Evening star., 1919-10-03
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

BY WILL p. KENNEDY.
sCongressmen have a big, private
bulletin board-in fact. two of them,
the House side-both in the lobby
before which they gather as interest
ed spectators every day. They have
had these boards for more than a
quarter of century.
{ These boards show the map of the
United States under glass. On the
glass each day, for the information of
the members of Congress. are traced
the wind and storm curves. From
more than 200 stations all over the
country observations are made at 8
o'clock in the morning and tele-
graphed to the Capitol The big
maps thus show the members e.ch
part of the country. marked in red,
and what the rainfall is, marked ini
yellow. The weather symbols are
arrows red denoting clear, blue
cloudy. yellow rain and white snow.
These 'scoreboards" have been kept
for more than six years. on both the
House and Senate side, by S. L.
Mosby, from the weather bureau.
Previously the Senate map was kept
tor twenty-five years by Marry Jones
and the House may by John H. Stew.
art.
The members have a deep interest
in the maps. For example, the south
Is now vitality interested in cotton.
and they are watched to see when
there is danger of a frost. The great
northwest is just as much concerned
about the corn crop. At this season
of the year there is great danger for
the cotton, corn and tobacco crops.
The great river and flood system of
the Mississippi valley is another
much observed section of the map.
especially in the spring. The maps
show the flood warnings.
r Storm warnings are also shown
along the coast, as was done for the
great tropical storm that recently
swept south Florida and the gulf
coast.
They "Fixed" the Budget.
Now that the national budget is
under consideration, some of the
members gathered in Uncle Joe"
Cannon's Office the other day recalled
priation method as told by Senator
Allison of Iowa. who was chairman
Of the Senate appropriations commit
tee when Cannon was chairman on
the House side.
I'VE worked under a gentleman's
agreement" Allison explained. when
the estimates came in from the de-
partmentS Joe went over them and /
went over them. Then, when we
thought We had them trimmed some
where near the revenue, I'd saunter
over to his Office and we'd compare
notes. When We had the job shaken
down to about the outside limit we'd
60 through n again. We'd pick out
certain items that he'd leave in, with
the understanding that we'd cut them
out in the Senate, and there'd be
others that he'd cut down. SO that
the dignity and prerogative of the
Senate to increase every appropria-
tion bill might be preserved. Here's
one I'll cut down and you make up
was about the way we handled it.
Then we'd take the committee into
partial confidence. Joe'd report the
bill out and fight it through the
chiefs who had their estimates whit
ded would be up in arms and storm
the Senate committee" Anr right here
II should be noted that Allison was
the ideal non-committalist. To con-
finue his story-"Some of the COM
Hafttee would make vigorous speeches
xnd put in amendments-for home
consumption-and ohers would fight
the battles of the people in oratory.
Wed let some of them even indulge
ID abuse of the committee-but when
re got the bill passed it was gen
orally just about what Joe and had
agreed upon in conference-and that's
the way we handled the budget"
Intimate View of War.
Members Of Congress are having the
horrors of the world war. the suffer-
fngs and daily-life Of the doughboys,
the cheering work Of the Y. NJ. c. A.,
the Salvation Army and the X. of c.,
the bigness of tank and railroad
mount gun operations. and the reality
Of trench and dugout life-brought
home to them. Probably one-third of
al the members have been overseas
and seen a part of the territory in
allied fight for human liberty; all of
the members have had visits from SOL
der boys who told them first hand of
the war; but now the members are
going to be actually shown closeup
views of the salient features of the
war-enlarged photographs, action
pictures of the real scenes which best
show the outstanding phases Of how
America fought.
"a from many thousands as the best
plctorial record Of the war have been
framed and arranged by the Signal
Corps in the marble caucus room in
the House office building, where the
members Of Congress and their fam
iiies have been invited to inspect
them during the next week. These
photographs have been enlarged to
INCH a size that the individuals in
them are easily recognized.
OF course. there are life-sized pic
fures Of Gen. Pershing. of Pershing
and Secretary Baker and of COM
manding officers of all the allied
forces. but the real interest centers
In the pictures which show what the
boys did overseas. These pictures
show them raiding German trenches.
climbing a hill to capture German
position. show them crowded into