Evening star., 1938-07-31
Capital Sidelights
By WILL p. KENNEDY.

Visitors to the Capitol while the House
is in session very much envy the big
good-looklng fellow who stands by the
Speakers desk and prompts him on de-
clsions. They consider he has an easy
job at good salary. That is Lewis
Deschler from Cholocathe, Ohio. par
liamentarian of the House. AS a mat
ter Of fact, no other employe of Con-
gress is working harder during this
period that Congress is not in session.
Deschler is big man, physically, men
tally and in disposition towards his fell
low man. He Is earning his way, ask
ing no favors and doing a good job for
Congress. He is. as matter Of fact,
writing legislative hiStory-exactly. au-
thoritatively. to be rule and standard
for future generations.
During these months while Congress
is not legislating, Deschler is doing
long days work studying and writing
the Record. He is preparing to carry
out the mandate of the House expressed
in a special resolution which requires
him to have ready for publication in
January revised edition of 1600 copies
of the Manual, Rules and Precedents
of the House.
Preliminary to drafting his copy for
this revised edition Deschler is working
10 to IA hours day on his scrapbooks,
which he has kept up for IA years.
These contain all the precedents for
the Record, with syllabus on each pre-
cedent. These scrapbooks contain much
interesting material-for example. one
of the syllabuses records that President
Roosevelt delivered his veto message to
Congress on the immediate payment Of
the soldiers bonus This was the first
instance in the history of the Govern
ment when the President delivered a
veto message in person and read 1t to
a joint session of the two houses-on
May 2, 1885.
So his job is not just to stand at the
Speakers desk and prompt him when
any question is raised on the floor, but
he is able to lay before the Speaker
the scrapbook with the decision con-
denSed in the introduction, but with the
entire essential debate included
When this work in compiling his
scrapbooks is completed. Deschler will
put all decisions of significance into the
Manual-the black, leather bound VOL
ume which is the bible for procedure
in the House. This will include a COM
plete annexation of significant Supreme
Court decisions on any section of the
Constitution.
The House Manual contains the Con-
stitution. the Jefferson Manual. the
rules adopted by the House. with an
annexation of all important Supreme
Court decisions and syllabi of the pre-
cedents established by the House under
the specific rule which governed the de-
cision. 1t will contain all rulings of
significance. which would be a guide
for legislation in years to come.
X X
One of the hard boiled members of
Congress has heart attuned to the
symphony of justice. He is veteran
college football star who is devotee
of fair play in politics and history as
we'll as on the athletic field. Few of
his colleagues appreciate how sincerely
he is devoted to this principle. He is
student of history and loses himself in
research to see that history is written
correctly. That is Representative Usher
L. Burdick of North Dakota. He has
Just completed extensive research to
prove that Andrew Jackson is not re-
sponsible for the spoils system in our
Government" He emphasizes that for
more than 100 years Jackson has been
thus misrepresented by partisan his
torians He referred to the historical
fact that more than 100 years ago
Senator John Holmes of Maine de-
nounced the spoils system, accusing
Jackson Of removing 1881 persons within
one year after taking Office. He quotes
Marquis James. whose recent biography
of Jackson won the Pulitzer Prize, as
showing that these charges were un-
founded. At that time, he says, there
were II 900 Government employees and
detailed breakdown shows that jackson
dismissed 919, of whom SAB were in the
General Post Office. He points out that
John Quincy Adams in the closing hours
of his term sent in 70 nominations,
40 of whom were conflremed after Jack
sons Inauguration.
Representative Burdick says, IF we
are looking for the fellows who visual
lied the spoils system we ought to
name William H. Crawford, who on
May Is, 1920, secured the enactment of
law making large numbers of the
officeholders removable at will by the
Executive, and Martin Van Buren, who
both before and after his rise to ma
tional power, especially during his presi
dency, greatly added to the patronage
evil" He stresses that Jackson not only
did not say, "To the victors belong the
spoils," but never subscribed to that doc
trine. Representative Burdick points
out that the patronage system began
with Washington and continued through
to Lincoln. including Jefferson and also
Harrison, Polk, Buchanan, Lincoln-and
the most notorious of all-Ulysses s.
Grant.