Yellowstone monitor., 1914-10-01
Senator Walsh Gives Reasons Why
Stout and Evans Should Be Reelected

committee having the bill in charge.
Familiarity with the public business
is intuitive in no man. It comes only
by long, patient, arduous and pains
taking study. The man who, in either
branch of congress, appears at rare in
tervals on the floor to deliver a bril-
liant, well-prepared speech ordinarily
exercises very little influence on legis-
lation. No man rises to power in the
house without intellectual gifts, but no
man attains that position except by
laborious effort and few except by
years of service. The leaders in the
house on both sides are all veterans.
A state acts unwisely that continually,
for light or transient causes, changes
it's members of the house of represen-
tatives. Experience is essential to the
best results in all lines of human en-
deavor and the work of the legislation
constitutes no exception.
Messrs Stout and Evans will rem
der better service to the state and the
nation during their second term than
could be hoped of them during their
first. It is true that much of the work
of serviceable member never finds
a place in the congressional record.
This is eminently true of the two hard
working representatives from Mon
tana, as will be attested by hundreds
of homesteaders whose troubles with
the landoffice they have alleviated or
removed. Congressman Stout as a
member of the public lands committee,
and Congressman Evans on the COM
mittee on Indian affairs, have been
able to render invaluable service be-
cause of the intimacy of their knowl-
edge of the conditions with which
those committees are called upon to
deal.
It is surprising what world of mis-
information many eastern congress-
men have concerning public land prob
lens. Yet most of them yield readily
their prejudices in the face of a plain
statement from western represent
tive, who has established a record for
candor and competency. Congressman
Stout has ingratiated himself with his
colleagues and already exercises an in
fluence among them unusually strong
for so new a member. John Evans
very efficient work as member of the
ommittee investigating the labor trou-
bles in Colorado has been made the
subject of newspaper comment
throughout the nation, uniformly of a
commendatory character in the case
of those periodicals that exhibit a
sympathy with the cause of labor. Tom
Stout's weekly letters to the Montana
papers, always entertaining in style
have served to keep his constituents
in touch with the trend of thought in
Washington in way that no press
report of the daily doings here could.
They constitute a valuable contribu-
ton to the history of session that
has been extraordinary in more ways
than one.
Neither of the Montana members be-
long, however, to that class of states
men who never say anything on the
floor. l am inclined to be suspicious
of the merit of the silent statesman.
Loquacity, besides marking a man as
bore, is sure evidence of shallow
ness. But in my career as a lawyer,
have encountered not few members
of that profession who enjoyed most
remarkable reputation for wisdom and
profundity from whom it was impossi-
BILE to extract an opinion with a cork
screw. / am not able to think that he
is much Of lawyer who practices his
calling by giving counsel from his Of
flee and who never ventures to defend
or uphold his views in court or to
prosecute in person the litigation in
which the soundness of his views can
be tested. He does not measure up to