The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1938-05-05
SENATE means.
over 'PAUPERS.
PAY OF $4,000.
How They Live on It
Nobody Knows
BY THEODORE HUNTLEY

No, sir; you're not going to gel
Senators Of the United States tc
violate the law-not even if they
have to accept unused mileage al
1oWance to- avoid it.
And as tor the $4,000 salaries
Of members of Congress, plus per
quisites, allowances. mileage, sta
tionery and free shaves, why, as
Chairman Pittman Of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee put
it.
OH, THE PITY OF IT!
II know that the $4,000 sal.
airy We are getting does not sup
port Senators halfway decently,
if they do their ordinary duty in
travelling about their States and
going where they belong.
"God knows how a man with
Q large family can live on $10,-
900 a year. I do not know.
do not have to struggle with
that problem, for I have not a
large family.
For months and months, and
years and years, l have listened
to and read the ScurrilouS at
tackS by the editors Of the coun-
try and others on our receiving
so much mileage. never near
a word said about any of the
Cabinet members. I never hear
a word said about any of the
little bureaucrats. We furnish
the heads of departments not
only mileage, but also with sub
SiStence. We even furnish them
with secretaries to go with them.
THOSE MISERABLE BUREAUS!
eve are talking about econ
omy, and yet if we worked for
81 a year apiece, and walked
home, we should save only an
insignificant sum In comparison
with what we dish out, without
consideration, for every miser-
able little bureau in our Gov
eminent.
II think it is time to assert
ourselves, in self-reSpect. Either
we should do that, or we should
reduce our salaries and agree to
work at relief wages"
Why, said the Senator, when he
goes to Nevada he has to travel
300 miles this way, 200 miles that
way, 900 miles some other way,
every time the governor or a
group Of farmers ask him to do
at his own expense, too.
SUCH A HARD LIFE!
These are not the horse-and-
buggy days, Senator Pittman said.
Times have changed. There is
maladministration and lack of
proper administration in 100
projects in every State in the
Union" He cannot just sit in his
little house when he goes home to
Nevada. He has to get around.
All too true, agreed Majority
Leader Alben B. Barley, who told
how he had actually Travelled 600
miles with the chief Of engineers
Of the United States Army, from
Catlettsburg, KY, to Cairo, ILL.,, to
inspect the damage done in the
great Ohio Valley flood.
That is only a sample of the
extra work, of the extra travel,
that the members Of the Senate
and Of the House engage in,"
he said.
BASE INSULATION
This ought to at least relieve
them Of the insinuation, so often
carried in the press and in the
minds Of some people, that be-
cause I draw 1855 a year as mile
age I am guilty Of some great
evil, some act Of graft or dis
honesty, when as q matter Of fact
spent more than that in one
trip conducted in my official
capacity as Senator OF the United
States"
Senator John H. Bankhead of
Alabama pulled out the tremolo
stops to tell a similarly sad story.
And so, in spite of a heroic
attempt by Senator william e.
Borah Of Idaho to persuade the
Senate to give up the mileage for!
the extra session of last fall, which,
except for the Christmas holidays;
ran headlong into the regular seSE.
sion in January, the Senators de-
Cided they could not possibly re-
fuse that which the law gave
them, and voted to accept $51 600
In mileage at 20 cents a mile
though some of them never went
home to sit in the little house or
inspect public projects.
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