Evening star., 1928-12-30
Capital Sidelights
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

While people of the country seem to
think that members of Congress have
been having an easy time during the
lay-off over the ChristmaS-New Year
holidays. they are really far from the
mark. The writer dropped into the Of
flee of Representative Treadway of
Massachusetts the other day and was
amazed to find him hard at work be-
hind a fortification of thick volumes
and stacks of pamphlets. Investigation
showed that these were the hearings
on the last tariff bill and that the
Congressman was giving special study
to the schedules covering cotton and
wooden textiles, silks, and paper, which
are produced largely in his district. He
also was fortified with scores of reports
from the Department of Commerce
showing the exports and imports and
production of the multifarious items
covered In the tariff BILL
Representative Treadwayw was refreshing
his memory about what was testified
in the hearings and getting his data up
to date on production, exports and i'm
ports, all preliminary to hearings on
the various schedules of the new tariff
bill, so as to be able to ask intelli-
gently and informatiyely while the
witnesses are before the Is subcom-
mittees which will conduct the hear
ings.
This gives some idea of the great
volume of detailed work that members
of the ways and means committee must
perform in connection with the whip
ping of tariff bill into shape for pres
entation to the House.
And this Is true not only of members
of the ways and means committee that
z.sQ IniI Drn nnft 1lVy
member of the House, especially those
from industrial districts. are engaged in
an intensive study of the schedules that
affect the industries in their home dis
tricts. For example, Mrs. Edith N.
Rogers did not go to her home in
Lowell. Mass. for the holidays, but
stayed in Washington, holding frequent
conferences with officials of the Depart
ment of Commerce regarding such
schedules as cotton and woolen fabrics,
boots and shoes and hides and feathers,
so as to be prepared to represent the
interests of her home industries at the
hearings which start Immediately after
the House reassembles.
So also, Representative Joe" Martin
of North Attleboro, Mass, was making a
jealous study Of the jewelry manufac-
turing business and its countless rami-
fications because he is going to take
charge of arguing for proper protection
of this industry at the hearings, this
schedule coming before a subcommittee
of which Representative Aldr1ch OF
Rhode Island is chairman.
Representative Andrews Of Gloucester,
Mass, formerly professor of economics
at Harvard, where he took Ph.D. de-
gree, is now making a post graduate re-
ca into tho Nrontirnl nNnnnnntNS nf
adjusting tariff rates to the industries of
his district, and he has sought the advice
of the leaders in organized labor and
of the shoe manufacturers and tan
nerieS of his home district.
Nice little care-free vacation, what?
X X X
Members of Congress are much in
terested in the way in which angry ma
ture mistreated the flag that few over
the House Office Building, where the
members have their Offices. When COM
plant was made during the heavy wind
and rain storm that there was no flag
flying over the building, Lieut.. H. P.
Warner of the Capitol police force went
to the roof of the building and brought
down the flag that had been whipped
to streamers by the wind. 1t was soak
ing wet. and the shreds had been so
tightly braided and knotted that they
cannot be loosened. 1t was practically a
new flag before the storm. Now the
braids and knots made by the wind are
being viewed daily by members OF Con-
greSS who are amazed that such work
could be done by the shifting wind.
u
House members are now getting the
corrected official election returns so as
to use the exact figures in their bio
graphical sketches in the new Con-
gressional Directory, just going to press.
In view of the fact that the first con-
gressional district of Massachusetts, is
widely scattered. comprising all of
Berkshire and parts of Franklin, Hamp-
den and Hampshire counties, and in
view of the fact that with the wide
range of local candidates it has been
difficult to make comparisons, Repre-
sentative Treadway had special anal
ysis made of the unprecedentedly large
vote cast in the recent election. This
shows that while Treadway received
1O,575 majority. Hoovers majority was
only 1,899 that of Allen for governor
was $3.50 and that of Walsh, Democrat,
for Senator was 1926.
Representative Treadway has just re-
ceived a beautifully embellished parch-
ment certificate addressing him as
"Illustrious Notable" and notifying him
that he has been elected an honorary
member of Almas Temple In Washing
ton. with the conclusion, May Allah
Bless Him.
= 4 ~
Proteges of Congressman who are
serving as pages or messenger boys in
either House or Senate are now enjoy
ing new privilege. A school for the
pages has been opened in the Capitol
Building through the initiative of Bert
w. Kennedy, veteran doorkeeper of the
House. who came to Washington as a
page more than 40 years ago
There are 80 pages in this school.
which is taught by professors from
the Dewitt Preparatory School, which
specialzes in training young men for
the Annapolis and West Point exami-
nations. Many of the pages in Con-
gress are promised appointments to
either the Military or Naval Academy
as soon as they are eligible and can
pass the stiff examinations. The school
for pages Is In session daily from Q to
ii 80, and the pages also get three
nights week in the Dewitt school be-
sides. They are paying SIS a month
from their salaries for this instruction
Members Of Congress are striving to
have the costs of this schooling paid
out of the contingent funds and thus
relieve the pages of this tuition fee.
The school occupies a historic room
on the terrace side of the Capitol,
which was for many years occupied by
the committee on merchant marine and
fisheries, with the famous Gen. Charles
II. Grosvenor of Ohio as chairman, and
In more recent wears presided over by
the late Uncle Billy" Green, formerly
an auctioneer of Fall River, Mass.
They Do A Fast Fade-out.
From the Haverhill Evening Gazette.