The Monte Vista journal., 1915-03-13

six days Of Q session it Is always in
order to move to suspend the rules
and in addition the great appropri-
alton bills. calling for the expendi-
ture OF hundreds OF millions of dol
lars and loaded with mass Of un-
digested legislation, are gradually
forcing their way through House
and Senate and Conference Com
mittees
Tricksters ION the lob"
1t is an ideal situation for the
trickster and he is ION the job"
have just emerged from my first
experience with Congressional" get
away" For a week l didn't get
much sleep but had an opportunity
to observe the functioning of the
biggest and most complex legisla-
tive machine in the world at a time
when 1t was being operated to the
limit of its capacity. l wish the
American people might have had
the same intimate view of this thing
hiSh SohSCi tlSLl 81 Nltdlly. He
result would be some sudden
changes in high places, for many of
the men who have their hands on
the throttle of this gigantic machine
are not worthy of the trust reposed
in them.
That last sentence might, in truth
be made much stronger, but for the
time being, 1t will suffice in it's pre-
sent form.
AS an illustration of what 1 have
in mind, let us consider the fate of
the Postoffice appropriation bill.
The day after Congress adjourned
you probably read at your breakfast
table that the Postoffice appropria-
tion bill had been caught in the leg
islative jam and had failed to pass
and that a resolution had been
rushed through both houses contin-
uing last years appropriations.
You did not attach much import
ance to the item. You knew you
would continue to receive your mail
as usual and the loss of an appro-
priation bill, therefore did not seem
vital mater.
Shameful Episode
The newspaper story did not tell
you that the Postoffice appropriation
bill carried legislation which would
have effected economies aggregating
ten million dollars per year
That is the reason the bill was
stabbed to death in the corridors of
the national Capitol.
1t was most shameful episode
and every man connected with it
should be driven from public life.
But the men who took advantage
of getaway" day were smooth op-
orators. They covered their tracks
very cleverly. Their colleagues
know them or, at least, have sue
ceeded in marking some of them,
but the record cannot be produced
to convict them.
This much is a mater of common
knowledge:
For two years the Postoffice de-
partment has demanded legislat ation
which would compel the railroads to
carry parcel post packages at ap-
proximately the same rates charged
the express companies by the rail-
roads.
More than year ago the House
passed such bill and it was pigeon
holed in the Senate. Then tile
House attached the bill as rider"
to the Postoffice appropriation bill.
I have told the readers of these let
ters how Congressman Moon of Ten
nessee saved this rider" in the
House by making a dramatic attack
on the railroad lobby. 1t was a case
Of statesman losing his temper
and saving his case.
Moons Successful Fight
When the appropriation bill
reached the Senate the rider" was
butchered but the House stood by it's
guns and the whole issue was
thrown into the hands OF a confer
ence committee.
Moon headed the conference
named by the House and after a pro-
longed and stubbornly contested
conference the representatives of
the Senate yielded at a late hour on
ha lap ,fnh NS ka