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Show CONGRESS WAS TALKATIVE. Uig Task Imposed on Official Reporters by Lawmakers Many Meetings by Committees New Record Is Established. Washington. Never before In the history of tho world has thero been such a task Imposed on shorthand reporters re-porters as tho ono which has Just been completed at tho capltol. Thero has been moro talk recorded thero In tho last seven months than was over put Into print anywhero boforo In the same length of time. When tho first session of tho fifty-ninth fifty-ninth congress adjourned It was found that tho Congressional Record had geno beyond tho 10,000 page mark. Only onco has It ovc;- reached that flguro beforo In one session of congress, con-gress, and that was In the fifty-first (tho Uced rules session), which sat until un-til October 1. Tho congross In seven moutlu did as much talking on tho floors of tho houso nnd senato as the flfty-flrst did In ten months. The house contributed tho greater volume of tho oratory, but tho 70 day senate debate on tho railroad rate bill was qulto unprecedented un-precedented In that body for Its con-tlnuousncss, con-tlnuousncss, quantity, rapidity and technical character. The official reporters of tho houso who take nn Interest In such things have n collection of figures which show that tho debates In that body nverage n moro rapid rato than anywhero any-whero clso. For instance the record often contains CO columns of reported matter for a six hours session. This means nn avcrago of about 1C5 words n minute tho whole time. Somo men, llko Mr. Tnwncy, Mr. Hepburn, Mr. Mondcll and Mr. Clayton, speak with such delightful deliberation and clearness clear-ness that they could almost bo taken by a good longhand writer; but tho avcraso is made by tho rapidity of others, oth-ers, like Mr. Laccy, Mr. Hull, Mr. De Armond, Mr. Stephens of Texas, Mr. Bonyngo, Mr. Glllott of California, Mr. Wekes, Mr. Cockran nnd .Mr. Little-field, Little-field, whoso conversation In colloquy often goes about tho 200 word mark. Dut tho debates on tho lloor are on! part of tho doings. Never beforo have thore been so many commltteo hearings. hear-ings. A brand new chairman of the houso committee on appropriations came In this session, and under the leadership of Mr. Tawnoy tho departments depart-ments of tho government havo received such nn overhauling as never before. This committee was In session nlmost all the time, and the printed hearings on tho appropriation bills alone equalled In volume tho entire house proceedings In some former congresses. con-gresses. Thoro was scarcely nn Important house committee that has not had more hearings than usunl. Often six or seven committees havo been In session at onco nnd there wns one memorable day when 11 committees of the house sat at tho samo time, nnd seven ot them tan all day. Tho commltteo stenographers sten-ographers record of tho assignments to hearings shows thnt thero havo been CSC during tho session. Ot these the regular committee forco reported 601 and cutslde reporting firms had to1 be called In to tnko caro of 166. Thoro was very little general political politi-cal debate, strango as It may seem. Almost all tho talk has been of the kind that seeks to attain a dellnlto result, re-sult, and whether on appropriation bills or on matters of specific legislation legisla-tion tho debate was of tho sort that counts. The senate committee hoarlngs, whllo very much less voluminous than thoso of tho houso, were also heavy, notably the Intcrocennlc canal commltteo commlt-teo hoarlngs, which nmountod to more than 1,800,000 words. Altogether thero wcro more than 40, 000,000 words spoken nnd reported at tho rnpltol In soven months, n record tho like of which tho world havo nover befora known. |
