Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1903 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

No President calls Congress In extra sessioa if he thinks he craavpid it without detriment to the public service, yet nearly half of them—John AdgOac Jefferson, Madison, Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, Pierce, Lincoln* Mayes, Cleveland, McKinley and Etoouwrelt — have bees obliged to do this. Jefferson, Madison and Hayes had to do thia twice. The session called by President Roosevelt Is the fourteenth on the list The first five extra sessions (accept Jefferson’s in 1803, which the LotiMfifra purchase necessitated) grew out of the country’s relations with Earopeen powers) the fifth of them being bent during the war ot 1812. A financial convulsion, the panic of 1837 in Van Buren’s case, and that of 1893 in Cleveland’s, brought two Congresses together in called session. The exigencies of the CivU War incited the summoning of that of 1861, and the Cuban reciprocity question is responsible for that which has now assembled, while the general finance question in oue or other of its aspects brought all the rest of them. *h~l* Nearly one-third of the members of the House who answered the roll call at the opening of the extra session did oo for tho first time. The House consists of 386 members. There are 64 Democratic members of the House and 56 Republican members who have never before served in Congress. These new members are distributed among the several States as follows: D. R. D. R. Arkansas 3 0 Nebraska 1 4 California S 2 Nevada 1 0 Colorado 0 2 New Jerzey .... 2 2 Connecticut ... 0 1 New York 8 5 Delaware 1 ONorth Carolina.. 4 0 Florida 1 0 Ohio 2 4 Georgia ....... 1 OOregon 1 0 Idaho 0 1 Pennsylvania ... 4 8 Illinois 2 5 Rhode Island.... 4 0 Indiana 0 1 Tennessee 1 0 lowa 1 0 Texas 8 0 Kansas 0 1 Utah .0 1 Kentucky 4 0 Virginia 1 1 Louisiana 1 0 Washington .... 0 1 Massachusetts . 8 1 West Virginia... 0 1 Michigan 1 4 Wisconsin 1 2 Minnesota 0 S Oklahoma 0 1 Mississippi .... 4 0 Hawaii O A Missouri 8 0 Moutana * 0 1 Total 61 56 The present House has a greater number of members than any House of Representatives in the history of the United States. Tho first Congress had only 65 members, of whom 10 were from Virginia, 8 from Pennsylvania, 8 from Massachusetts and 6 from New York. After each decennial census the number of Representatives waa increased as follows: Members. Members. 17C0 105 1850 234 1800 141 1860 243 1810 181 1870 243 1820 213 1880 825 1830 240 1890 856 1840 223 1000 386 A hundred years ago each member represented an average of only 30,000 people; now the ratio is 194,000. How fast Uncle Sam has grown! Six Vice-Presidents of the United States have died in office. The first was George Clinton, who had the further distinction of having been the first Governor of New York and who rendered brilliant service in the war es the revolution. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was the second. The third death was that of Willi Am Rufus King of Alabama, United States Senator and minister to France. The fourth VicePresident to die in office was Henry Wilson, also a United States Senator. The fifth was Thomas* Andrews Hendricks and the sixth Garret A. Hobart. “Uncle Joe" Cannon woa the speakership of the House “hands down.” It is a somewhat remarkable fact that there has not been a real fight over the speakership in twelve years—-not since 1891, when Crisp of Georgia beat Mills of Texas. Two years before that there waa a lively contest between Reed and McKinley, and, luckily for the latter, tha Maine man won. His victory made McKinley chairman ot the waye aud means committee, author of the McKinley tariff law and President -; 2There is not a single ex-Speaker in the membership of the House. It is many years since thia has occurred. Of recent Speakers, Reed and Crisp are dead and Carlisle and Henderson are practicing law in New York. For a number ot yean there has been but one ex-Speaker present, Galusha Grow, the venerable Pennsylvania statesman, who was Speaker of the Thirty-seventh Congress. -3—5The Postofflce Department of the United States now pays out annually a total In excess of $138,000,000 and takes in receipts above $134,000,000. Such figyes era staggering almost beyond beAet, but they are official. This wonderful world goes spinning down the ringing grooves of change, and with its progress the activities and the developments in this repoblie become steadily more extensive and more important Theodore Rooeevelt is the first President of the United States for many years to write his own messages and epeeches. It is usually supposed that the words of a ruler are his own, and his acts* the acts of his ministers, but as a rule the speeches of Emperors, Kings and Presidents are composed by their ministers, or at least the material is furnished them. Representative Hitt of Illinois is tha oldest member of the House in point of continuous service, next to Representative Bingham of Pennsylvania. Committee work at this session should progress more rapidly than In recent years, not solely because Mr. Cannon, in accepting the speakership nomination, urged his colleagues to b« diligent In discharging their committee obligations, but rather because no intoxicating beverage# will be sold in the restaurant at tha House end of die capltoL Members who were wont to spend moet of their tiara while at the capitol in the Hesse restaurant, will now be forced to frequent their committee rooms, as only these will they he able to find the little hswws jsg.