Evening star., 1923-12-02
Congress Speeds Back to Washington After Months of Abse

east. were joined at Promontory
Point, Utah, May 10, 1869.
1T took .L.e first transcontinental
locomotives nine days to go from
San Francisco to Chicago" recalled
Representative Charles r. Curry.
Sacramento, Calf, who fifty years
| ago came east over the new road
From Chicago to Washington took
| three more days.
Those trains had neither sleep
| ing nor dining cars. At night pas
sengers lay on boards placed over
seats, or rested heads against win
| dowpanes. Those who did not bring
several days provisions had to snatch
meals at stations where the train
stopped. Seats in the cars were not
| upholstered.
| progress our railroads have made
| since then has been remarkable
said Senator Francis E, Warren,
| Cheyenne, Wyo.. who came to the
! Senate thirty-three years ago, before
any other present senator was there.
! 'In 1890, it took me four days and
nights to come to Washington from
! Cheyenne. This year / came in two
| days and nights. Then only one or
| two trains left or reached Cheyenne
, each day. Now eight or nine leave
and arrive daily.s
Electric locomotives today draw
trains across the Rocky and Cascade
Mountains to Puget Sound, Wash.
Passengers have at their disposal
barber, manicurist, valet ladies'
maid, bath. writing desk, stenog-
| rapher. telegraph and mail service.
| magazines and late editions of news
and sports results"
RUT the climax of congressional
= transportation has not been
reached yet!
!, Flying to Congress is being intro
duced by Representative Roy G.
Fitzgerald. He breakfasts in his
Dayton, Ohio, home. then files 500
miles to Washington in three hours
and eight minutes, and lunches in
the Capitol restaurant.
Representative Fitzgerald last week
made his sixteenth flight to Wash
ington in three years. On some of
them he was his own pilot. His
secretary, Lieut.. z. NJ. Rossiter,
pilots a plane to Washington, too.
Congressional flying, like congress
sional stage-coaching, must have its
spills. Representative Fitzgerald says.
Speeding over West Virginia at
160-mile- an hour clip, he became lost
H. I'll
mountains. October 3, 1921. Slipping
| into a tail spin. he fell $500 feet.
The plane was righted in the valley,
but crashed at Keyser, w. Va
Running into hard rainstorm
| over Fairmont, w. Va. September 4.
1922, he was driven far from his
course. He ran out of gasoline and
had to land in a rough field. Never
! have Fitzgerald's spills done more
| than cut and bruise him.
| Uncle Sam always has helped pay
/ Congress stage coach. railroad or
| airplane bills, whichever the case
has been. When the trip from Pilila-
| delphia to Washington cost congress-
| men $500 Gs0o-1so5) they were al
| lowed not over $50. or six dollars
| for each twenty miles from their
place Of residence to the seat of
Congress by the most usual road"
Now, congressman receive 20 cents
| for each mile travelled, and are al
lowed mileage for one round trip
each session. Congress total trans
| portation bill has averaged $4,000
a year for the last decade. Last year
| It was S163,742.6o,' Kenneth Romney,
| cashier of the House of Representa-
tives, said.
| "The largest single bill paid last
year, $2,11e.60, was presented by
| Hawaii's delegate, Henry A. Bald
win. The smallest was So, submitted
by Representative r. Walton Moore,
Fairfax. Va The largest bill pre-
sented by a voting member of Con-
| gress was that of Representative
John E. Baker, Alturas, Calf, for
s1,453.2o."