Life — January 10, 1918 — page 10: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ONGRESS is bestowed upon us to make our laws when we need new ones, and to spend our money. We are bestowed upon Congress to instruct it. Congress, besides being a legislative body, is a great school; by far the most expensive in the country, and not a bad place to acquire knowledge. The original intention was that Congress should be composed entirely of in- structed persons, but that intention was never more than approximately realized, and nowadays the approximation is not at all close. On the contrary, Congress is composed largely of persons who excel in only one branch of knowl- edge. They know how to get elected to Congress. In most other matters most of them have a lot to learn, and are the more difficult to teach because they are so little aware of their need of learning. But their work is so important that knowledge has to be forced upon them. It is everybody’s duty to do what he can to bring con- gressional intelligence at least up to the level of the intelli- gence of the rest of the country, and then to push it as far above that level as possible. In the course of successive terms this so much to be desired result is likely to be accom- plished for members who can hold their jobs. Few men who continue long in Congress escape knowledge; many learn much, and some become experts. There are two ways in which a congressman may learn: "LIFE: Congress Is a School (1) by keeping quiet, paying attention and dealing faith- fully and studiously with such duties as are assigned to him, and (2) by talking freely in the House and in the papers on all subjects. The latter is the easier way. Gar- rulous congressmen who love advertisement and talk freely to the papers are sure to have information brought to them. The loudest congressmen and senators from the most re- tired districts who vaunt with shrillest defiance their devo- tion to the simple life and the standards of the plain peepul, wear socks after a while like other folks in Washington, take their food with decorum, and often, in course of time, come to be owners of Tuxedo jackets. They also learn that what they knew about human existence when they came to Washington was not all there was to know, and that there is more to civilization than you would think. Just now congressmen are indulging in an exceptional burst of talk, with resulting instruction, sometimes to the public, sometimes to themselves, Some have come back full of stories from France and the Western battle-front, and are telling them. Congressman Miller, who lately ex- pressed in the House his deep indignation that American soldiers in France were employed to polish the boots of “their superiors,” is getting in a splendid line of informa- tion about cleaning boots, and whether it is an improper service for a soldier to render, and whether officers really The A BC of Kultur iss Valhalla—the War- riors’ Himmel, A Land that is Flow- ing Mit Lager und Kimmel. The Faithful shall Feast ‘neath the Frankfurter Trees, Und Essen und Trinken as much as they Please, Daunt; stands for the World that we want With a Will for Pos- session that Nothing can And you should Remember the Wise Men all say That Where there’s a Will there is always a Way. stands for Cross. If you’re Anxious to Win it, This is the way that you have to begin it: Blow up a Schoolhouse and, Brush up on Arson, Bomb a few Nurses and Murder a Parson,