The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-05-18
THEYCOME VERY HIGH
The Salaries Paid to the Congress
sional Stenographers.
OUR RAPID AND SLOW TAKERS
The Presidents Private Secretary and His
Salary-0ur Public Men in the Eyes
Of Stenographers.

WASHINGTON, May 19, 1S9O.-TSpecial
correspondence Of THE HERALD. THE
stenographers of the House of Represen-
tatives have been worked nearly to death
during the past two weeks. The long
winded discussions of the tariff have been
interspersed with the running fire of de-
bate, and the full corps of s5,OOO-men have
been busy night and day. 1t is impossible
to conceive the difficulty of reporting the
House during such discussion. A half.
dozen men are often speaking at once, and
;, Blount, Of Georgia, Cannon, Of Illinois,
Mills, of Texas, and Mckinley, of Ohio.
are often shouting at each other at the
same time at the tops of their voices. The
reporters take their note books and rush
into the melee and get every word as it is
uttered. One man is always on duty, and
sometimes more. The reporters have desks
directly in front of the speaker and on
level with the House floor, and the work
of reporting is done by relays. One will
take notes say for twenty menutes, and he
will then be relieved by another, while the
first goes down TO the transcribing room in
the basement of the capitol and writes out
his notes. Until very recently, this tran
scribing was done by redictating the notes
TO another shorthand man who. in turn.
translated his notes and put them down on
paper for the Congressional Record Now
the most of the stenographers use the
graphophone. AS soon as they leave the
House they sit down before one of these
little machines, which are run b. electri-
city. and take off their notes into it An
ordinary typewriter can take them from
the graphophone, and the expense of tran
G fr,nr1 ca1si II inn
room is one of the busiest places Of the
capitol No talking is allowed in it, and
the only sounds that are heard are the low
but distinct tones of dictation and the rat
tie of the typewriter.
There are five official reporters of the
House, each of whom get 5000 a year,
with the exception of the chief, John j.
McElhone, who has a salary of $4,000.
McElhone is one of the oldest and most
efficient reporters of the United States.
He was the first man to report the House
verbatim, and before he undertook it, it
was supposed to be impossible. He had
peen reporter in the Senate, and he con-
ftacted for the reporting of the lower
House in connection with John G. Rives,
the founder of the Congressional Globe
This was in 1850. and Mr.. McElhone has
been reporting from that day to this. He
Is now beginning his forty-ninth session of
Congress, and he is more efficient today
than he was forty. years ago. He has
curious way of working. He pays no at
tention to the mechanical part of his work, !
and his system is the Pitman system in its |
simplest form. He is so thoroughly posted |
upon legislation and public questions that |
he knows what each man ought to say, and !
he keeps up with the thought as he goes
along. He criticizes every sentence, and |
his hand follows his brain like piece of
machinery. He is one of the finest think
lers among our public men, and he thinks