Iowa County Democrat

THE CONGRESSMEN.
Who and What They Are as Shown by the New Congressional Directory.
Washington Telegram.

The new Congressional Directory is an interesting study. Of the 400 members of the new Congress, counting the House and Senate, nearly 200 are new men. Naturally there is a curiosity to see what they have to say of themselves. The compiler of the directory sends out notices to the members of each new Congress asking them to send him sketches of their lives, their age, business, the offices they have held, etc. These autobiographies, analyzed, compared with each other, and the statements which they furnish aggregated, furnish some interesting data.

Perhaps the feature most likely to strike the average observer in looking over the long list is the very large proportion of lawyers. Of the 401 members of the House and Senate 260 are lawyers. Perhaps it is quite proper that the lawmakers of the Nation should be students of the law. That is the general impression, and probably the correct one. Next to the law the manufacturers seem to be the most available Congressional material. There are about 40 manufacturers in Congress. Some make pottery, some iron, and some wood-pulp; journalism comes next in popularity, though the journalists in both branches of Congress only reaches about a baker's dozen, or three per cent. of the whole. There are half a dozen farmers, a couple of doctors, three or four railroad men and one druggist. There are no preachers in this Congress, though the preacher element of last Congress seemed to size up about as well as the average.

In the South the lawyers seem to be more popular as law makers than in the North, if possible, scarcely any members from that section representing any other calling. It is rather curious, and a fact not especially pleasing to record, that but one-third of the members enjoy that requisite for accomplished law makers, a collegiate education. Out of the 401 members less than 150 are graduates of any college. A larger proportion of the Southern members are graduates than of the Northern men. Of the Southern members nearly 40 per cent. are graduates, while in the North, as an aggregate, the proportion is little over 30 per cent. Even boasted New England only sends 60 per cent. of graduates, and Massachusetts but 58 per cent., while New York has 40 per cent. In the Senate a little over 40 per cent. are graduates.

While there are nearly 200 new members, the aggregated legislative experience of even this Congress is something quite wonderful—when taken in such form. There are many members who have seen as high as ten years in Congress, in one branch or the other, and a few who have more than double that. Randall is entering upon his twenty-first year in the House; Cox has had twenty-one years there already, and Kelly twenty-two. In the Senate Anthony, Dawes and Sherman boast twenty-six years in Congress apiece, part of each having been in the House before going into the Senate, while Morrill leads with twenty-eight years' service. The aggregate number of years in Congress of members of the Senate is 571, while the aggregate service of the House members is over 800 years, making a total of Congressional experience in House and Senate of nearly 1,400 years. Besides this fully half of the members have served in State Legislatures before coming to Congress, and their aggregate experience there has been nearly 600 years, making a grand total of legislative experience in both branches of Congress of 2,000 years. And yet we talk of this as a "new Congress," and one with little legislative experience to guide it.

It is very easy and sounds very nice too, to talk about the North remembering her soldiers, but the fact is that, so far as Congress goes, the North does not remember her heroes with anything like the affection that the South does. Of the Southern members of the House, over 50 per cent. were in the Confederate army, while among the Northern members only 25 per cent. were in the Union army. In the Senate the difference is still more notable, the percentage of Southern Senators who were in the Confederate army being over 60, and of the Northern members only 33 per cent. were in the Union army.

Five members will have reason to refrain from voting if the bill to pension the Mexican veterans comes up, for that number were in the Mexican war—Williams of Kentucky, Logan of Illinois, Maxey of Texas, George of Mississippi, and Forney of Alabama. One Northern man, by birth, is in the list of ex-Confederates—Van Eaton, of Mississippi. He was born in Ohio, and lived there, it appears, until after he became of age; was educated there, went to Mississippi at the age of 22 and when the war broke out, thirteen years later, went into the Confederate army, serving "through the war on that side," as he puts it.

There are twenty-five men in the House who are over 60 years old, and three who are past 70, though Waite, of Connecticut, who is 74, is still the oldest man. In the Senate, Morrill is the oldest man—73. The average of members of the House is 43 years, those from the South averaging 45 and from the north 41. The average age of the members when first elected to Congress was 41.

Arkansas sends a full delegation of ex-Confederates, and Alabama sends all but two from the same army. It is worth while noting that there are six members of the Confederate Congress in this Congress—Dunn, Singleton and Barksdale in the House, and Pugh, Garland and Vest in the Senate. There is also a member of the Confederate Cabinet, Reagan, who was Postmaster General. There are three or four who were members of Congress of the United States when the war broke out, who withdrew and went with the Confederacy and are now back in their old seats.

There are twenty-four foreign-born citizens in the House and Senate, some fifteen of them being from Ireland, the remainder representing nearly all parts of the world, not omitting our neighbors on the south, as one of the new members is a native of Brazil. New York is the birthplace of 35 members of the House, Pennsylvania of 33, Ohio, 31; Kentucky and Virginia, 17 each; Massachusetts and Tennessee, 13 each.