The Washington herald., 1914-02-08
100000 GOES
FOR PERQUlsl!TEs

| lUh ILhQUlJl!ILJ
| CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE
msinder having escaped into the cloak.
rooms to avoid voting. Co.'s amend
ment was lost by vote Of q 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 pub
lie the figures. Although this il public
money. appropriated by law from the
Federal treasury. and paid to public
men on the recommendation Of regu-
larly constituted legislative committee.
the figures themselves are not for public
consumption.
Warren Worth Bailey, Bryan Demo-
crat, Of Johnstown. Pa. Is chairman Of
the Mileage Committee OF the House. He
was asked to give the representative Of
The Washington Herald the individual
figures. II have not the authority" re-
piled Mr.. Bailey. Get them from the
Speaker or the Sergeant-At-Arns Of the
House. who pays the mileage allowances.
We have given him the figures"
Jnfor3stisn Hard to Get.
Speaker Clark was next appealed to.
with the information that the Newspaper
reporter had been referred to him for
the information.
IT have nothing to do with It." replied
the Speaker. Either Mr.. Bailey or the
Sergeant alarms can give out the in
formation IL they care to-
Next the Sergeant alarms: ''Well, L
am an administrative ofIicer; I have no
authority for giving out such informa-
ton. You must get II from Mr.. Bailey"
Knowing full wen what the answer
would be- the reporter nevertheless re-
turned to Mr.. Bailey. The latter finally
said he would consult the Speaker. Upon
his third return to Mr.. Bailey. the re-
porter again was told that II was up
to the Sereeant-at-Arms. So the reporter
was forced to do his own mileage figur-
ing. which. without knowledge Of the
routes figured on by the Mileage Commit |
tee, Is, Of course. unsatisfactory.
The same secrecy surrounds the tele- |
graph account Upon this there Ia no |
limit member Of Congress may send |
and charge to the United States almost |
any message he chooses to construe as |
public business. Aside from the fact
where private political business merges |
into public business, the privilege fire.
quentiy Is abused by members sending |
purely personal kilograms, carefully dis
guised to bring them within the ex-
shadowy definition. !,
Aeessnts Are Audited.
When the telegraph companies turn in
their bills, the accounts are audited by
the Sergesnt-at-Arms, who Is supposed to
throw out any messages which he does
- - ~ nf,IY Tka aA~DAa NJ
alarms is elected by the House majority,
4 creature OF the membership Of the
House. He decides whether the accounts
Of his superiors shall be approved. vir-
tuslly the same practice prevails In the
Senate.
The account finally Is approved and
,aid by the Committee on Accounts Of
the House. Representative Lloyd, Of
Missouri, chairman of this committee.
a resolution restricting each
to a telegraph account OF so
rear. This was introduced In December
md nothing further heard of IL. OF ,
course, Mr.. Lloyd refuses to give any de-
ails Of this public business. He will
lot say how much any member spends.
lie recently made a compilation. how
ver, from which II is found that be- ,
ween March 4 and June 80. last, House
Il
ic business, at cost Of $s.4sL3L
One TeIeErayh Bill S2I3.ss. II
Sixteen members. among them Mr..
lloyd, Minority Leader Mann, Repre-
entative Serene Payne, and Majority
leader Underwood. sent no kilograms,
kept. in the cases Of Payne and I'm
erwood. kilograms that concerned the
ppearance of witnesses before the Ways ,
Cop,rniffAo dnrinD the fari6 u
earrings. One hundred and forty-nine
,embers spent less than IS OF govern
,ent money for telegrams; ia spent
lore than IS and less than $3.50; s6
pent more than $3.50 and less than SO;
, spent more than $40 and less than 800; Z
IN members charged more than 500
'orth Of teiegrams in less than four
ionths, and one members bill Tor that
eriod amounted to $2l2.&. Mr.. Lloyd q
sfused positively to divulge further in c
ormation. Ie
On this basis, the average yearly ex-
enditure for kilograms per House r
lember is S44.76. The Senate figures
re not available. lV
Members of the House. as a rule, e
lake no pretense of paying out for
ERIK hire all they receive for that pur- r
ose. The money.is paid on vouchers
ON the Clerk of the House, who
.nds in, along with the salary check \
,ch month. a check for $125. made
,yable to the member. The average q
ember does not expend one-hah OF
lis amount for clerk hire. and most Z
those who spend the full amount, or y
ore, do SO because their private polit-
al affairs require the extra help.
Clerks Not On Fay Roll. W
The clerks so employed are not on
q pay roll Of the House, and have no
ficial rating. Repeated attempts have
,en made to have the clerks employe ed n,
? the members placed on the House A
~ roll and paid directly. but such at r
unpts are no more popular than ef- a
rts 10 reduce the mileage allowance. N
These perquisites do not include the 4,
ouse and Senate patronage preroga- n
res. In the House this amounts to be- Ia
reen s1,foo and 81. 300 per member. dis je
Ibuted among something less than 900 bs
BIZ As some of the jobs pay as high as :,
900 and others down to n 900 q year.
ch member cannot have an entire job
his patronage. Therefore. he takes hts
100 Of government money to be paid .
L to an employe, and II he doesn't put
! own candidate in he trades with an g
her member.
Needless to say, while many Of the Do n
icsl appointees under this system are
icient, many others are entirely USE
a. and still more are paid compara-l
ely large salaries for work ordinarily bi
rformed by boys. of
/, A.. ,,eStsr ~ patronara hovsv>r :.