South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-02-02
TATESMEN
REAL AND NEAR
BY FRED &. KELLY.

WASHINGTON. Feb. 2.-Among
the members of the committee on
military affairs ~ the house OF rep
resentatives are at least two men,
who, for the life OF them, cannot get
their ears accustomed 10 the sound OF
large sums of money.
The two referred 10 are Messrs.
wild Bill" Gordon Of Ohio, and
Percy +. Quin of Mississippi.
There may be others on the com
mittee who are awed by the nom
chalant manner in which men make
mention of many millions. but none
are so deeply or boisterously effected
as Gordon and Quin. When they
hear talk OF three or four million
dollars there two have 10 pause,
then and there for breath before
they can go any farther. Scarcely
a meeting Of the military affairs
committee takes place without either
Quin or Gordon, or both, throwing
a 1gurative fit right in the midst OF
the proceedings.
1t is possible that in time Quin and
Gordon will get used TO big figures
and be able TO say them with the ut
most familiarity. A great many
members do. In fact a congressman
is apt to become so callOused and
blase about money - government
money -lndl ne CdH Sptttk VI lcAA
sums in the same offhand way that
il is mentioned by automobile sales
men.
/ Just the other day l was talking TO
I a member about a big government
/ project as we sat frugally eating our
MONDAY rations in a popular-priced
stand up and help your Ownself
/ lunchroOm. l asked him what the
\ proposed undertaking would cost
why" said he, with the impatient
/ gesture of a man who hates to men
ton trifes. lit wouldn't cost much of
/ anything. / don't know the exact
I figures. but / don't think it would
run more than three million or three
million and half at the outside"
It's just a matter Of habit. This
I man makes a SO hat last him at least
year and a half and thinks a hair
/ cut under once a month is eXtraVa-
CANT, but he has been on a commit
/ tee where millions are referred to as
lightly as car fare. A couple of mill
lion dollars more or less is no more
to him than a mere idiom of the
/ language.
But to get back to Quin and Cor
don. They were brought up on
| farms and can still remember when
a millionaire would be pointed out
to them with just as much awe as if
he were a rhinOcerOS. The idea OF
sitting down at a table in a commit
tee meeting and spending a million
or so just by a nod of the head
seems to them like treading on
sacred ground.
Gradually they have grown more
or less used TO appropriations that
deal only in thousands. but when
somebody speaks OF millions Quin or
Gordon nearly turn a startled hand
spring.
A short time ago the committee
was discussing the matter of appro-
lion dollars for some new-fangled
kind of pistols for the army.
What" shrieked wild Bill'
Gordon. "all that money just for
/ pistols? Goodness gracious sakes
alive. where's so much money COM
ing FROM"
A moment or two later the item of
targets came up. There was a de-
mand for $4S0,0O0 or some such sum
for other targets.
Rep. Quin Immediately went al
most into Mysteries.
''All that money" he cried in an
\ impaSSiOned voice, Just for some-
thing to shoot at? Why, gentlemen,
/ down where L came from when we
want to shoot at a target we go out
/ back of the barn and shoot at a
/ stump or an old hat or the end of a
/ bucket And we have some of the
/ best marksmen you'n find anywhere
Whoever heard of paying money for
/ targets. HUH"
Gordon. while depreciating the ex-