Evening star., 1934-12-09
Capital Sidelights
BY WILL p. KENNEDY,

III
Unless some members of Congress
and their State authorities get a hustle
| on they will not be able to participate
in the election Of Speaker and other
organization activities and may be
late in getting on the pay roll. You
see, this is the first Congress to meet
promptly after election. Heretofore a
man elected to Congress has had
something like 13 months between
election and the date he took office to
get his credentials in and properly
| vised. This time there has been only
go days to elapse between election
date on November 6 and the opening
day Of Congress on January 4. So,
both Col Edwin A. Halsey, secretary
of the Senate. and South Trimble,
| clerk of the House, have sent out let
tiers to those reported to be elected
and to the Governors or other State
authorities warning them Of the
! urgency for prompt filing of creden-
| tials.
The Senate has always had the Gre
dentials of those elected formally pre-
sented and by a resolution adopted by
| the Senate on January 4 last pre-
scribes the form in which they are to
be sent In, signed by the Governor,
witnessed by the secretary Of State
and bearing the official seal Of the
| State.
The House, on the other hand, never
hears of the credentials Of member
unless the question Is raised In some
particular instance. In the House the
submission of the certificate Of cleo
| ton to the clerk of the House. signed
by the secretary Of each State, Is prima
facie evidence of election because the
secretary of the State is the offlcial
holder of the election records, and in
some cases also is chairman Of the
C2nvassing Board. The signature OF
the Governor is also added, frequently
but is not essential, although the
affixing of the State seal Is required.
These credentials are now coming
in for both the Senate and the House
One Senate credential already had to
be sent back for correction. Even with
13 months in which to file the Gre
dentials heretofore it sometimes hap
pened that q few would not come In
until the last day. This time there
has been q real rush because while
in some States the Canvassing Board
meets Immediately to certify election
of successful candidates, in other
States the board does not meet for 10
days and in others not for 80 days
after the election.
In the Senate there are men who
have the very unusual distinction o!
having as Governor signed their owr
credentials as Senator. The late Sen
ator John B. Kendrick of Wyoming
was in this group. Others are Sena-
tors Arthur Capper of Kansas, Hiram
w. johnson of California, Henry w
Keyes, New Hampshire: Huey P. Long
louisiana; Richard B. Russell, jr.
Georgia. Senator Keyes holds a dis
tinct position in this regard-he orig
inally signed his own certificate, and
in subsequent election it was signed
by the then Gov. Fred H. Brown, who
is now junior Senator from New
Hampshire. Senator William J. Bu-
low of South Dakota could have signed
his own, but either a sense of mod
esty or fear it might invalidate the
document caused him to leave the
space blank. The certificate fol
A. Harry Moore of New Jersey has
Just come in bearing his own sigma
ture as Governor. If the Congress
was not meeting so soon after election
Senator La Follette's certificate would
be signed by his brother.
For the House certificates each State
has its own form-some quite elabo-
rate. some very neat and formal, and
some decidedly meager as coming
from a great State for high Govern
ment Office. Massachusetts,, New Jer-
sey and Georgia are among the States
that send in attractive certificates
fitting the dignity of the ONCE. New
York and Alabama certificates are
cheaply printed forms on cheap paper
Georgia not even afaxing the State
seal. Sometimes a House member
sends in a certificate from a county
Judge or prothonotary, which, Of course
cannot be accepted. Some certificates
have had to be sent back for correc-
tion-for example, Indiana sent ir
some with the date wrong and Ar.
kansas sent in one for the Seventy.
fifth Congress. whereas the incoming
! CONGRESS is the Seveptv-fo,,rtb