Show I i PILOTS r OF LEGISLATION I Apprentices Under Tuition of Veteran Joe CannonShips in Dangerous Channels Difficulty Often Encountered in Making Port When a New Man Is at the Wheel But the Apprentices Generally Have Steered a Safe Course During the Stormy Season in CongressThe Skillful Pilots in the Senate Always to be Relied On k Correspondence Tribune rCopyrlKht ISO by Amos J CummIngs Washington May 2Great are the I pilots oC legislation Without them theru would be many a disastrous Con cessional wreck The outside sea is f extremely rough thc surf unusually noisy and the undertow at times utter Irresistible The channels arp de a ly Ious and dangerous and like the liar bor itself arc well sown with submarine subma-rine mines and torpedoes Occasional a buoy gets loose and drifts out to sea making navigation in foul and foggy weather difficult and perilous Th polyconlc charti arc not always correct and at any time a ship is apt to scrape upon nn unknown reef The sanC r 5 chlft more or less every year and ne surveys arc made and new charts issued I sued with every chairge in administration administra-tion The shifting of the channels Is remarkable Where there were full twenty feet of water when Crisp was 4 Speaker there were not more than twelve Inches under the administration of Tom Heed There has been some I change but not so much in the lIen d rRon regime The pilots arc eternally eternal-ly taking new soundings under the supervision of the Speaker and his assistants as-sistants and carefully watch all shifting I r shift-ing ut the bars and all variations of the compass Aside from this there are currents and counter currents that would discount those of Charybdls and rocks moro dangerous than those of Scylla It requires an apprenticeship of a least six years with the aid of a Bow 4 ditch navigator to become a thorough pilot In this lime a bright political 4 F seaman ought to acquire an accurate knowledge of the art ot legislative navigation navi-gation Including the use of the sextant Old pilots take the sun with comparative compara-tive ease while the new ones frequently miss their reckoning and meet with disaster dis-aster The apprentices usually show great aptitude but there are sonic who are years In learning to box the compass com-pass The most of the apprentices today to-day are under the tuition of Joseph G Cannon a pilot of great skill and fins fin-s cIlY who received his primary odu ration from Samuel J Randall Randall Ran-dall was undoubtedly the greatest legislative leg-islative pilot that has nppcared ulneu the days of Jefferson FlrstHuss l pilots only arc detallrd to bring In ships of great draft The fresh graduates arc put in chargo of vessels of small tonnage ton-nage After getting their bearings they nail with great caution consulting the chart at every tack and heaving the lead every live minutes With all their sometimes into I care however they get I trouble The course lo tortuous and I when narrow channels are reached the I 1 ttirid frequently shifts On an ebb tide the dllllculty Js Increased The ship Is apt to miss her stays and drift ashore I lleic she must remain until high water Wore she again floats The old pilots watch her with sinister smiles and seem to take a malicious delight In her mishaps Occasionally they go to her relief and cases have been known where they have boarded her and robbed her of a portion of her cargo I This was the case two weeks ago whllo the naval appropriation bill was under the care of a new legislative pilot An Important part of her cargo fell a prey to the Committee on Appropriations a S The first pilot employed In the present pres-ent session of the House was Jesse Overirect of Indianapolis He Is serving serv-ing the fifth year of his apprenticeship lie brought the financial bill into port I In fine style She arrived at her dock without the loss of a spar or tire tearing tear-ing of a sail But it too Ie him seven days to do It although the channel had 1JNn ppiclaly buoyed by the Committee Commit-tee on JtukS The wind came up from every direction at times blowing steadily stead-ily and anon In flaws forcing tho pilot to slack his sheet rope The ship yawed at critical moments and occasionally her lee scuppers were under water but Overatrcet kept his eye on his Mercator chart holding the wheel with a firm hand aind proudly entered the bay under un-der full sail Jib and topsail set and wnt I his papers to thu customhouse The squalls were sharp but not of long t duration A description of a cat squall will bo found entertaining If not Interesting Gen QroHvenor was advocating the bill with his usual ability when John Ja rob Lcntz of Columbus asked him if lie did not run for Congress In IStit on a platform that favored an Increase of tho currency to 10 per capita as they had done In the State of Pennsylvania I should not be surprised Grosve nor responded You can always charge me with having been in accord with the Republican platform when I run for office