Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 56, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 March 1918 — REFORM MOVE DEFEATED. [ARTICLE]

REFORM MOVE DEFEATED.

The utter uselessness of some of the House committees is notorious, and when the annual appropriation bill comes before the House containing items of salary for clerks, assistants clerks, and messengers for them an opportunity is afforded the Republicans to chastise the Democrats for their effrontery in giving themselves additional clerical assistance and patronage under the camouflage of providing clerks for committees that never meet. This year it was Representative Martin B. Madden of Illinois who led the attack o.n the pypocrisy of his Democratic colleagues. He cited the Committee on Industrial Arts and Expositions, which is given a clerk at $2,000 and a janitor at $750, and pointedly inquired how many expositions have been held in the last year or so. To test the spirit of the House Mr. Madden offered an amendment to strike out the salary of the clerk of one of the useless committees, but his proposition was beaten.