is just ahead.
 There Is also indsputable evidence that
 800 members of the House are facing
 with more or less trepidation the bi-
 ennial congressional elections. The Record is a bulky. solemn affair almost every morning now It Is re-
 plete with sobs for the common peo-
 pie. with dennnciation of the opposi- ton party and with strenuous protests that the nation is in a bad way un- less this party shall be retained in power or that party driven out of power.
 For the benefit of those who are not regular subscribers to the Record. it should be explained that it is perhaps the most carefully edited publication in the United States. 1t has more ed
 itors than womans magazine and 10 scub" reporter ever read his effusons with more pride than does the aver age member of Congress peruse his l"remarked' of the day before. Each editor reads his own ''copy'' and doesn't care a hand about the other fellows unless it deserves denying. As election day approaches the Rec lord becomes fatter. In the "off years li. is frequently thin, uninteresting doc ument devoted to a running debate on
 some bill, frequent colloquies and now
 and then a set speech on some topic l foreign to the bill under considera- 
 CT the set speeches become more num-
 erous; perhaps there are only few
 pages of actual debate and many pages | of closely set type beginning some
 thing like this:
 The House being in committee of | the whole on the state of the union for the further consideration of H. R.
 333S3, bill to prohibit the manufac lure of phosporous matches, MT. Grump
 of New York addressed the committee | as follows."
 Quote for three columns and a half 1 Does Mr. Grump talk about phosphor- l ous matches? In majority of instances he does not nor does he discuss in
 the remotest way matches or anything
 akin to them. Instead Mir Grump, who is facing a stiff fight for reelection
 back home, inserts in the Record burning speech depicting the woes of | the common people of the country and wondering when the plundering of the
 masses will cease
 Most likely Mir. Grump's speech will read something like this MT. Chairman: l desire to address
 myself briefly today to the most burn | ing issue that has ever faced this great and glorious country of ours, a
 country with 90,000,000 souls bending under the yoke of the tariff burden
 MT. Chairman. what is now bringing | 4f.-
 camp to our enemy? What is worm
 wood and gal to its very soul? It is
 my friends of democracy the demo- cratic party redeeming it's pledges to | the American people by reducing the tariff striking at the very roots of monopoly, forsaking the fatted money barons of Wall street and turning its eyes toward the fertile fields and val leys where the farmers of this great countryside men who made a nation possible and without whom our cities
 would crumble, are crying for aid from he iniquities of the republican tariff law"
 Loud applause on the democratic side. Jeers on the republican side. Mr. Grump catches his breath. fraction of a second after MT. Grump has taken his seat MT. Lump rises from the opposite side of the chamber, denies in toto every charge made by my distinguished colleague" Will the people turn aside from the policy of protection which has pro- tected the American laborer all these years? MT. Lump thinks not. Will the. intelligent voters of this great and growing nation, grown rich and pros porous under the republican rule, change at this epochal period in this
 history of the republic? Again Mir. Lump thinks not
 f ho
 of course, understand that both Grump and Lump are speaking for the Record
 that each knows the other fellow isn't ns bad as painted and that the old nation will rock along somehow, no matter who represents the Upmtieth
 New York district or any other district in the next Congress.
 Sometimes the members in these hur-
 Tied days before the campaign do not even attempt to deliver their speeches upon the floor. If Is entirely proper for one who wants to pour out his lheart to the people to insert his re-
 marks in the record. Tn the event of this less laborious course, the perform ance is given in this fashion
 The member in charge of the bill arises solemnly and says: "Mr Chairman, I now yield one min
 ute to the gentleman from Squedee" What cah the gentleman say in ono minute?" wonders the casual visitor in the galleries.
 The gentleman from Squedee arises and observes, to-wit:
 "Mr Chairman. I ask unanimous con
 sent to extend my remarks in the Rec lord.
 The chair asks if there is any ob- jection. Of course there is no bjec- ton, for the long suffering members have escaped the trial Of listening to another harangue. There being no ob- jection. the chair announces that the gentleman from Squedee may extend his remarks and the thing Is done
 few days later there appears in the Record most labored speech, set ting forth In great detail the gentle mans ideas concerning the govern mental problems of the day, said ideas heing punctuated every paragraph or so by applause" which never hap pened.
 Verify the national camnafons ar