Evening star., 1924-03-30
Capital Sidelights
BIZ WILL. r.. KENNEDY.

Ben johnson of Kentucky discovered
the War Department paid to auction
GERS for crying the sale of surplus
property, Representative William s.
Greene of Massachusetts, familiarly
known as Uncle Billy" who has been
an auctioneer himself for more than
forty years, reminisced in the Speak
ers lobby.
Representative Greene, who is now
chairman of the House committee on
merchant marine and fisheries, has
been in public life for sixty-three
years and has served twenty-seven
consecutive years in the House.
His father before him was an auc-
tioneer for sixty years, starting in at
Natchez, Miss, where he sold ALI sorts
, of merchandise under the hammer,
| particularly cotton. Then he came
up UP into New England, and it was
Uncle Billy" began to do business
under the red flag. -.
The big amounts that Representa-
tive Johnson told Congress had been
league-Auctioneer Greene-a bit ex-
/ cited. He explained that 1T is GUS
tomary for all auctioneers to get
commission on sales, and that there
| was nothing to show the War De-
partment had paid these sales spe-
ciaiists" more than 4 per cent.
mo auctioneer. II he is any good,
works for a salary. He doesn't sell
every day. 1t is only occasionally
that he holds an auction. Then he
must bring a special talent and pro-
fessional ability to the job" Repre-
sentative Greene pointed out. "On
the sale OF a piece of real estate he
may get 5000 or $4o0 for his percent
age fee, but II he has any brains and
capability he will get enough more
for the property to pay that fee. You
can never tell when you start an auc-
tion Just what method you are going
to employ
During the last recess of Congress
Representative Greene went home to
Fall River and auctioned piece of
prope rty-land, buildings and MAJ
! terials He started in at 10 Am. and
sold steadily until o'clock at night.
closing out the entire property.
The usual percentage charged by
auctioneers on real estate Is 2ha' per
cent UP to $4,000, Representative
| Greene explains. At one time, years
ago, they did business at ! per cent.
On general merchandise the usual fee
| Is 5 per cent.
He recalls that when his father first
I went to Fall River he auctioned
piece OF property for the town. get
ting $4,000. For this his own fee
I
| charge of the sale got s65. but this
small fee was in order to get himself
known, as he was a newcomer in
town and there was then brisk ri
valry among several auctioneers.
This property that his father sold,
away back in 1916. was part OF the
old poor farm. which the town OF Fail
| River had bought in 1885 for $4,000.
While Uncle Billy" was mayor OF
| Fall River in 1897 he needed money
for town improvements. He went out
| and sold at auction himself some
more OF the poor farm, bringing in
| $4,000 the first day and $4,000 the
| next day: For this sale he got no
commission. What was left of the
| old poor farm was turned into what
| is now North Park. which would
| hiring $3.50, 600 today if sold under the
| hammer" commented Representative
Greene.
How polygIot is our population was
emphasized in a notable way when
several members of Congress were
chatting together. Representative
John Q. Tilson of New Haven. Conn.
had just received a statement from
the United States bureau of educa-
tion showing that pupils of foreign
stock in New Haven public schools
number 22.s31 out of total enroll
ment of 31,131. according to an Of
| fetal chart dated December, 1928. In
| all forty-eieht nationalities are rep
| resented. With 9.131 children of
American stock there are 11,5lS of
| Italian stock.
| Representative Edward T. Taylor
of Colorado. who was standing near
| by, organized the bureau of natu-
| rallied citizens at the democratic ma
tional headquarters at Chicago in
1876 and conducted the party cam
paign throughout the twenty-four
of foreign-born citizens of forty-six
different nationalities and languages
| Representative Tilson. who is now
the substitute Speaker OF the national
House of Representatives has become
known to thousands of school chill
dren in every state in the Union. At
the close of the last session of Con-
! gress he extended his remarks in
4 the Record by printing an elementary
talk on the Constitution. More than
gone into the schools in every state
in the Union in response to requests
received at Representative Tilson's
office.
| X y X
| Some twenty-seven different varie-
ties OF information were recently
ping Board by Representative wal
lace H. White of Maine, and the Ship
ping Board claims it cost 100000 to
100000 to produce the information.
In explaining to the committee what
he desired, Representative White said
he was anxious wherever possible
that the officials of the Shipping
Board should accompany the docu-
ments with graphs and prints. Rep
iresentative Connolly suggested that
Representative White should empha-
size the spelling "g-r-a-p-h-s" in or
der that 1t might not be mistaken
for "g-r-a-f-t-s." '.~
f! Representative Samuel E. Winslow
of Worcester, Mass. although a col-
onel, having been a member of Gov
Brackets staff in 1890, and although
a natural sportsman, confessed to
some Of his colleagues last week that
he has always been gun-shy.
The talk was of big-game hunt
| ing, and after some persifiage Repre-
| sentative W1nslow admitted that
about all Of the hunting he had ever
done was in the House Of Represent
atives, where some Of the game was
| not very big.
| Then he told an incident that hap.
peded when he was six years old.
He went with his parents to Truro,
on Cape Cod. There he fell in with
another boy about eighteen years old,
who had doubfe-barrel shotgun and
| was having a great ine shoot ing
sandpeeps. He asked yoaasg Sam If