The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1886-06-09
UsHED THROUGH CONGRESS.
What Some OF the Measures Have q
Contend with.


Already this session there have been
over 600 bills introduced in the House and
pr mt d-a number exceeding by several
hundred the whole number introduced dur
ing both terms of the last Congress" says
the Star. The experience of bill in the
House is varied. Some of them have come
to be old veterans, and are hardened to SER
vice by long experience. They have served
through many Congresses, and had varied
experiences. Some of them have been there
so long that they bave become sallowed and
shrivelled with age. A bill that has never
been in Congress before, and is fresh and
new generally comes in the pocket of n
member as fresh and new and crisp as itself,
Or has been written by some mild, inslnuat-
ing person outside, and introduced by re-
quest. The average member of Congress,
though he delights in introducing as many
bills as possible, does not like to write
them. He will frequently take bill that
has done service in many different causes,
and will chop and slash and interline it, and
patch it together as new bill. Many of
the private bills have done service through
many Congresses and for many persons,
merely the name in it being changed every
time it was introduced. 1t has been sug-
gested as means of preventing the House
being flooded with SO many bills, that every
bill introduced must be in the handwriting
Of the man who offers it.
After bill is introduced it is read by It'll,
at the clerks desk 1t then has numerous
hieroglyphics put in. blue pencil upon its
back to show where it is to be consigned
Then it snumberedmid registered in book
and printed. The most active part of its
existence is being printed. If II has full
run it is printed six times. II is printed
when first introduced when it is reported
from the committee il is printed, when it is
passed by the House-if IL ever is-it is
again printed, and again when it becomes
law. After that it has to be printed in the
statute books. Meanwhile IL has been stow
ID away in the document room and on the
calendar of the committee Inns been dis.
cussed, and probably abused and cut to
pieces; hns been objected to and threatened
in the House, and solemnly sat upon in the
Senate. This is the experience of the sim
plest and most unimportant bill. The ap.
preparation bills suffer more at the hands of
the printer than this. They are first print
cd as estimates, then as unofficial forms of
the BILL then the bill adopted by the com
mittee is printed. When it passes the
House it is printed, and again when it
reaches the Senate. It is next printed as il
passes the Senate. When it comes out of
conferenee--if it goes to conference-it is
printed as an act, and after TINT il is print
ed in the statute books.
g large number of each bill is printed,
and the document room becomes packed
with them, mostly private bills of no i'm
portance. The room where they are stored
Is just in the rear of the statuary hall, and
was the cloak room on the least side. ~
when that old hall was the hall of Represerl-
tatiyes. Some of the bills are almost old
enough TO remember that time. Thousands
upon thousands of them mr., piled upon the
shelves that reach clear to the ceilings, and
sometimes the floors are piled with them.
Follow them back into the deeper recesses,
and they almost choke up the arched pass.
age way. They ais constantly being dis
posed of or destroyed, and new ones are
constantly coming in. Fully 90 per cent
of them never pass through Congress, and
when they have failed there they serve as
butter wrappers in the city markets. 1t has
been estimated that il costs more to print
the private bills than is involved in all
those that pass"