Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1893-03-09
DEBATES IN CONGRESS.
REPORTS OF THE PROCEEDINGS
HAVE GROWN BY VOLUMES.

Written Essays Are Set In Type Instead
of Being Delivered on the 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.
ographlc eXactness, 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 government, and
for many years thereafter. the habit OF
speaking from 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 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 will be interested dur
ing the morning hour" which is often
marked oy 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 VIII next see out OF the eighty-eight
seua'ors prooaoly seventy-nve and possi-
Wy more u Vue senate DC iull, absent
themselves from their seats and retire to
the committee rooms to write letters and
transact poth pubio anu private business
untii tne pages snail inform them that the
reading OF the manuscript, IN progress
Wnen the senators left the chamber, IS
aoouV W Close
SATURDAY ESSAYS
In the mouse OF representatives the spec
tator' when he seats himself In the gallery,
wiz prooaoly see repeated, as nearly as the
analogy OF proceedings IN the two branches
VIII allow, al that mas been SAID OF the
senate with the addition OF habit which
Is not extensively II at all, practlced In the
sehate-Uz.' the permission to print
speeches, not one word OF which has been
delivered' anu also the setting aside of odd
afternoons, Ilneraliy saturday, for debate
ohiy' which ileans that some one deputed
oy 1he speaker VIII preside, with the un-
,uerstandlng That no business is to be done
and that any member who chooses can
come tnere ana denver speech upon any
SUBJECT ne may select, whether 1t is pend
ing before congress or not.
Inc essays whlch are thus read on a
single saturday would often fill a large
sized octave, more extended in point or
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 1t Is not sufficient cause for
the whole. ----- '-'
The senate. is larger than fifty years ago
By aYiittle more than one half--fifty-two
then, elghty-eight now. The house today
is not one half larger in membership than
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-
digiousy great.
The reports of proceedings in the Twen-
ty-sixth congress-March 4, 1889, to March
4, lS4l-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 1856,
embracing the Thirty 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 lS6l-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
LOO words each. From March 4, 1861, to
March 4, 1868, the number OF pages filled
by the proceedings was 25,4oO. Tweniy-six
years aiterward the flftleth congress con-
vened. u lasted from March 4, 1887, TO
March 4, leS9, and the report OF proceed
lngs hlled 2s'ooO pages
In an uneventful period, then, with moth
ing especially to exercise or disturb the
country, the humber OF pages hiled by the
proceedings oi single congress ls greater