At a recent meeting of the house of representatives which is comprised of four hundred and thirty-five congressmen, it was found that "they were all there except four hundred." The republicans have been criticising the idleness of the house, where, although the members have been in session since last April, very little has been done outside of three or four weeks of sessions for the tariff and currency bills. This, of course, was aside from the work of the ways and means and the banking and currency committees. The republican leader, Mr. Mann, in speaking of the absentees, said "that it may be that some members think that when they are elected to congress their duties cease when they present their certificates of election." Representative Towner of Iowa, cannot find any justification in the idling in the house, and he declares that "we ought either to adjourn or go to work." Towner insists that there is not the slightest possibility of the currency bill being passed at this session. Representative Raker, a California democrat, explains the peculiar condition in congress by asserting the purpose of the majority to be to refuse to take up any other legislation which might "distract the country's attention, but to rivet and fix it upon the currency legislation that the people are demanding and insisting on." He says that Mr. Mann and his followers are simply "playing politics,"and that "It was the intent when this congress convened to pass a tariff bill." He thinks that it was the purpose and intent also to pass a currency bill." He says now that the house should wait while the senate completes its work. Leader Mann, who is always full of argument, and sometimes bubbling over with sarcasm, remarked that the present situation in the house of representatives is peculiar, and he adds: "We may lead a horse to water, but we cannot make him drink." Elucidating this old saw he says that if the absent ones could be compelled to return to Washington, they could not be compelled "to do business." "If this democratic congress would now adjourn until the fourth of March year after next," adds Mr. Mann, "leaving the country to itself, it would confer upon the land the greatest patriotic favor within its power. Next to that, to declare that it will not do any business is probably nearest to patriotism." However, the republican leader reminded his colleagues that there was pending before the house an immigration bill, a needed injunction bill, a trial by jury for contempt bill, a seaman's involuntary servitude bill, the great trust problem, "and a hundred or more questions of immense importance."
