104 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



without actual experience with Congress, to under- 

 stand the inhibitions, the presumptions, the written 

 and unwritten rules, and the political considerations 

 which govern our representative assembly. Every 

 man on entering Congress is inspired by high public 

 purposes, and nearly all maintain these as personal 

 ideals throughout their careers; but once in Con- 

 gress they find themselves in a new and different 

 environment whose complications and greater per- 

 spectives impose personal and political problems 

 which the few only can solve. It has been said that 

 sixty men of the five hundred in both houses rule 

 the country, but the people behind Congress never- 

 theless always determine the issues which they them- 

 selves feel deeply enough to carry in large numbers 

 to their own representatives. In these instances, 

 which are too rare, the inconspicuous majority in 

 Congress comes into its own, because each Congress- 

 man personally and for his party's sake wants re- 

 election, and rises to the personal call of his own 

 constituents. The leaders also quickly fall in line 

 with the sentiments of those on whom they believe 

 their renomination and re-election depend. 



Popular protests nevertheless are unpopular, 

 even among the highest minded Congressmen, be- 

 cause they upset policies, habits, and relationships, 

 personal and political, imposed by the very nature of 

 such assemblies a fact often utilized by the self- 

 seekers to discourage revolt and independent action. 



Since the late war during which enemy propa- 

 ganda assumed such dangerous proportions, pub- 



