Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-01-20
If YOU WANT TO
SHINE In CONGRESS
The Way to Do 1t Is to Know All About
One Thing-Mann specializes in De-
tails, Humphrey in Calamity Howling.
BY EDWARD ". TowsNEND

BY EDWARD W. TowSNEND
Specialize" That would be my advice to
any male human, over 25, who has yearnings
for Congressional career.
It is ever advised by the faculty not to
generaze from a single instance, nor even,
relatively, from a few. wherefore 1 assert
that generali2lng from the almost innumer-
able events solved in congressional history,
success in their careers has been made only
by strivers who have specialized.
Now, just to prove how humanity weak 1
am [ shall presently reclte the successful
career of a contemporary who has never
specialized
through. backward and forward, up and
down, inside and outside, and lol you will be
exalted in Congress. The trials and troubles
| in Congress resulting because of the surplus
! age of lawyers therein are not because those
of that surplus are lawyers but because few
lawyers know anything thoroughly-that in
cudes law-and do know fooishly large
| number of things partly.
Nothing more interesting has marked the
history of the Congress in the last four
! years than the upshoot of a few men who
have specialized in subjects involved in the
| legislation of the present and the preceding
| Congresses out Of the total 435 of us. you,
my attentive reader can name-qucky
nowl-how many? Half dozen! 1 thought
So
Glass for the Cabinet
How many of the hundred million of US,
outside of the five counties in Virginia com
prsing his district ever heard of Carter
Glass father of the new banking law? Yet
Carter Glass, of Lynchburg Va, has been
in Congress ID years. Until year ago no
one north of the Union Station in Washing
ton knew of Carter Glass, or, If they heard
of him casually, never remembered his name
over night. Today, If he were so disposed,
he could make more money than Hobson on
the lecture platform and he sends his re-
grets daily to more banquet committees than
ever did Chauncey Depew.
He specialized in banking and currency
laws, such laws of all the nations Of the
earth having laws affecting banking; so,
when his party came into power in 1910 1t
made him chairman of the House Banking
and Currency Committee. He visualized
Federal reserve banks as some visualize oys-
ters fresh that when you squirt a bit of
lemon juice their edges they turn in
volt He will probably be a cabinet officer
in the next Democratic Administration.
But let speak of farmers Banking in
terests so few of us find pleasant in days
like these. There's Ralph w. Moss of
Centre Point, Clay County, Ind. I'm going
q little bit into the future as to him. Make
a note of his name, because before another
Congress ends he will be more known from
the Atlantic to the Cliff House than is Car
ter Glass today. rs farmer; his parents
were poor, and he has actively engaged in
the cultivation Of his farm" Thus the Con-
gressional Directory.
Moss Coming Fame
But he had couple of years in Perdue
University, about such time as Booth Tark-
ington and George Ade were taking their
mental prep there. Moss specialized. His
parents were poor. so it must frequently have |
occurred to him how much less poor they
would have, been If they had been able,
when 1t would have been good farming" to
do 80, to borrow money to drain wet field, |
buy COW, replace an outbuilding what
not.
That sort of thing is done under what is
known a rural credits" or farmers loan" |
system; system mighty good for the coun- |
try that has it. There is a library of litera-
ture on the sub1ect-thriling If you have a
vision of the agricultural possibility of this
country-but there are no dog cared books in |
that library. Moss specialized on the sub
ject. He will be beginning his fourth term
In Congress March next, and in that Con-
gress a bill bearing his name will become |
law which will be known in all its pro- |
visions by people than is the banking
and currency bill.
A Farmer-Student
Moss is tall. gaunt, serious, heavy browed, |
deep-eyed-the farmer-student. There are |
more dips spurs and angles in the rural |
credits bill than in the Glass bill. but Moss |
knows them all. He has made two speeches
the subject and I've listened to them with |
intense interest. He knows his subject. It |
is easy money that If Doctor Houston does not |
want to be, Moss will be, the Secretary of |
Agriculture in the next Democratic Admin
istration.
So 1t goes-the men who specialize win |
recognition: Burnet of Alabama in immigra-
ton problems Underwood, in the tariff; |
Gardner in war preparedness. If 1 gave |
full list 1t would be a short one, but 1t |
would include nearly every name of a Rep |
resentative or Senator you know outside of |
your State. Even If you know Humphrey |
of Washington, 1t is because he is a specialist.
Somehow, did not mean to mention Hum
phrey because he is, personally, a likable |
chap, but he is too oh. much too special
ist to be left out Of this brief list. He is a
specialist in calamity bowling. It develops
that in Kitsap Skagit and Snohomish
counties in Humphreys Washington district
there some men engaged in the highly |
respectable business of running sawmills |
who cannot run them economically as can |
some other men who operate across Puget
Sound, in Canada. For purposes OF re-elec-
tion this tnefhcience has entered Humphreys
soul as 1t were barbed steel In his heart, and |