FIFTY-THIRD CONGRESS, 1893-1895. 1649 
ber of Congress and advice from him as to how to distribute these 
documents. 
Mr. BettzHoover. Will the gentleman allow me to ask him if he 
ever tried that experiment? 
Mr. Wiiuiams. I have, and I am trying it to-day in the Interior 
Department. 
Mr. BretrzHoover. Have you ever gone to one of those bureaus 
with twenty-five or fifty names and got a favorable reply ? 
Mr. Wituiams. I will say this, that I am a new member of Congress 
and do not pretend to know the one hundred and sixty-fifth part of 
what I ought to know, much less what is to be known about things 
lying around loose in Washington about the Departments; but I do 
know this, that one of the first communications I received from the 
Agricultural Department was to send a number of names of parties to 
whom I wanted articles distributed. One of the first communications 
I received from the Interior Department was a like communication, 
and I was glad to comply with both so far as that was concerned. 
Now, what I want to impress upon the committee is that we should 
control this distribution, which is carried on at a large expense. 
Mr. Stvpson. Will the gentlemen allow me to ask him a question? 
I want to ask the gentleman when he received that communication from 
the Agricultural Department did not they suggest to him that the gen- 
tleman’s name should be sent on the articles to be sent from that 
Department, so that the parties receiving them would understand that 
the gentleman had sent them ? 
Mr. Wriu1ams. I believe they did. 
Mr. Stvpson. Well, then, did not that have the same effect as if the 
gentlemen had sent them, and while the Departments are distributing 
them in this way at your request are you not in effect distributing 
the books? 
Mr. Wriu1ams. I am not talking about the effect, but I will come 
to it in this way. In my district Senators distribute documents; in 
my district I distribute them, and the Departments also distribute 
them. Here is a man known to be a live, talking Democrat. He 
gets four documents; and another man, who, perhaps, would get 
more good out of these documents, gets none. Now, my idea is 
that the object of these publications is to distribute them where 
they will do the most good. The next idea in my mind is this, that 
the very main object in the mind of the Democratic party at present 
is to put the Government back upon an economic footing. Now, you 
have just had the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations call- 
ing your attention to the fact that if we go on increasing these reports 
of committees that there will come up behind us the necessity finally 
to make appropriations to pay for these things. I shall oppose this 
proposition, and I desire to offer amendments to the section. 
H. Doc. 732——104 
