The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1913-01-14
Consideration Of Bills For
Millions Very Lax.
ONLY 20. OOI. OF 400 ATTEND
Whereas a Hundred Representatives
priations, Sometimes Less Than Conn.,
mittee Reporting Bill Are Present
Need ~ Force Attendance. "
BY ARTHUR w. DUNN.

Washington, Jan. 14.-[Special.1-lt
will not do much good to point Out
that consideration of most bills in the
house of representatives Is a bowling
farce. am speaking of appropriation
bills carrying masy millions Of dollars
for the support of the government
The rules require that these bills be
considered in the committee of the
whole house on the state of the I'm
ion" 1t is high sounding name and
is meant to include the entire member.
ship of the house. o
For many years it has been provided
that 100 members of the nearly 400
shall constitute quorum of the com
mittee of the whole house-a clear sub
version of the constitution. But that
is not the worst Of it. Scarcely more
than tYanty or thirty members actual
ly attend and give attention to the
consideration of these appropria don
bills. Oftentimes less than the mem
bership Of the consmittee which re-
ported the bill are In the house and
paying atteEsion.
Should Make Them Stay.
| There should be some method by
which members should be made to
stay in the house and attend to bust
ness. The next move should be In the
direction of cutting of useless talk
| Much of this kind of talk would be
cut off if the appropriation committees
| ,{p(I
bills and not try to do a lot of legis-
lating and spending of money need
! lessly.
II members would stay In the house
and attend to business they would
cure one of the evils of extravagance,
Of which much complaint Is made.
They would do more than the economy
commission, which has added another
bureau Of useless employees to the
government payroll.
o. Getting II In Some Farm.
Jim Mann was discoursins upon ths
fact that ii claims get old enough they
may be paid. He referred to PROPOSE
tons to pay French spoliation claims
and others of ancient origin.
'"Then there Is hope that we NAV
get pay for our niggers," remarked
Major Stofer. who as a youth contrib
uted his share toward the Confederacy
and destruction Of the invading army.
II have been looking up the records
and find that our family had quite a
number Of slaves"
you may have to wait until you are
no longer quite so sprightly," replied
Mann. "but the south Is getting its
money back In the class Of claims we
are now allowing. We pay claims for
goods and stores taken by the Fed
eral troops and for losses sustained by
loyal people of the south Ii this
keeps up it will soon be shown that
there were no disloyal people In the
SOUTH" o
6aiiey's Highest Compliment.
''The highest compliment Senator
Bailey received on the day he last ap-
peared In the senate" remarked a man
in the gallery. was thegact that Sen
ator Root remained in his seat for
four hours and listened to every word
the Texan uttered. That was a trib-
ute few men receive"
Moore and Murdoch.
Vic Murdoch came out Of the house
one day dressed In the latest fashion,
his clothes fitting his fine form Ikea
glove and equal to anything Jim Ham
Lewis ever wore. He bumped into |
group talking to J. Hampton Moore |
The Pennsylvania man surveyed the |
"getup" Of the man from Kansas and |
stroked the clothes as BE- made com
ments. "a
"vic." he said, "those are very fine |
fine. indeed. Why, the |
first thing we know yousTill be pat
ronizing staflorY'
His First Offense.
Chairman Pujo Of the banking and |
committee Is not particularly |
with his job as Investigator.
Il never was chairman Of an investi-
eating committee BEFORE" he remarked
sadly the other day when some prop
Dsition Of a rather difficult nature came
up for him to decide. And now there
are two investigations going on in his
one OF the money trust"
md the other In an effort to find some
method of finding out how to pass the
Aldrich bill under another name. Con-
gresham Glass of Virginia, who will
be chairman Sf the committee in the
next session. is trying, with a number
If high priced experts, to see how he
.an bring this about.
Eve Of Hope" For Cuba.
General Mcintyre. who is now chief
II the bureau Of insular affairsSwa
lsked about the complications in Cuba.
which to many people means final In
ervention and the end Of the lone star
epublic. ut looks to me as II 1t was
he eve Of hope for Cuba" was his
eply THE country is emerging from
! siege Of mfsgovernment. but 1t will
lave a president Of the peoples choice
Who b pledged to reforms. andsI for
me believe there b the dawning Of .
'etteT DAP for that tslanA.