In the House offices and cloakroom last week, members bandied a forgotten name. This scissorbill from Missouri, they said, was beginning to sound like Samuel Jackson Randall. Handsome Sam Randall was chairman of the House Appropriations Committee in the Grant Administration—and he was something to summon up. His committee grabbed so much power that it controlled legislation just by loosening and tightening the Government purse strings.
Since then, rules have shorn the Appropriations Committee of much of that power, but Congressmen looked at its doings last week with a wary eye. Under the chairmanship of Clarence Cannon, dean of the...
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