The writer sets forth the fact that,
in the first place, ninety per cent, of
the letters which a congressman re
ceives are requests for special favors
to be obtained in some way or other,
directly or indirectly, from the United
States treasury. For instance, while
the Payne-Aldrich tariff law was un
der discussion, this particular con
gressman received in May, 1909, the
following letter from the secretary of
a powerful commercial association in
his district:
"I have been instructed by the board
of directors of this association to ad
vise you that at special meeting May
20, a resolution, copy of vhich is in
closed, was unanimously adopted, urg
ing our representatives in congress to
use every endeavor to 'have the pres
ent tariff in (mentioning three of the
products of the industries referred to)
Increased one cent per pound and the
present tariff on (mentioning the oth
er two products) increased half a cent
per pound. I wish to further advise
you that we have heard from Senator
and he informs us that he
will take care of this matter in the
senate."
When the bill was finally passed,
the congressman succeeded in adding
half a cent a pound to the duty on
two of these products and in prevent
ing any reduction on the others. A
year later, when the popular clamor
against the bill had become acute,
the same association that had asked
him to vote for increases wrote to the
congressman denouncing the bill as
"the most iniquitous measure ever en
acted by congress" and requesting
him to explain by letter why he had
voted with "the Reactionaries" to pass
the bill. When it was pointed out to
the association that it had urged the
congressman to obtain an increase of
duty on the products in which it was
interested, it dropped its demand for
an explanation. An influential news
paper published in his district edi
torially commended him while the bill
was under debate for his "intelligent
efforts" to increase the duty on manu
factured articles in which the district
was interested, and a year later the
same newspaper in the same editorial
column denounced him as one of "the
legislative banditti responsible for the
Payne-Aldrich measure."
* * * * . *.
