The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-06-21
DIVIDING PATRONAGE
PROVES HARD TASK
Committee Trying to Dispose Of
100000 Worth of Jobs to
I 433 Representatives.


Washington. June 2o.--It would not
be surprising to many Congressman on
the inside II the patronage commit
tee appointed by the Democratic caucus
refused absolutely to slice up the pat
ronaBe OF the House of Representatives
into so many portions of pie just az
restaurant keeper divides his pastry.
That committee, from which no secrets
have leaked. is hard at work trying 10
hnd solution to the question of how
to divide 100000 worth of jobs into
433 equal parts-one part TO each rep
rcsentative, and il takes but little
thought 10 see that this is well-nigh
impossible.
However. there is some possibility
that forty or fifty of the $500 Jobs
around the House of Representatives
viii be shifted, and that :; new deal
VIII be made in that department of
House patronage.
The patronage committee is composed
of Representative HUMPHREYS. Of Mis-
sissippi; Covipgton. OF Maryland and
Doremus. of Michigan. Their task is
to report some scheme whereby the
steel-riveted government jobs around
the House Of Representatives can be
pried loose. SO that the new members
can distribute favors. AT least. that
is what some OF the new members want
them to do but on the other hand, the
committee is empowered to report a
method whereby the efficiency of the
House force OF employees may be
heightened. II is not surprising. there
fore. that there is n sentiment grow
ing in the House to adopt some scheme
whereby the valued and expert en-
ployes may be retained regardless of
the stress and storms of politics and
administration changes
If the committee should report that
IL favored turning everybody on, and
making a new deal, the House or
Representatives would stop short
There would he little or nothing done
for time. The wheels inside OF the
machinery woCid be made useless II
some OF the big committee clerks and
some OF the men who carry he lore
and law OF the House Of Representa-
tives in their head should De cast
adrift. The new members who cry so
loudly for pie at present could not
find a bfl or an act or a report for
some tine 10 cone II tho expert en-
ployes who hardlc those things so I'M
erringly al present were dropped
from thu rolls. There are, OF course.
men In positions which require little
or no experience. and there is every
chance that some OF these men Will
De asked &c retire.
Older Representative admit they
! know full we'll tina, If the clerks to
such ommitt-cs as tre Appropria :
1 tions. the Naval Affairs. Rivers and
Harhors. etc. were changed, the com
mittecs would founder about like
rudderlcss hunks. They know also
that ii the document room should be
dismembs red that no human being
| alive could master its intricaoies in
| less than five years.
! They know that if the library attach
I ed 10 the House of Representatives
/ should be handed to q new set of EN-
ployes that no member would be able
10 say with any certainty of getting
J It:
which shows what Speaker Cannon had
TO say about appropriations for the
i kibosh Indians in 1895" At present
the volume would come back post haste
/ with a marker showing the exact spot
Cry for Spells Not So Loud.
Il There is a reaction from the CRY fol
i spoils which marked the beginning OF
Il the extra session. and it all come,
F., about through the thought of the pres.
ent efficiency Of many of the House
employees. If there should be spoils
mans rule that new deal should be
handed around every two years som.
advocate of this rule might find il
working against him at home when he
returned TO run in the primaries
] FOR these reasons it is felt in the
House that the coming report of the
patronage committee will not he sr
drastic as was expected when the com,
mittee was formed