OCR Text |
Show MEN AND AfFSK AT WASHINGTON By R. T. S. 4 (Copyright, 1922 by The Standard-Examiner) Standard-Examiner) 1 WASHINGTON. July 1. The defeat of Senator McCnm'oor in th-: Norih Dakota primaries brings about the un- usual situation of both authors of a' new tariff bill retiring from public life within a few monthes after their Joint work shall have been written finally fi-nally upon tho statute books. There has been no parallel to this state of affairs in recent years. Uncle Joe Fordney of Michigan had announced that he would retire from congress prior to the McCumber collapse in North Dakota. Uncle Joe, long famed as high priest of protection, attained his life's ambition am-bition when he wrote the new tariff bill as it passed the house, and he! hn u-nlchcH vtlfh inrcnulncF, u.,ikfn. l tion the many higher duties being amended Into the bill in the senate Uncle Joe thought he was doing fairly well in "raising the rates." but tho consecutive and. deliberative senate is showing the- Impetuous house something some-thing new in the uplift of tariff sched- V ules Having attached his name to1 a tariff bill, Uncle Joe is ready to lay down the uneasy robes of congressional congression-al office and give the younger fellows fel-lows a chance. Mr. McCumber also attained a Ufel ambition when he became head of1 the powerful finance committee, fol-' fol-' viug th. death of Senator Penrose 1 and although hU tenure of office has been all loo brief from his point of1 view, nevertheless he. like Uncle Jo ' has atviched his name for all time to a tariff bill, and although he passes involuntarily from political viow hisi handiwork on the tariff will be a'sub- Joel oi political and economic discus-' sion for years to come. larirf lulls are notoriously unkind to parties If not always to authors, Mr McKlnley rose from the authorship author-ship of a tariff bill to the presidency. Representative Serono Payne and Senator Sen-ator Aldrlch, co-authors of the famous bill of 1909, remained In congrc-s until un-til their deaths, but a great many of their colleagues went out as a result lof the bill Senator Underwood, au- Jthor of the first Democratic tariff since the days of Cleveland, still re-mains re-mains an honored member of the up- per branch of congress. .Never before ha.s there been such a speedy exit of -arlTf makers as in the case of Messrs. Fordney and McCumber. McCum-ber. And never before- has so much t:m heen, consumed on a tariff meas- I ure There do lu those who are willing will-ing to predict that the authors of the bill may be. out of congres before It is actually translated into law. But they appear to be entirely too pessimistic- The optimistic think it will bo all over In thre-i or four months. There was more than one surprise tor Washington in that North Dakota Dako-ta vote, one of the biggest was the discovery of Orsby Mcllarg 4n the race. He wasn't very much In th.-race, th.-race, it is true. As a matter of fact, his namo was carried in the flrat few bulletins giving the result of tho tally? Qrmsby was stationary at about 431 votes when his name was dropped unceremoniously un-ceremoniously from the press reports It may prove, however, that he polled sufficient votes to make the defeat of Senator McCumber certain, and that it seems, was his object Ormsby la very well known here In Washington. In truth he is very well known almost anywhere in the United States A rather striking figure, tall slonder. white-haired, big. horn-rlm-Bied or rubber tired spectacles, and a carriul dresser, he ha.s attracted attention at-tention on Fifth avenue, on Pennsyl-tention Pennsyl-tention on Fifth avenue. Pennsylvania avenue, Boulevard Michigan, on Market Mar-ket street, San Francisco, and on the beach at Waikikl. To tho casual observer ob-server there is f,u(ie u striking resemblance resem-blance between Orrnsby and Colonel George Harvey. This twain are alike in other respects, too. In politics they are a pair of stormy petrels. They love a political tempest better than life itself. MeHarg was assistant to the attorney attor-ney genral under President Roosevelt's Roose-velt's administration, and when Mr. Taft took office, he appointed Ormsby as assistant secretary of commerce, and labor, the two departments now separate, being then combined. Mc-Harg Mc-Harg did not remain long under Mr. Taft. Ho was a restless, ono might almost say a resistless progressive and he left the public 111V to go to New-York New-York to practice law. The Republican convention of 19K1 found him fighting tooth and nail fo Colonel Roosevelt for the nomination. He pitted hlin-Sell hlin-Sell aRalnst Frank Hitchcock In the contested southern delegate cases at ihut time aud tho ateain roller Q&t' : tened him Into a fare you well. Eight years of Democracy found Ormsby somewhat quiescent politically, but 1 during that time he drifted back to North. Dakota which he hud known In his youth and now he Is flgtlng in the turbulent political waters of that radical rad-ical state. It's hard. In other words, to keep a squirrel on the ground. Speaking of congress, attempts are being made to stir up a new crusade against those coneri-ssnii .1 and senators sen-ators who put relatives on the govern-j rnent payrolls as secretaries, clerks,; charwomen, etc. They ar- belng charged with nepotism and various other sorts of high crimes and misdemeanors. misde-meanors. It may he perfectly true that some congressmen put on the payrolls rel-, atives and others who do little or no, work for their semi-monthly payj checks. But on the other hand, there1 are a lot of hard working congress-' no-n and hard working members of th Ir families who could not live on a congressman'! pay without this additional addi-tional financial lu-ip. Washington knows the dilemma of I the congressman To the earnest man, congress Is no longer a sinecure The sessions once short and snappy, aro: nowadays interminable. The- time! .'ins not so far away when Champ: Clark's prediction of a continuous congress con-gress may bo an actuality. It was not so difficult in previous years fu- a congressman to maintain hi house ii homo and an apartment In Washington Washing-ton for t h- few mi 'lit Iks u . :,, ! , . ion. But now It Is necessary for the member mem-ber to rent a house or apartment In tho capital by the year In other words, on $7,600 a year, the married men are expected to keep up two establishments es-tablishments virtually all the year! round. With the bachelors, the problem prob-lem It not so difficult. They are mostly at home wherever thev hang their hats. All of which shows that tho bachelors have something else in their favor In their political fights With tho married cult. Mrs. Peter Qleson, Democratic nominee nom-inee for the senate' In Minnesota, has !- tatcj op, nl thai to- will hrlng M r Oleson to Washington as her secre-tarj secre-tarj if she is elected. She says It that be nepotism, her opponents can make the most of it, oo |