The Washington herald., 1913-07-20

live; this simply meaning that these per
sons were not known to the active ward
politicians OF those dfstylcta
CeagressWsn Gsosvener's "Jeses."
One opponent with whom We. had .
rather lively TIT was Republican Rsp-
I lresentativs from Ohio. Mr.. Grosvenor.
one Of the fioor leaders. Mr.. Grosvenor
made his attack IN the House. and snu-
merated our sins In picturesque rather
than accurate faShion. There was Con-
gressional committee investigating. u At
the time. and on my next appearance be-
fore them asked that Mr.. Grosvenor bs
requested to meet me before the commit
tee. Mr.. Grosvenor did not take up the
challenge for several weeks. until It was
announced that was leaving for my
ranch in Dakota: whereupon. deeming II
safe. he wrote me q letter expressing his
ardent wish that should appear before
the committee to meet him. I promptly
cancelled my ticket. waited. and met him.
He proved to be . person OF napphy
treacherous memory. 50 that the simple
expedient Of arranging his statements in
pairs was sufiicient to reduce him to con-
fusion. For instance. he had been
trapped into making the unwary remark.
law. and never said no. produced the
following extract from one of his
speeches: IT will vote not only to strike
out this provision. but will vote to r.
peal the whole law" To this he merely
replied that there was no Inconsistency
between those two statements" He as
serted that Rufus P. Putnam. fraud
ulently credited to Washington County.
Ohio, never lived In Washington County,
Ohio. or In my Congressional district, or
In Ohio as far as ] know. We pro-
duced letter which, thanks TO benef-
cent Providence. he had himself written
about Mr. Rufus p. Putnam. In which he
said:
"Mr. Rufus p. Putnam is legal
resident Of my district and has reia-
tives living there now" He explained
first that he had not written the let
ter; second. that he had forgotten ne
had written the letter: and. third.
that he was grossly deceived when ne
wrote IL. He said: II have not been
informed of one applicant who has
found a place in the classified service
from my district" We confronted him
with the names Of eight. He looked
them over and said: Yes. the eight
men are living in my district as now
constituted" but added that his dis
trict had been gerrymandered so that
he could no longer tell who did ana
who didn't live In it. When I started
m, of lack of humor in not appreci-
ating that his statements were made
"in a testing way" and then announced
that "a Congressman making a speech
on the floor of the House of Repre-
sentatives was perhaps In a little dif-
ferent position from witness on the
witness stand"-a frank admission
thar he did not consider exactitude OF
statement necessary when he was
speaking as a Representative. Finally
he rose with great dignity and said
that II was his constitutional right
not to be questioned elsewhere as TO
what he said on the floor Of the House
of Representatives. and. accordingly.
he left the delighted committee to
rursue its Investigations without fur-
ther aid from him.
A more important opponent was the
then Democratic leaders Of the Sem
ate. Mr.. German. In speech attack
ing the commission. Mr.. German de-
scribed with moving pathos how
friend of his. "a bright young man
from Baltimore" a Sunday school
scholar, we'll recommended by his pas
tor. wished to be a letter carrier. and
how he went before us 10 be examined.
The first question we asked him. said
Mr.. German, was the shortest route
from Baltimore to China, to which the
bright young man" responded that
he didn't want to go TO China, and
had never studied up that route.
Thereupon. said Mr.. German. we asked
him all about the steamship lines from
the United States to Europe, then
branched off into geology, tried him in
and finally turned him
down.
Apparently Mr.. German did not know
that We kept full records Of our exam |