The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-09-29
VOTING BY MACHINERY.
A DEVICE TO EXPEDITE VOTING
AND RO LII GALL IN TRE HOUSE.

the Vote of the House-rouch q But
ton and a Current of Electricity Tells
the story-A Blow at Minoritles.
tCopvyToAi)
WASHINGTON, Sept. ga New England
congressman who for obvious reasons
wishes his name withheld for the present.
informs me that he has placed in tho hands
of Douglas Dyrenforth, the we'll know n
patent attorney of this city, an invention
which will do more than all the rules in
christendom to prevent fillibustering In
legislative bodies. 1 am. Of course, not
permitted TO know how the device works.
but this is what the inventor has to say
about it:
"rhe greatest delays in so-ealled delibera-
tive bodies are occasioned by roll oalls.n
says he. Look at our House of Repre-
sentatives, for instance. 1t takes the clerk
fifteen minutes Co call the roll the first time
Then it takes him from eight TO ten min
utes TO call the names of those who do not
answer the first call. Then he uses from
two to five minutes announcing the ma nes
OF those who are paired. After this he
verifies the record by reading over the
list OF those voting in the affirmative
and Of those voting in the negative.
may count two or three minutes more for
the delay caused by those members who
come in after their names have been called
and who wish TO be recorded. At last the
clerk counts up and the speaker announces
the result. The whole has taken never less
than thirty minutes, often much longer, for
the clerk frequently has 10 call one mans
name three or four times before he can get
his attention, and often the answers are so
ndI that h. NOT d Al
on the wrong side and has to be changed
afterward. All this, of course, consumes
time. But say it takes thirty minutes for
each roll call, As soon as 1t Is done some
body moves to reconsider the vote and
somebody else moves TO lay
that motion on the table. On this
proposition the roll IL called again. There
you have an hour utterly thrown away;
and a dozen roll calls In O day ia not an
extraordinary thing have sat an seen
day after day wasted in this mnnner, until
| wonder chat the people, who are paying
for 1t all, do not rise against the men who
are esponsible for it,"
"Do you propose to do away with roll
callsg" asked.
"No; that cannot he done without work
ing injustice to the individual member.
Every member has the right to go upon the
record as he wishes to. Roll calls In some
form are necessary, but in the present form
they are a great evil A mischievous min
ority can prevent the TRANSACTION of busi-
ness for weeks at q time, and as our country
grows and representation becomes larger
and larger this delay gets to be worse and
worse. And it seems TO be the growing
policy of minority parties to prevent the
| majority from doing anything, SO that at
the next election the paucity of results may
| be pointed to as an argument In favor of a
| change Of administration.
"What is your invention and how does it
intend to overcome this eviln
at is a mecha lical device by which the
roll is called and recorded almost in
| sLantly.n
| 1t is Unnecessary to tire the reader with a
long list Of questions aud ans vera As
nearly as / could make out from the vague
description which the inventor was dra wn
| into giving, the device consists of q large
| table, like that of ahotel annunciator, con-
| nected with each desk by two wires
| Inside the desk are two buttons marked
respectively "yes" and no." and so
placed that only the person having
| access by key to that desk can touch them.
| This is to prevent the wrong person from
turning in the vote The annunciator is
provided with discs, each marked plainly
with a members name and bearing the
| word ''yesn on one side and "no" on the
other. When the member presses the afflr-
native button in his desk the disc bearing
his name turns 80 that the word "yes" is
exposed or if he presses the negative but
| ton the reverse side Of the disc is turned
there seems to be a sort of "nickel-
in-the-slot" arrangement, so that when
the disc Is turned it frees a
piece Of metal which falls into a hopper
and in its turn is passed through a slot,
where it turns ratchet wheel one way or
| the other and records on a counting ma
chine either an affirmative or a negative
vote. As soon as these pieces OF
| metal have fallen into place the face of the
counting machine shows the sum of the
vote on each side of tho question.
The inventor claims that the vote of the
entire House of Representatives could be
taken, counted and announced ia single
| minute
"Have you any reason 10 believe that
congress will adopt your devicep asked.
~ have very little doubt that the voting
in both houses will be done by this means
early III the next session, )" he answered. 81
have placed the papers and the model in
| Mr.. Dyrenforth's hands and he is now look
ing them over with view of
Determining whether 1t is patent
able - that is, whether any part
of it infriuges any patents heretofore
| granted. l have looked into the subject
|
any trouble in that direction, and" there
there was a significant twinkle In his eye]
al guess the republican caucus will adopt it
all rightn
"You have talked to some Of the leaders
| about it, thenp
"Well, never mind / think the House
will be using 1t the next session.
"How about the minority side? What
will they say about itp
"They will kick against it, of course.
| They kick against everything that is calcu-
lated to expedite business. No; this is not
a minority invention. 1t Is intended TO
assure TO majorities some of the rights that
ought to be theirs. We have babied minor
tiles In this country and talked about their
rights until the rights of majorities have
almost been lost sight of. This device
is intended to revive the good old
practice of letting najoritles rule.
| but il does not rob the minority of a single
right. 1t simply saves time which minori-
ties now waste. 1 think it will shorten ses-
sions of congress 80 per cent, or permit
congress TO do 100 per cent more business
| in the same time; md whichever way you
put it, it is a consummation devoutly to be
wished
Mr.. Dyrenforth. whom atterward
called upon, expressed surprise that his
client had spoken of the matter at all, but,
being assured that the cat was out Of the