Abstract

Washington Needs More Silver Lining

The degradation of the House of Representatives is almost complete. It has suffered a steady loss of independence and dignity, until, through recent developments, those attributes have virtually disappeared. Its present condition is comparable to that of the Russian Durna under the Czars, and no man of spirit and self-respect can afford to be a member of it much longer. Observe the facts, melancholy as they are. The House has just passed a tariff bill which will add approximately $600,000,000 a year to the living costs of the constituents whom these pseudo-Representatives are presumed to represent. Ninety-five per cent of them had no more to do with writing it than a man in the Gobi Desert. It was written by fifteen men, sitting behind closed doors, with the advice and consent of a staff of lobbyists.