Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-10-29
TAvENNER'S RECORD.

. haps the most ridiculous is the asser
/ ton that he is inaccessible as a con
gres sman-is not ordinarily in close
touch with his constituents and moi
easily readable in Washington. The
groundIessness of this charge. IL such
it may be termed. is on a par with
: every derogatory assertion made as &c
his record and. in fact, It is so palpa
bly, false that it discredits the entire
line of attack upon him by his politi
cal enemies.
The truth is that not single mem
Der of congress has spent so large a
part of his time in his office as has
the present representative from the
Fourteenth district. His office has
been open during every working day
while congress has been in session
from in the morning. and time after
time he has been the very last of the
members to leave the house office
building. Sometimes he has remained
there even after the elevator has
stopped running at IL o'clock at night.
Mr.. Tavenner appreciated the conf
dence in him shown by the people of
his district when they elected him two
years ago and he went TO Washington
with a determination TO do all he
could for his constituents. One of his
first acts was to start fight for the
elimination of the Taylor 4ystem of
shop management from government
arsenals. He also endeavored to
/ inaugurate policy OF increas-
/ ing government manufacture of
munitions OF war. instead of placing
large contracts with private manufac-
turers and, finding that it was impossi-
BILE TO secure an immediate change he
set himself resolutely to the task of
securing it as quickly as he could.
He succeeded in getting, for the
first time in the history of the govern
ment, a provision in the army bill,
which annually carries appropriations
of $1O0,0OO,OO0, which stipulated that
not to exceed 10 per cent of the sum
named could be spent with outside
private manufacturers. In other
words. at least 80 per cent must be
spent by the government in its own
plants for the manufacturing of these
munitions, thereby effecting a saving
to the people on an average of 50 per
cent, amounting to several millions of
dollars annually.
Furthermore, Mr.. Tavenner urged
an appropriation of S25O,000 for the
equipping of two buildings at Rock
Island arsenal not now used for man.
ufacturing purposes TO make field ar
tillery ammunition and got il through
the committee of the whole of the
house and IL was finally defeated by
the private interests which il operated
against through a technicality. This
was done by raising the point of no
quorum. a proceeding not commonly
resorted to in matters of this kind.
The measure, however. lost no ground
through its temporary defeat, gaining
friends by reason of the extraordinary
means used against It and if reelected
Mr.. Tavenner promises to bring il up
again and has strong hopes of ulti- |
mate success.
This tendency to persevere Is char
acteristic OF the member from the |
Fourteenth district and It has cropped |
out many times in his career. When |
he first set about organizing the syndi- |
cate of newspapers for which he is |
correspondent he was fatty as |
sured by experienced newspaper |
men in Washington that II was an i'm
possibility. Receiving no encourage
ment whatever from his associates he |
stuck to his task and though he nearly
starved for three years. he finally won
success. His letters now appear in
100 daily and $500 weekly newspa-
pers, reaching millions of readers.
When Mr.. Tavenner first ran for con-
gress in his home district he cut down
the heavy republican majority to 1000
and, persisting. two years later he
again entered the race aud, largely /
through his determination and his ca
pacity for hard and unceasing work L
he won out. This is the sort OF spirit
with which he went TO Washington as
and IL spells ultimate
for him in every undertaking
there which is Just and fair and right II
During the is months congress was
IN session the time was devoted al
most entirely TO administration meas
1res 10 the exclusion of most of those (
which individual members or groups /
~ members advocated. In spite of this ]
AIr. Tavenner succeeded in getting a /
number of matters through and he has I
IT'LL others on the way. In
Few matters Of public policy are !
loser to the hearts OF the people gen I
rally than the care the government I
axes OF fits old soldiers. Mr.. Taven-
Ter. IL IS safe to say. did as much for
he old soldiers during his term as any a
ther member OF the house ever did Z
q the same period. II Is admitted by S
hose who know the facts that no Z
member has been more closely in 2
ouch with his constituents than he. c
has been too small to COM n
iand his attention and no one but an r
person can find fault 9
nth the character OF his service. He Il
as aswered all letters with the same a
and courtesy. regardless n
the rank. station or the politics OF
he writer &,