The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-04-01
DEBATES IN CONGRESS.
REPORTS OF THE PROCEEDINGS
HAVE GROWN BY VOLUMES.

REPORTS OF THE PROCEEDINGS
HAVE GROWN BY VOLUMES.
One Reason for Che Ineeease in tho Mum.
Der Of Printed Pages Il That Many
Written Essays Arc Set In Typo Instead
of Being Delivered On tho Floor.
The reports Of congressional proceedings
are growing or have already grown so large
as to be burdensome and in imminent dan
ger of becoming useless. There are two
specific reasons for this increase, one Is the
printing of every trivial detail with stem.
ographic exsctness, and the other is the
permission IN both branches Of using writ
ten essays instead of making actual speech
es in debate
In the beginning of the governm emit, and
for many years thereafter. the habit Of
speaking from q manuscript in either
branch of congress was unknown On
every important measure that came before
congress, on the expediency Of which mem
bers differed in opinion, there was an act
ual debate, in which positions were affirm
ed and contested with off hand speech In
every conflict of this kind the members of
congress were, as a rule, in their seats,
many taking part and the mass SO inter-
ested as to sit continuously through the
debates.
The habit of speech has greatly changed
At this time any one who Will take his
seat in the gallery of the senate as the
senators assemble win be interested dur
ing the morning hour" which is often
marked by what may be called sharp de-
bate; but when the morning hour" ex-
pires and the regular order" is an
nounced the spectator will very probably
see gentleman rise and unfold mass of
manuscript and begin to read.
He will next see out of the lightweight
senators probably seventy-fye and posi-
bly, more. if the senate be full, absent
themselves from their seats and retire to
the committee rooms to write letters and
transact both public and private business
until the pages shall inform them that the
reading Of the manuscript, in progress
when the senators left the chamber, is
about to close.
SATURDAY ESSAYS.
In the house of representatives the spec
tator, when he seats himself in the gallery,
will probably see repeated, rs nearly as the
analogy of proceedings in the two branches
will allow, all that has been said of the
senate with the addition of habit which
is not extensively, if az all, practiced in the
senate-viz., the permission to print
speeches, not one word of which has been
delivered, and also the setting aside of odd
afternoons, generally Saturday, for debate
only, which means that some one deputed
by the speaker will preside, with the I'M
derstanding that no business is to be done
and that any member who chooses can
come there and deliver speech upon any
subject he may select, whether it is pend
ing before congress or not.
The essays which are thus read on a
single Saturday would often fill large
sized octave, more extended In point OF
matter than volume of Bancroft or Mot
ley.
Few have reckoned the magnitude of the
increase in the reports. The general pre-
sumption is that it comes from the in
creased membership of both branches of
congress. This accounts for part of the
increase but it is not a sufficient cause for
the whole.
The senate is larger than fifty years ago
by little more than one-hadf-fifty-two
then, lightweight now. The house today
it was fifty years ago. But the volume of
the reports of either house today COM
pared with those of fifty years ago is pro-
digiously great.
The reports Of proceedings in the Twen-
ty-sixth congress-March 4, 1889, to March
4, 1S4l-take scarcely one-sixth of the space
given to the reports OF the Fiftieth con-
gress.
But if we go back only half of fifty years
a striking illustration will be found. Take
both houses of congress from 1861 to 1865,
embracing the Thirty-seventh and Thirty
eighth congresses, and covering the entire
period of the war. One would suppose
that the proceedings in two congresses,
with an extra session in one of them, dur
ing such period as 1S6i-65 would be ex-
traordinarily voluminous-
Both houses were filled with remarkable
debaters, and the subjects that were con-
tinually before each branch were so alb
sorbing in interest that almost every sena-
tor and every representative desired to be
heard.
STRIKING COMPARISONS.
AS the form in which the proceedings
are reported has changed since that time
the comparison of different periods can be
made with approximate exactness by stat
ing the proceedings in uniform pages of
], 900 words each. From March 4, 1851, to
March 4, 1865, the number of pages filed
by the proceedings was 25,4OO. Twenty-six
years afterward the Fiftieth congress con-
vened. 1t lasted from March 4, 1887, to
March 4, 1889, and the report of proceed
ings filled Is, 300 pages.
In an uneventful period, then, with moth
ing especially to exercise or disturb the
country, the number of pages filled by the
proceedings of single congress is greater
than during the whole period of the war,
with all it's mighty issues at stake.
Other comparisons of interest may be
made readily One of the most exciting
congresses supposed to be one of the most
important ever held in the antebellum
period-was the Thirty-first, beginning
March 4, 1s49, and ending March 4, 1851.
The compromise measures of 1850, involv-
ing all the phases of the slavery question
as it then existed, called forth a debate
which for thoroughness and ability has
perhaps never been equaled, certainly
never surpassed, in the history OF the gov
Men who naturally belonged TO former
Clay. Calhoun, Benton,
Cass-were there in fun vigor, and the
younger men Of prestige and power-Sew-
ard, Douglas, Chase, Jefferson Davis, Rusk,
of Texas--were also there in all the strength
Of mature manhood.
- . 49, M 1r<ze loo FL