Evening star., 1895-06-12

The people Of Washington, who are well
acquainted with the cumbersome and anti
quated methods still in vogue in the halls
or Congress, will watch with unusual In
terest the experiment that is 20 be tried
next session of regulating the page system
of the House of Representatives by means
of electric call bells. Whoever has spent two
or three afternoons in the galleries of Con-
gress and has been reasonably attentive to
the details of the great legislative machine
grinding below him. the cogs and wheels
and pulleys, as 1t were, of the national
mechanism. cannot fail to be convinced
that in most respects the housekeeping of
Congress. as 1t may be called, Is wretched-
ly antiquated. There is a conservatism
about Congress. notably the Senate, which
contributes considerably to the generally
dilatory pace which that body assumes
during the greater part OF the session and
which adds to the confusion and. 1t is to he
feared, the carelessness that prevail when
the pressure of time at the end of the ses-
sion causes the pace to be increased. The
plan now is for the House pages 10 be
stationed in an ante-room outside the main
chamber and to be summoned to the desks
of individual Congressman by means of
push buttons, which are to operate a large
annunciator board and so Indicate the loca-
tion of the member in need of a messenger
II this system can be made to work well
against the almost certain opposition of
some Congressman who persist in adher-
ing to the ways of their dads it will surely
result in a reduction of the confusion on
the floor, which is so large a factor of the
reputation that the House has acquired of
being an oversrown hurlyburly instead of
a legislative assembly. To remove the bar
ShODS "a of
the assembly chamber of the House which
Is proposed part of this effort in the
interest of more dignified system of legis-
lation, will be a most acceptable change,
though 1t may diminish the keen interest
which some of the spectators take in the
proceedings of the House from a purely
humorous point of view. 1t may too. rob
the sessions of some Of their picturesque
value, especially from the southern seats
in the galleries. from which occasionally
most edifying spectacles may ne observed
in the cloak-roomS and barber-shops. The
next step toward undermining Congress
will be to remodel the system of voting,
which is now cumbersome. time-consuming
and at some seasons detrimental to the best
interests OF the country. With the growth
of the nation there will be a constant in
crease of the members of the House, though
there Is, of course, a certain definite limit
beyond which the membership of Congress
cannot go, but with each new state and
with each new apportionment the problem
of how to secure the sense of the House
without tremendous waste of time will
become more and more difficult. and re-
course must eventually be had to some
modern plan of enumeration and vote
taking which will make of the roll call
less formidable tool in the hands Of the
unscrupulous filibuster and more eff
cient means of ascertaining quickly and
accurately the sense of the body. The
managers OF the next House. whoever they
may be, may well take into serious con-
sderation some plan for simplifying the
system of roll calls and also use every
effort to preserve in some shape this latest
project for reducing the noise and con-
fusion on the floor