The Topeka state journal., 1914-02-14
The People Pay More Than
Half q Million Yearly
To Men Elected to Represent
Them in Congress.
FOUR GlARING ABUSES NOTED
Mileage, Clerk Hire, Telegraph
Frank and Stationery.
From Each of These Congress-
men Get q RakeOff.

from EaCn OF l0eSc COuSTcSS-
men Get a RakeOff.
Washington, D. c., Feb 14.-While
party leaders are filling pages of the
Congressional Record with economy
appeals for home consumption. the
congress of the United States is ex-
pending more than $5UV,0OO annually
in perquisites Of the membership in
fragrant violation of the spirit of the
law. Part of this is carefully hidden
away in lump sum appropriations,
part is not easily. II at all. separated
from necessary expenditures; but
above all is thrown an obscurity
equaled only by the sacredness with
which these perquisites are regarded
by the beneficiaries Of the system =
The most easily traced Of these
abuses are four in number. and the
Legitimate" graft hung on there
mounts up into hundreds Of thou
sands of dollars in the house Of rep
resentatives alone. Persistent efforts,
though weak, to reform these prac-
tives have proven as futile as the Ia
ment of the disappointed office
seeker. These four are:
The mileage privilege, which. under
the old apportionment, amounted last
year to $169.500, paid members of the
house and senate over and above what
these same members allow others for
similar expenses.
The 'clerk hire privilege by which
each member is paid $500 q year
for clerk hire. is permitted to draw
the money himself and pocket the
difference between what he pays a
clerk and stenographer and the
amount he receives.
The telegraph frank, supposedly to
be used only for official business. but
which cost Uncle Sam $6.401.34 for
kilograms charged by members of the
house alone between March and
June 80, 1918.
The stationery allowance, which
was intended to permit each member
of the house to charge up 1928 worth
of stationery annually, but has been
so used that the member draws his
$125 and pockets it In advance,
spending whatever is absolutely nee
essary from his pocket later.
Old Figure Stands.
Except in the case of mileage, 1t is
next to impossible to establish with
exactitude the amount of unnecessary
expenditure in connection with these
'perquisites." And the only means of
establishing the fact that members
pay themselves just four times as
ernment to pay for any one else, is
through their own confession. What
this amounts to can be figured up in
dividually. A member of congress
voted himself 20 cents a mile each way
to each session of congress. The au-
was made in 1866, and legislation has
taken no cognizance of the decreased
cost of transportation.
Under the old apportionment the
total mileage per session for the house
in the Sixty-second congress amounted
n x12S N Of ho To G
$4,000. This represented 20 cents a
mile each way for each member. Five
cents is the allowance congress makes
for witnesses or employees travelling
at government expense.
When the mileage item in the sun
dry civil bill was under discussion last
winter, Representative Cox of Indiana
sought to substitute provisions calling
for a mileage allowance Of cents, or
for actual expenses.
''It will not be contended by any
member of the house for a moment"
he declared, that it costs him 20 cents
per mile each way to travel from his
home to the city of Washington There
isn't a member of the house who can
not travel from his home to Washing
ton city on cents a mile or less''
Although there were more than 200
members of the house listening to the
debate, when the vote came only 5s
members were in evidence, the re-
mainder having escaped into the
cloakrooms to avoid voting. Cox's
amendment was lost by vote of 81
to 81, with no roll call.
Those who have the figures showing
how much each member of the house
gets in this way. throw up their hands
in holy horror when asked to make
public the figures. Although this is
public money, appropriated by law
from the federal treasury and paid to
public men on the recommendation of
regularly constituted legislative COM
mittee, the figures themselves are not
Tor public consumption.
Information Hard to Get.
Warren w. Bailey. a Bryan Demo-
crat of Johnstown, Pa, is chairman of
the mileage committee of the house
He was asked to give the correspond
ent of the Topeka State Journal the
individual figures. Il have not the
authority" replied Mr. Bailey. "Get
them from the speaker or the SER
geant-at-arms of the house, who pays
the mileage allowances. We have
given him the figures
speaker Clark was next appealed to-
with the remark that the newspaper
man had been referred to him for the
information.
Il have nothing to do with it," re-
piled Speaker Clark. Either Mr. Bal
ley or the sergeant-at-arms can give
out the information if they care to-
Next the Sergeant-at-arms: well I
am an administrative officer; I have
no authority for giving out such infor-
nation. You must get it from Mr..
Bailey"
Knowing full we'll what the answer
would be. the correspondent noverthe-
less returned to Mr.. Railey. The latter
finally said he would consult the