Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-12-02
a pneumatic tube will carry bills from one
house to the other.
Errors That Have Been Made.

ErrOrS Inat nave Been MADE.
The mistakes made by clerks in copying
tariff laws are not the only important errors
which have been made by the enrolling
clerks. Some years ago, one of the clerks
wrote $4,000" for $500, 600" in the river
and harbor bill and thus cut down the ap-
preparation for the improvement of the
Illinois river $l9s.OoO. Another clerical err
ror made the salary of MIR. Wheeler, Vice
President of the United States, $4,000, in
stead of $1,000. Mr.. Wheeler, 1t is hardly
necessary to say, took 5000 Amzi Smith,
the keeper of the Senate document room,
came very near receiving some millions of
dollars some years ago as the result of a
mistake in engrossing a bill. Mr.. Smiths
salary was 5000. The clerk wrote three
thousand thousand" instead of three thous-
and dollars" If he had written three
thousand thousand dollars" MrSmith would
have been entitled to $3,0OO,0OO for that
year, though 1t is not certain that the
treasury Department would have honored
his warrant for that amount. The depart
ment saved Mr.. Smith some embarrass-
ment by interpreting the faulty paragraph
for him and paying him three thousand
dollars instead of the indefinite three
thousand thousand" for which the law
called.
Under the rules of the two houses of
Congress the bill which is read and passed
is the manuscript bill which comes from the
enrolling clerks. AS fact, the bill which
the reading clerk handles is the printed
duplicate which comes from the government
printing office. This bill may be Identical
with the enrolled bill, but it may not.
the bill which passes the two houses of
Congress is the printed bill which the read
ing clerk uses and which is filed on the
desks of Senators and members. The bill
which receives the signature of the presid-
ing officers of the two houses and goes to
the President for approval is the bill which
comes from the enrolling clerks. So the
law as 1t goes on the statute books may be
different in some respects from the law
contemplated by Congress-in fact. it fire.
quently is different
What Congress has done in providing for
the printing of the laws in place of their
engrossment is not absolutely an innovation
There Is one law on the files of the State
Department which was printed by special
resolution of the two houses of Congress.
In 1874 Congress made a revision of the
statutes The law passed was of huge bulk.
The whole force of clerks of House and Sem
ate would have worked for many days to
copy it, and the possibility of error was i'm
measurable. A special resolution was passed
providing that this law should be printed.
The government printing office took two
days to set II up. Only thirty copies were
run off. One of these was signed by the
President Of the Senate, the Speaker of the
House of Representatives and the President
of the United States. 1t is file in the
State Department among thousands of man.
uscript parchment records. This Is the
longest single law ever enacted by Congress.
Probably the shortest was one of sixteen
words, admitting a western city as port
of entry. few more bills of this length
would have been boon to the enrolling
days when the Senate or House took a
notion to pass three or four hundred private
relief bills Hereafter a long bill will mean
simply so much more copy for the printer.