Evening star., 1914-07-26

QuOIc d lelIcI ISCclVed d lew udyS ago
| by member of the Senate:
My DEAR SIR-I must have seven dollars
per month more pension. Can't you pitch in and
get it for me? Why do vote for you from time
| to time and have from time 1mmemorial with
out the slightest token of recompenSe or recog-
milton from you people living at the public
crib? Dear Senator. l voted for Abram Lin
coin in 1860 and again in the field in 1864 and
| have voted the Republican ticket all these years
| since. Now what do you think of old Re-
publican like me? Am entitled to the slightest
effort upon your part to grant. detest the
Soldiers Homes. With $25 per month would
enable me to remain away forever. Handle
my claim like a weaver would handle his shut
| tie and you will accomplish what will be of
lasting benefit to me and of everlasting thank
fulness on my part. Remember there is an
election in the near future. You work for me
and will reciprocate.
This is a sample of many that l might
quote from the experience of various Sena-
| tors: they are not rare. Recently received
a proposition from a young woman attend
ing an institution of learning, stating that
she was about to enter a literary contest,
and that if would write her essay, upon
given legislative subject with which my
name had been more or less connected, and
the essay won the prize she would agree to
divide it with me. An interesting volume
could be written on the correspondence re-
ceived by map in public life, and it would
furnish an excellent mirror of human nature.
All of this finds expression in the demand
that public men exert themselves for lavish
appropriations for States and localities while
they neglect more important questions of
national concern and universal welfare. 1t
lowers the standard of public duty and tends
to make public men mere registering ma
chimes to write on the statute books the de-
mands of few. What do the people want
of their public men? Is their ideal a states
man who devotes his time and energy to the
solution of the great questions of the day, or
is it local messenger at Washington to Sc
cure appropriations for rivers and harbors
and public buildings and secure positions
for the faithful? He is likely to be which
ever the people make him.
lnNE of the most conspicuous tendencies
~ of the time is the growing disposition
to rely upon legislation and the activities of
government for human betterment. The
hundreds of bills introduced in Congress
each week have their humorous as well as
their educational aspect. No one will ever
live to see the day when the United States
is legislated into state of perfection. No
matter how nearly perfect our system might
be, Congressman would insist upon intro
ducing new bills to correct alleged evils
to our State Legislatures or the national
Congress with every possible subject. Some
thing unusual occurs, and Immediately we
hear the cry, Lets make law against it."
The result is that the bills introduced run
the entire scale from the sublime to the
ridiculous.
There are none so enthusiastic as those
who have some new idea about the way the
government ought to be run. In the two
years of the sixty-second Congress 2S,S7
bills were introduced in the House of Rep
resentatives alone, and $3.50 bills in the
Senate. To these must be added 2,O66 reso-
lutions of various types. The result of this
enormous grist is the gradual breaking
down Of our legislative system.
| AS a nation we have not developed
genius for the management of public affairs
Our genius is not political, but rather indus
trial and commercial. Years of study and
training are admittedly required to fit any
man for profession or a trade; but it is the
general impression that certificate of cleo
ton is the only diploma required to produce
finished legislator. There is prevalent
feeling that the person without training has
the same fitness for the management of the
affairs of government as one who has de-
voted his life to that work and is eminently