THE LOBBY IN AMERICA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 180, 30 July 1872, Page 4

THE LOBBY IN AMERICA.

(From the Pall Mall Gazette). At the present lime, when to Americanise our institutions is esteemed one of the loftiest objects of ambiiion, the account given by the Washington correspondent of the Nno York Herald of the "lobby" in connection with Congress at tbat city is not devoid of interest. The war had much to do with the growth of the lobby, although it existed before the war. Every measure before Congress has a lobby of its own, which generally takes its name from the scheme or seliemes in whose interest the lohby is at work. This winter, for instance, there aro the Steamship Subsidy lobbies, the Railroad and Grand lobbies, the Cotton Tax lobby, the Indian ring, and a hundred others. The lobbyists may be classified as (1), the men who have no influence, but boast of having a great deal; (2), the men put forward to " see " members and do the possible work work of a ring; (3), ex-Congressmen; (4), Congressmen. The first of these classes is by far the largest. They are constantly on the look-out for people with small jobs and little experience, from whom they manage to extract a few dollars for their supposed influence with some representative or senator. The second class is ouly above the first in influence and importance. Thoy are the " look-out." men of the craft, and infest the ante-rooms of the House of Congress, button-holing congressmen, and cultivatiug pleasant relations with committee clerks and doorkeepers. The ex-congressmen, who by the rule of courtesy have the privilege of the floor of the House, have converted that privilege into an abuse of the most atrocious kind. They congregate in the Vice-President's room, the Speaker's room, and committee rooms, and the reporters' galleries. The cx r member is in power in the land, and his influence only begins to be appreciated when the wrong he has done cannot be undone. As a member of the Senate or House he had only one vote, and that very often not his own ; while as a member of the lobby he may control a dozen or score or even a hundred. "To own a congressman " is one of the pet phrases of the capital, and some people count their property of this kind as the Southern slaveholders used to count their slaves. The ex - congressman knows every congress-man's value, and when he wants a vote he pays only for its value. A man who has not been a member of Congress is, as a rule, a poor lobbyist. Congress itself is the best school of the lobby, and a seat in the house, or even in the Senate, is only sought by a certain class of jobbers as a certificate of fitness for the higher duties of the corridors and cloakrooms. Entering Congress is only matriculation for the lobby, and the pay of the member is nothing to the profits of the ex-member. His ministers are everywhere, and his evjl spirit pervades the very atmosphere. The Congressman on his way to the Capitol bows to him obsequiously, and shakes him by the hand. The senator vacates his curule chair that " the distinguished gentleman who once occupied a seat on the floor" may fill it, and fronze his locks in the sight of his clients in the galleries. Congress (adds the Washington correspondent) as a school of villainy is unsurpassed by any similar institution in the world, and even Fagin might learn t something, of: the higher branches of his art by observing closely the woys of the ex-Congreesman,