El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-01-09
Roll Of Congress Is 10000
New Directory Records Biographies
of Statesmen of the
Past 49, Years.
By Frederic J. Has@in
OF 4 ACucII'- = AAaI7FAIII
-ASHINGTON. ID. O.. Ja1

=
; MAJ The presses of the largest
w printing establishment in the
( world are now issuing a book that
viii have a national if not an inter-
1 national, interest. It is the biographi-
cal directory of all the men who have
served in congress from the beginning
! of the government to the end Of the
/ 61st congress.
It will not be a complete biographi-
! cal encyclopedia of American states
( men, for while it will tell the life
! story of Mckinley it will not mention
| Roosevelt or Taft 1t IS exclusively a
| congressional directory and it will
mention only those presidents and
| other high officers who have at some
I time in their career served in the
/ house Of representatives or the senate.
Record of Every Congress.
Aside from these biographies the
volume will contain complete record
OF the personnel and organization Of
every congress from the first to the
! 61st, as well as of the continental con-
crosses of revolutionary and ante-cOn-
StitutjOnal days. Its immense histOrt-
cal value and its great interest to the
student of American affairs are
obvious.
The statesmen who have entered
upon the legislative stage and passed
off again have been many. More than
10000 men have come to the senate
y
continental congress first began its
session A great many Of these have
come and stayed for one term and then
have passed out Of national political
life and the halls Of political fame
known them no more
Then again there are others who
came to congress, dropped out again,
and ultimately reentered public life IN
other capacities. Some have reached
the presidency-as Mckinley and Lin
coin; some have reached the supreme
court, some the cabinet and some CUB
senatorial hOnOrS in their states.
But these, Of course, have been few. A
greater proportion have become lame
ducks who could rely on their friends
who remained in congress to provide
them with crutcheS in the shape of
SOod commissiOnerships and divers
and sundry other places.
4 Statistical Study.
Some OF these things appear in the
big directory that is forthcoming. but
many of them do not. Yet there are
enough to make a statistical study of
the careers of the 20. 600 men who have
crossed the threshold of congress an
exceedingly interesting thing. Perhaps
some patient statiStician will have the
time TO set down and figure out how
many Of these 10000 statesmen and
near statesmen have left congress as
the result of personal or party de-
feats, how many have resigned or de-
ehned reelection, how many have come
1t may well be imagined that to get
together the salient features of the
life histories Of more than 10000 men
has been no insignificant job. OF
course, much work has been done
along this line in the past, but the
forthcoming volume is much more am
bilious than any Of It's predecessors.
Senator Reed SmOOt is the presiding
genius who directed the collection and /
preparation of the material, he being
chairman of the joint committee On
printing The immediate work of COM
piling, revising and editing the new
edition was entrusted to Henry NJ /
Rose, assistant secretary of the sen !
ate, and AnseI Void, printing clerk of l
the senate.
In their research work covering Is |
months, they have appealed to the /
pOstmaSters of the country to the
families of deceased members. to Ii
brarians and historical associations |
everywhere, to historians large and /
small Indeed, they have exhausted the /
literature of congressional biography |
and resorted to every original source !
available in their efforts to record ac- /
curately and completely the salient fea-
lures Of the lives of the 10000 law /
makers who have come to the Ameri- /
Vest Pocket Directory of 1920.
During the past half century a down 1
to the minute biography of the con- !
crosses has been brought out about /
sort of vest pocket affair." but it !
has grown and grown until now it IS /
a rival of an unabridged dictionary for !
pOnderOSity. No effort was made to /
prepare history of Congress or a di-
rectory Of its members prior to 1920.
In that year appeared a small, vest I
pocket pamphlet, Of-4S pages, privately /
printed, and bearing the imprint Of !
Daniel Rapine, agent 1t is presumed /
Jnat his revenue from it was derived /
from the boarding house keepers, !
whose ablishments were prOmi- l
nently played up. Several other pri- 4
Vate directories were issued from time :
to time, and it was not until 1865 that I
congress itself undertook the work Of /
keeping a directory of its membership. /
Near the beginning of the second ses-
sion OF the 3Sth congress, a joint resO-
luton was unanimously agreed to or
derlng the compilation and publication
of such a directory, under the direc-
ton of the joint committee on public 4
printing. The committee held several |
sessions, obtained and examined like
publications of the legislative bodies
of other nations and decided to model
the American congressional directory /
after the directory of the British house /
of commons. Ben Perley Poore was
the directory was about the size Of
school primer.
Biographies Recorded in 1869.
1t was not until 1869 that the con-
= LGSSIOudi directory IlTSL contained
sketches of the members /
of congress, after more than so years
had passed However, in 1859, Charles
Lanman undertook to gather the bio
graphies Of all those who had served
in the senate OF house from the begin /
ming OF the MISUNDERSTANDING
the continental congresses. Consider |
ing the ground he had to cover, the |
lack of personal data in those days, I
and the few sources to which he could /
resort, Lanman's work was a notable
effort.
Since that time the big permanent
directories that have come out about |
once a decade have done little more !
than add the biographical sketches Of
the men who had come to congress
since the previous edition was pub
lished- And usually the later compil-
ers cOntented themselves with the in !
formation they found in the autobio-
graphical sketches contained in the
seasonal congressional directories. /
There was, of course, a great deal in
these sketches that was irrelevant and |