Show ILA WYERS MAKE LAWS I in Senate and HoUscGuardians of I Dominate All Committees Vested Rights TwoThirds of the Membersof r Congress Are of the Legal ProfessionBoys Who Are Ambit us for Political Honors Justified in Going to Law SchoolRepresentative Cummingss Chat I n Correspondence Tribune orrcspndcnco Washington March 27So vivid is this reminiscence of years ago that items seems to have occurred only yesterday S tems in the short session of the It happened 11 hOt Fiftieth Congress J Griffin eras e-ras Speaker ot the House MaJ William lam McKlnley and n Democratic col eaguc from New York city were on Pennsylvania avenue talking toward PcnnsyJania nCnuc doubleseated the Capitol Suddenly 1 dogcart with Immense red wheels rolled to the curb Its occupant hailed the pedestrians llo was Leopold I Morse a wellknown Democratic Rep esentatlvo from Boston At Ills side tow red a herculcaii negro wearing n white overcoat with silver buttons and a high hat decorated With a new cockade Morse Insisted that his colleagues col-leagues should enter the vehicle and ride to the Capitol with him After some hesitation the Major placed his foot on the red hub and climbed over the big a red wheel followed by his biG Democratic friend It was painfully evident that neither was accustomed u to swell turnouts As they approached ft f the Peace monument the conversation turned on the composition or CoilEveis Ou entering the archway at the southern i south-ern wing of the Capitol Morse had the r t Boor Yes you arc right said lie 101 her are too many lawyers In Con I grtss I It was composed of businessmen business-men Instead of lawyers its sessions would be much shorter and millions of money would be saved As Maj Mc Klilley was about to respond the negro t reined In the team and the three Con l re fsmcu alighted and entered the House r Morse died years ago in Boston but 1 ho could have lived until today he would have repeated his words with double emphasis Congress Is dominated domi-nated by lawyers They Infest the Capitol today as the money changers I infested Solomons temple They revel 1n the long gross ot legislation like wild horses on the pampas Lawyers coil trol the executive judicial and legls allvo branches of the Government The President studied low In his youth and live of the eight members of his Cabinet are lawyers Of the eighty eight United States Senators sixty are awyers One might fancy that if the Senators were elected by the people the number would diminish but this Is i evidently a false premise The figures contradict it Of the 35G members the House of Representatives all of I whom are elected the people 227 are men who have been admitted them I the-m With all these lawyers In both branches in Congress not one seems able to draw up a law that will preserve pre-serve the people from the rapacity of the trusts or save personal rights from absorption by alleged vested rights I seems impossible for them to formulate statutes against greed that will hold water yet they are never at a loss In devising schemes to protect monopolies and to twist he simplest legislative grants Into vested rights S II C Yes the lawyers are here In a solid drove controlling legislation Nine tenths of the committals In both ring oC the Capitol are In the talons otfgen tlemen of the legal profession Of the thirteen members of the Senate Committee Com-mittee on Appropriations nine are lawyer law-yer In the House they are even more absprbant Of the seventeen numbers on Appropriations thirteen arc law graduates The chairmen of both committees are adepts in legal lore The President pro temo the Senate a lawyer and so Is the Speaker Speak-er of the House More significant still Is the fact that the Committee r Rules the controlling and impelling force in legislation In the House Is composed entirely of lawyers They even hold their own In the Committee on Agriculture but wonderful to relate re-late are completely swamped in the Committee on Alcoholic Liquor Traffic Traf-fic Out of eleven members only three are lawyers However It is pleasant to see that they ire Jn the majority In the Committee on Ventilation and Acoustics Every true member of the legal fraternity rejoices at an opportunity oppor-tunity to ventilate his Ideas and IK always al-ways eager to be heard Nine out of seventeen of the members of the Committee Com-mittee on Banking and Currency are members of the bar In the Judiciary committee they swarm like bees the entire seventeen being expounder of Blackstone In the Senate the same committee Is solidly In the hands of tho disciples of Grotlus All these gentry understand their business thoroughly Not n session passes without the crea tion of new circuit courts with new Judges and a perfect raft of court attendants at-tendants Such bills slip through usually without the aid of the Commit tee on Rules Yet for fourteen years have the letter carriers of the great cities sought in vain to raise the limit of their pay to 1200 a year according to term of service Tic lawyers and way the Committee on Rules stand fn the II a S S I All the committees In the Senate but ten are in the suzerainty of the bar association Learned pundits manlpu late fiftyfour out of the sixtyfour I seems surprising that the District committee