I have never changed very suddenly sud-denly like my colleague In my views Whatever change I have made has been of a gradual character hI think tho gentleman is In the habit of changing so graciously that we do not see when he does it John Jacob replied My I colleague when ho does It does It lu such an awkward way that w u can all see It responded the General There was another little catsquall worth noting The lion William Duncan Dun-can Vandlvcr of Cape Glrardeau Mo I who has a neck like a horsehair and a I body like a matoh referred In his I wptcch to the distinguished veteran Hiatcvninu from Ohio To what gentleman from Ohio do you refer naked Roderick Dhu Suth rland of Nelson Neb Not being permitted under thc rules ffitjio House to call gentlemen by npTIe Mr Vnndlver answered I wll dRsTRnate him us the gentleman from Ohio who looks like Santa Claus and talk like Satan In referring to this characterization J not long afterward Gen Grosvenor Mid j never retaliate when anybody max s a personal assault upon my personal per-sonal appearance I know how rtlstln miihed and handsome I look but If I Were going to retaliate In kind I would ra > i I thank God when a man looks at me he Is not reminded of that familiar fa-miliar sign the skull and crossbones and death head on a poison Jar In nu apothfenry shop And I further rejoice re-joice that when he hear the sound of my voice he would not really think It such a voice an suggested to the poat hark from the tombs a doleful sound IIn earn attend thw cry For an apprentice however Mr OVenJlt t did remarkably well In hlg unit attempt at pilotage He would certainly cer-tainly be an acquisition to that happy S lamlly of pllotH known as the Commit I tN on Appropriations That veteran pilot the Hon Joseph G S Cannon usually takes charge of th OHlcIency bills whllo In th ban I twl l of legislation Adverse winds ncv < r hothr him jj xprrt nf ihe I helm 00 kno It > liii i attll LU i r nt TlQI inj < < rin r hlp roo rft ir B ork ru h Ill im I1h llv 1 < m I with marvelous rapidity Not so however how-ever with the sundry civil bill This measure has a greater draft than any other bill In the House and Is the most diltlcult to pilot In legislative waters Itn tonnage Is nearly as great as waS the tonnage of the Great Eastern Kvcry department of the Government Is represented In It and Its provision at I times fill ov r 100 pages It carries thousands of Items and the pilot In I charge Is supposed to be familiar with each one and able to stand a cross i examination from his 355 brother members mem-bers Cannon Is at his best when I handling this bill Pie shouts through his speaking trumpet hour after hour until ho becomes hohrs shIfting his II courso whenever necessary using topsails top-sails and spinnakers when there Is a JIght breeze and triple reefing or sall I Jng under a Jib when there Is a heavy I Wow Always a picturesque figure he Is never so picturesque as when driv Jns the sundry civil bill through the House He seasons his facts and figures fig-ures with trite metaphors and sparkling spark-ling similes and sprinkles them with I quaint sayings In answer to a question ques-tion concerning a treaty that failed to I pass the Senate in the late session he said Oh thats a at t year birds nest It never had an egg In it The House burst into a roar and the rush inquirer fell In his scat In no way does this ancient mariner show himself so completely the successor of Samuel J Randall as in piloting the sundry civil bill through legislative channels I I 1 9 i It is also a hard job to brine the District of Columbia appropriation bill I Into port without losing any of her cargo car-go The pilot to whom this task has fallen for several years is William W Grout of Barton Vt He graduated as I an apprentice nine years ago and Is i I classed among the able seamen In I falling wind he has warped the District Dis-trict appropriation lighter through many a narrow channel and over many a shoal Grout never uses a sextant but takes his bearings from the shore and usually sqiifezes into harbor without with-out attracting much attention This year however his lighter met adverse I winds A blast came from the South in tho shape of a speech on the Nicaragua Nicar-agua canal by William Charles Adamson Adam-son of farrollton Ga Ills progress vliS I further delayed by a speech from AYil Jlam Emi clhls How id of tho same State who enlightened the House as to our insular possessions Then W W I Ituckcr of Keytcsville Mo made a speech upon the election of Senators by the people and William Strother Cowherd Cow-herd of the same State entertained the House on the Philippine question iUr Grout after repeated backing and filling finally entered the channel of legislation on the second day John Allen Al-len an old skipper from Mississippi lent a hand at the wheel He dealt with a general demand for an Increase of salaries among tho Government employees em-ployees of the District I do not think he said that there Is an