Evening star., 1937-03-07
Capital Sidelights
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

Fifty-six years is a pretty fair-Sized
lifetime-and there are three men daily
at work around the Capitol. still active
and affable. who have served that many
years: William Andrew Smith. clerk in
charge of the Congressional Record at
the Capitol, who has his Office in a cor
ner of Statuary Hall; William Tyler
Page former clerk of the House. author
of The Americans Greed, secretary to
the George Washington Bicentennial
Commission. now pinch hitting as read
ing clerk in the House, and Samuel
Robinson, Congressional Record mes
Senger whose Office is under his hat
The last is little known to the pub
lie he serves, although for half a CEN
tury he was a well-known figure riding
his bicycle all over town at all hours of
the night. His job Is to take the tran
script of speeches made in the House
and deliver them to House members in
their offices or homes for correction and
get them back to the Government
Printing ONCE in time to appear in the
Congressional Record-the daily pub
Hcation Of the proceedings Of Congress.
He is now II years of age. and no longer
rides his bicycle. That part Of the work
has been taken over by an assistant,
Preston George, who uses an automobile.
But old Sam still serves his beat in the
Capitol and the two House Office Build
ings. He was born in Washington in
1860.
There is one member of Congress who
has just set himself up as book sales
man. He is working for the largest
mail order house in the world for the
books produced by one publisher. He
is working to sell just one particular
book. The publisher is Uncle Sam, the
mail order house is the Superintendent
of Documents, Government Printing
Office. The salesman is Representative
Maury Maverick Of Texas. The book is
The Future Of the Great Plains" The
price is 40 cents. Maverick says:
THE Future of the Great Plains is
one more example Of the growing i'm
portance of Government publications.
inexpensive. well printed, written in
readable English. such books are as nee
essary to the city and country families
Of today as were McGuffey's Readers in
the old days"
1t contains many pictures telling even
more graphically than words the story
of the plains from their earliest days OF
buffalo, Indians and lush grass. down
through the boom days of cattle and
wheat, and forward to the present day.
when the signposts of conservation are
beginning to mark the road away from
potential ruin to a new era of stabilized
agriculture.
Representative Maverick emphasizes
that it lis a remarkable and readable
story Of huge area, including parts of
10 or II States, which compose the
Great Plains. which are pretty well gone
with the wind He also points out that
it records the great service of barbed
wire to that area. quoting: Settlement
followed the lines of the transcontinental
railroads, as in earlier times it had fol-
lowed navigable rivers. It was facili-
tated by the introduction of barbed
wire, which made it possible to fence
ranches at comparatively small cost"
4 X
Here's a Yale Phi Beta Kappa man,
of pioneer American stock, born in Kan
sas, who worked as cowboy in Wyoming.
handled freight on the railroads, worked
in an automobile assembling plant was
headmaSter of school which bears his
name for underprivileged children, lay
reader in the Episcopal Church and has
now come to Congress-meet Represent
ative Jerry Voorhis, Democart, of Cali
fornia.
After graduating from Yale he made
good will tour Of Germany for the Y.
M. c. A. He is a member of the Amer
ican Federation of Teachers, councillor
of the Phi Beta Kappa Alumni Associa-
ton, and director in the National Youth
Administration His hobbies are boys,
base ball and American history.
Senator Henry F.. Ashurst Of Arizona
is much in the public eye these days.
but few know that he was elected United
States Senator by the unanimous vote
of the first Legislature of the State of
Arizona. He was born in Nevada and
went to college in Michigan.
Some men have found gymnastics
have helped to qualify them for a job
in Congress. Former Representative
Frederick r. Lehlbach, Republican, Of
New Jersey, was champion gymnast at
Yale. In the present House Represent
ative william S. Jacobsen, Democrat, of
Iowa attended the Normal School Of
American GymnaSic Union at Indian
apolis and later was physical director Of
$t,o T,,roorc Cociotv opd tho " M = A