com-mittee should have eRcaped them but FO it Is I Its chairman is a Wolverine financier who succeeded Each Chand ler as chairman of tho Republican State committee of Michigan His associates sociates are t Granite State physician a Devils Lake editor from North Da kota the editor of the Roan Mountain Republican of the old North State a lumberman of the Chinook State a Maryland banker > an Idaho cattleman cnleman a Montana copper king and five lawyers law-yers Here It will be seen that the business I men outnumber the lawycrs cignt to live J the District committee comnlce Is a Congressional El DOIado as has boon frequently asserted the composi tion of this committee would seem to In ll ate that the business men in the Senate are smarter tlian the lawyers This being HO the lawyers In the House appear to be more shrewd than those In the Senate They completely control l the District committee In that body I stands eleven lawyers to six busi ness men And all the business men are rich while ten of the eleven law yers are ftald to be comparatively poor In View of the memorial bridge the boulevard project and other designs Involving altogether an eipeiidlture of SIO 000000 for the Improvement cf Washington the lawyers In the House apparently ought to be congratulated on their superiority to those In the Senate But the business men In tin Senate did not rest with their victory In tho District committee They as sumed control of the Committee 1 on Corporations Organized In the District I Is I composed of the Maryland banker the Wolverine financier 1 manufactur er from the providence plantations and two Jurists plantatons The Commlttoo on Mines and Mining Is also well worth analysis There are nine membersa glass manufacturer from West Vir ginia n honker from Ohio 0 mine owner from Utah an honest farmer rarn1r from South Carolina the Idaho cattle man the Montana king catte Monlann copper Idnt 0 busi ness man from Idaho and two law yers In the House commlttno the law yers were also forced to take a scat way bock The committee stands nine business men and flvo lawyers Among the former are a Minnesota farmer a Pennsylvania coal operator a Michigan merchant a Pennsylvania miller a Kansas editor an Idaho hustler and a Montana farmer o S CAll C-All revenue bills originate In the House under tho Constitution The untcr House refers such matters to the Committee Com-mittee on Ways and Means which grinds out all tariff bills and Internal revenue legislation and Is considered the lending committee In the House Of course this committee falls into the grasp of the lawyers Today it Is com and four bus pose of thirteen lawyers iness men Its chairman has had thir tysix years experience at the bar Among his lieutenants are such experienced expe-rienced counselors ns John DalKcll Albert Al-bert J Hopkins Charles 1L Grosvenor James A Tawney Samuel W McCall Chester I Long and Victor H Mctoalf of California These attorneys fell out with each other In the consideration of tho Cuban tariff matter The split extended ex-tended itself to the lawyers of the Republican Re-publican caucus und it began to look as though honest mon might possibly get their dues when the lawyers of tho Senate made a coup detaU They decided that the Senate lau soie control I con-trol ot reciprocity treaties and was empowered under them to Increase or reduce tariff schedules affecting countries coun-tries that entered into such negotiations negotia-tions I looks as though there would sp ibc plenty of employment for tlC lawyers In both Senate and theHousa Tho C fore bill Is again foreshadowed by tho determination pass the Crum packer act and make an Investigation into the workings of the new constitutions constitu-tions In the Southern States No better bet-ter opportunity for special pleaders could have ben offered Aside from I this the Frye Shipping bill appears to be piloted by old nnd experienced publicists pub-licists I has passed the Senate but lcit It will evidently be held up In the House until the short session I was shrewd play Under the manipulation of the Committee on Rules Its consld erajlon can be forced on the House at any time and It can be drawn t a vote without any opportunity for amendment This makes It choice material ma-terial for the short session The Senate Sen-ate bill may then be crowded through thus It from In Its entirety preserving a conference and giving the Senators no opportunity to revise their work or talk It to death so By deferring the matter until the next sesslbn members seeking reelection reelec-tion avoid many unpleasant questions ton embarrassments 7RIght here It Is well to remember that the lawyers have the whip hand in the House Committee Com-mittee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries Fishe-ries and this Is the committee to which the Frye bill has beei referred Eleven out of the seventeen members are attorneys at-torneys and five of them arc against the bill Again It is worthy of remark re-mark that the Committee on Labor Is t one of t few committees in the House not controlled by these professional gentlemen Out of the thirteen members mem-bers only three are lawyers The Committee Com-mittee on Rivers and Harbors the great pork dlstrlbuers of he Iol e ale all lanerswith one ecetqii n 