Members of the House
of Representatives have the power of sending through the post all
those huge books which, with them as with us, grow out of
parliamentary debates and workings of committees.
This, under
certain stipulations, is the case also in England; but in England,
luckily, no one values them. In America, however, it is not so. A
voter considers himself to be noticed if he gets a book; he likes to
have the book bound, and the bigger the book may be, the more the
compliment is relished. Hence it comes to pass that an enormous
quantity of useless matter is printed and bound, only that it may be
sent down to constituents and make a show on the parlor shelves of
constituents' wives. The post-office groans and becomes insolvent
and the country pays for the paper, the printing, and the binding.
While the public expenses of this nation were very small, there was,
perhaps, no reason why voters should not thus be indulged; but now
the matter is different, and it would be well that the conveyance by
post of these congressional libraries should be brought to an end.
I was also assured that members very frequently obtain permission
for the printing of a speech which has never been delivered - and
which never will be delivered - in order that copies may be
circulated among their constituents. There is in such an
arrangement an ingenuity which is peculiarly American in its nature.
Everybody concerned is no doubt cheated by the system.
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