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Show CONTROL AND POWER OF SPEAKER DISCUSSED Washington, Jan. 26 "Under tho control of the speakei of the house and the enormous power with which he is armed, can the individual mem-Ler mem-Ler properly discharge his duties to the nation?" This query was propounded pro-pounded today by Representative Victor Vic-tor Murdock, of Kansas, in a speech in the house. Mr. Murdock made four concrete propositions. In one he cited a sace in which he said, a secret service agent, uuder a congressional commission, commis-sion, had been paid over -?2S a day, which he said, was an outrageous sum, and the second, in which for 23 years the president of the Michigan Central railway had Tjcen paid $1,000 a year as a mall messenger to makeup pay for transportation of mails on railroads, rail-roads, which Mr. Murdock could not be done under the laws. As a third instance he charged that an excess of payment of $35,000 a year had been made to the Eads bridge at St. Loui3 for mall charges. The fourth was tho payment by the house f representatives itself of $500 a year for a trivial clerical duty. "And now," he said, "I challenge anv member of this body who is not ' a chairman of an appropriation committee com-mittee to secure a correction through congressional actions in these four items I have cited over the opposition ' of the speaker or without his consent or that of any of the chairmen." 1 |