1 yyeIWIt1 was warden ot the A1abamc nlt nth wa n-th when cl I te to Congress As usual In such cases the lawyers distributed dis-tributed most of the pork among themselves them-selves There are rumors that the Senate Sen-ate may trim or kill the bill but when you look at the committee to which It will be referred after passing the wi be convinced House you wlK probably that It will be more apt to Increase the amount than lessen It The preponderance preponder-ance of advocates of tho law almost assures as-sures it I was only by a fluke that the bill was defeated in the Senate last year e A disappointed attorney from Montana got the floor In the last hours ot the session and talked It to death S S Another straw afloat In the current of st1ow afoat legislation is the composition of tho Committee on Claims In the Senate the only member not n law graduate of Is Its chairman Francis E Warren Wyoming In the House all are law yeis with the exception of Frederick Storm ot New York and Peter J Otey of Virginia Ot the seventeen member of the Committee on Insular Affairs in the House fifteen are attorneys and there ate thirteen on Interstate and Foreign Commerce Elevea of the thir ForeIg teen members of the Senate Committee on tho Philippines are members of the bar and eight of the eleven on Pacific Islands elght Porto Rico And 5 on through nearly the entire list of committees com-mittees in both Houses I Is enough to say that the lawyers have a two thirds majority in both branches of Congress They are selected by the people for the representative body and they are chosen by the legislatures to represent the States In the Snate Leo pold Morse preferred business men to lawyers In framing the legislation of the country But business men are apparently ap-parently too busy to range the field of seek controversies politics Lawyers controersla and revsl In argument Their profession profes-sion makes them prominent and keeps them before the people Talking is their sheet anchor and a fair talk r always commands public attention Some lawyers law-yers seek a seat In Congress because II gives them eclat and increases the value of their professional services Twelve years ago n New York district was represented by a member of the bar who spent two days a wcelc in the House and tho remainder of his time in New York attending to his professional profes-sional duties Each week he made n spccdh on the floor of the House and worked a mention of the fact Into tho newspapers His constituents undoubtedly undoubt-edly thought him unusually diligent In their service Meantime his law practice prac-tice increased and today he Lq at the head of one of the leading financial institutions in-stitutions of the city His work was outstripped by that of a Representative from Albany nearly twenty years agq He ran n law olllce but had Interest enough In Congress to run down to Washington and get sworn In He returned re-turned to his office that same day and never reappeared In the Capitol Lawyers Law-yers who live at a greater distance from Washington however usually find that a close attention to their Congressional duties injures If not destroys the practice prac-tice When falling oVa reelection they are compelled to take up their business anew Their old clients are scattered and nothing appears to ho left of the old office but the shingle at the door A few return to Washington open offices and start In on new ground Judge Payson of Illinois E V Brook shlro of Indiana G 0 Hazlcton of Wisconsin Wis-consin Charles H Turner of New York H C Worthington of Nevada John J Hcmphlll of South Carolina and Hilary A Herbert of Alabama are prominent In that colony of transplanted lawyers The oldest lawyers In the Senate come from Alabama They arc Edmund W Pettus of Solma and John T Morgan of tho same city Morgan woa born In 1821 and Pettus In 1822 PCttUH Morgan was admitted 39 mitted to the bar In 1845 and Pettus In 1512 Both were probably practicing law when the celebrated slander case of Hlgglnbotham vs SwInk was tried In the Alabama courts A full report of the trial written by Joseph G Baldwin will bp found In that lldwln com COl pilation of causes cclcbrcn entitled Flush Times of Alabama These two men have stood at the head of their profession for over half a century and for today their names are synonyms ability and Integrity In the legal pro fcsslon nml They wore practicing law In feSlon 010 ThcY the courts oC Alabama before nlno tenths of the members pf the Senate x and House were bOrn Indeed they may be termVd the pillars of the United States Senate In Industry and quickness of perception These facts concerning irrwyers In legislation I may > tambltiju3 youths 8ekiug tame and fortune As long us lawyers maintain main-tain the ratio of twothirds fn the Amer1 Icun > Congresn aspiring youths will be Justified in attending law schools for It Is Qvldbnt that tlift bpy who becomes a lawyer has a better opportunity of attaining at-taining fame than the youth who apprentices ap-prentices himself to a shoemaker Still there have been cobblers In the United States Senate One became Vice President Pres-ident and another Is said to have made shoes for 1 the descendantsof l Pocahontas Pocahon-tas AMOS J CUMMINGS Cop rl lOOSyby Amos J ummlngs |