The Topeka state journal., 1919-10-23
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
BUREAU
FREDERIC J. HAsK11i. Dirsssse.
waahangt0a. q. G
WASHINGTON MAKES FRIENDS
WITH CONGRESS.
waaA.as.@. q. @

Washington, D. c., Oct. 20.-A new
! cordiality is springing up between
Capitol Hill and the rest OF Capital
| City. Congressman and senators are
being invited frequently to address
! citizens associations on all sorts of
, subjects. from the price of milk in
fthe District to the League of Nations.
And those who accept are being re-
warded with a lot of applause, smiles.
handshakes. and other evidences. of
! friendly appreciation. During the
past summer more congressman and
sena tors than ever beore have been
other than their own, engaged in
neighbQrly confab with locaf inhabi-
{ tants washington has no citizens.)
| Some congressman are beginning to
/ believe that Washington is not, after
all inhabited exclusively by profiteers,
rent sharks and cave dweIlers." but
i contains a certain percentage of real
human people.
This new entente cordiale between
! the men who make the laws for Wash
] ington and the voteless inha bitants
/ who have to obey them, is not a
| spontaneous and unaccountable thing.
II is the result of a deliberate propa-
ganda set on foot by the Federation
/ OF Citizens associations Of the Dis
| trict of Columbia undeF~the leader
ship of its president, w. B. Westlake.
This propa ganda is conducted on the
| plausible theory that you can catch
more congressman with honey than
| you can with vinegar. After the con-
| gresham is caught, or at least cap
| tivated, the object of the federat ton
| is to induce him to vote for an amend
| ment to The constitution of the United
! States, permitting the Inhabitants of
! the Capital to elect a member to con-
| gress, to vote for the presidential
/ electors nd n nd ha in fa
federal courts.
For Washington, today, as Mr.
WestIakc will tell you with JUNCTION.
| is the only city in the civilized world
the inhabitants of which have no voice
in the making of the laws which gov
ern them. 1t is the only place in
America where still exists that ancient
wrong-of taxation without represen-
tation.
If the citizens of Washington want
a new school building or more police
men or a new park, they can wheedle
congress to give them these things.
but that is all. They have not a rep
| rcsentative of their own in congress to
introduce a bill providing the money
for building school. One school,
house-in the city Of Washington. for
many years. Boys who went to school
when the agitation for a larger build
ing began are now young men start-
ting in business. The school has since
then overflowed into a church. a resi-
denee and several smaller buildings
but no money has yet been appropri-
ated for the new building. And every
school in the northwest section is in
somewhat the same fix.
But the Washington people, led by
their joint committee of $50 leading
citizens, do not care 80 much about
airing their domestic difficulties
What they want to- emphasize Is the
fact that it il wrong for the capital of
| a great nation not to be represented in
its congress. They appeal to all the
citizens of the United States to pull
them out of this hole; for 1t is only the
citizens thru their congressman and
senator's. who can do it.
Direct appeal to the legislators
themselves rs being used as an adjunct
to the appeal to the country at large,
and the federation campaign of friend
illness and appreciation is a part OF
that direct appeal.
1t is not meant TO imply that the
relation between the legislators and
the local people have heretofore been
notably unfriendly, but they have un-
deniably been distant and in spots
vinegary. Washington has been In the
past socially Disappointing to good
many congressman. The term cave
dweIlers" which has been so often ap-
piled to the local social set, suggests
about how cordial it has been to the
recently arrived. And this lack OF cor
diaIity has been felt the more because
a good many congressman come to
washington with the idea, that they
are about to embark on an impressive
social career. Perhaps this idea is en-
tertained by the congressional wives
and daughters more than by the con-
gressmen themselves. but the net ef-
RaO fe IA 4a0n
thinks the Washington people are a
| lot of crabs, Mr.. Congressman usually
comes to agree with her. The aver
age congressional family which ar
rives here equipped with new gowns
and large expectations finds nothing
to greet il but a number of other con-
gressional families. similarly equipped.
Hence a congressional circle has
grown up which reyolyes in its own
orbit and does not touch that of the
cave dweller set any more than the
moon touches the earth.
The usefulness of little contact
| between these two separate organisms
| is becoming increasingly apparent to
| the local people.-If the newly arrived
congressman is socially more or less
at the mercy of the inhabitant, that
! individual is politically very much at
the mercy of the congressman. Both
| parties have axes to grind. but the
| cave dweller's axe is a good deal larger
and in more urgent need OF grinding
than that of the congressman.
1t is true that there are a certain
| number of people in Washington with
social aspirations which take the form
of a fervid desire to entertain govern
ment officials. But a large percentage
of these are not really inhabitants of
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
SThe George N