employee in the District of Columbia Col-umbia who could not give you all the statistics as to what every other employee em-ployee of like character In every other place In the world Is getting and that seems to bo a part of the civil service education here There Is no other city that 1 know of where rents are cheaper charities better dispensed more hospitals hos-pitals and tree hospitals free schoolbooks II school-books free libraries 1 free everything but food which you can buy as cheap here as you can anywhere else and then the other and greater educational advantages hero of corning Into the galleries gal-leries and looking down upon this body occasionally They have brought up a comparison he added between the salaries of the teacher of the Central high school in Washington and that of some other cities They have pointed where thuy get larger salaries but let them go to the town of Tupelo where civilization has reached Us highest development de-velopment and they will fiAd the principal prin-cipal of the high schoolthere who has helped to produce this great development I develop-ment at a salary of onethird less than I Is now given to the common teacher in tho city of Washington There are a great many of you here continued Mr Allen who are practically worth nothing noth-ing and some few of us who would be cheap ai 0000 a year The law makes 110 discrimination between us those t of us who are worth big salaries have to servo right along beside you people who are worth nothing therefore while I receive the same salary as cettaln gen tlegcn I know in this House I am willing will-ing to see a discrimination made between be-tween the teachers In the District and usThe The old Mississippi skipper wound up with a story as usual it was concerning concern-ing one Ike Thompson and his ward Tho chancellor sent for Ike He had been summoned several times and had not appeared The chancellor had him arrested for not reporting about the condition of his ward Finally he said On account of my said ward I have not received a cent on account of my ward I have not paid out a cent and if this court thinks it can take an orphan child with nothing and do better than 1 am doing I am willing for It to do so This reference to the District of Columbia Co-lumbia as a ward of the Nation brought down tho House Grout Immediately crowded on all sail and reached dock before nightfall a am Apprentice Samuel S Barney of West Bend Wis tried his hand as a pilot for tho first time in the present session He took the wheel on the pension appropriation appro-priation bill It carried S1H215230 The wind was fair and only one cat squall was developed George W Ray of Norwich Nor-wich N Y had a lively time with Prof Talbert of Parksvllle Talbert declared that thcro had been pensioned a vim tographer wno mba never snouldoml a gun and wan shot In the back as he was running away from the raitl > of Gettysburg Gettys-burg with his pictures and his camera Ray replied that the bill was reported adversely by the committee In the Fiftyfifth Congress and all bills of alike a-like character met the same fate while he wus Ihalrman of the Committee on Invalid Pensions Yes replied Tal I bert I want to say that the gentleman I frequently did right I A dozen members took occasion to deliver I de-liver campaign speeches on pensions for home consumption but aside from this the bill wa no longer delayed The ship entered harbor four hours after Barney took charge of It The greatest record on the pilotage of the pension appropriation bill was made by Martin Ambrose Foran of Cleveland I 0 In the Fiftieth Congress He ran the craft from the open sea Into liar I bor inexactly three minute The bill I carried an appropriation of nearly 503 J I 000000 I a I I There am many more skillful pilots In legislation I Jame S Sherman always al-ways bring the Indian appropriation bill through without loss James W ANadsworth don the same with the agricultural ag-ricultural bill Pilot John A T Hull of Iowa did fairly well by the army bill But the navy bill while hor crew wore In mutiny cot Vnught In a Y ph < u 11 In11 bM h r ii Ihlon out of I th ring b ills 1 Th gr ist pilots arc tlit who ar regularly sent back to Congress by their constituents Before the Civil war South Carolina furnished a corps of pilots unoqualcd In their time During Dur-ing tho war Massachusetts took the lead In pilotage matters After the war Maine came to the front and this year the honors seem to be divided between Illinois and Iowa a a a The Senate liars three pilots par excellence ex-cellence In William B Allison Eugene I Hale and Nelson W Aldrich Each Is I worthy of the presidency of a maritime legislative college They can handle a v ssel of any size in a typhoon or I in the doldrums with their eyes shut The Senate however lost its greatest legislative pilot when Arthur P Gorman Gor-man became a landsman Many and many a year will pass before his defeat de-feat of the force bill is forgotten AMOS J CUMMINGS |