Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-12-11
DOORS THAT ARE PECULIAR

There are architectural peculiarities about
the Capitol, especially on the House side,
which are unknown to the casual visitor.
There IL that about some Of the committee
room doors which is entirely uncommon
to doors in general In appearance they
are not different from the idea of doors
that would be expected in building of the
sort. They are massive double doors that
swing inward easily and close with the
rattle of latch and bang common to heavy
doors. They open up a space almost large
enough for a horse and cart to be driven
through.
The popularity about them is the great
difficulty with which bill or resolution,
joint or simple, gets out through them. Bills
ana resolutions by the thousand of all sorts
pass into the committee rooms with the
greatest ease but very few OF them can
ever get out again. The only thing in con-
struction at all suggestive of this phenome-
ron is one of those patent rat traps with a
animal free entrance but offers too small
an aperture for his exit Over two hun
dred bills got caught this way in the public
buildings and grounds committee room
during the special session, and their
friends are apprehensive that they may
never get out. The appropriation bills have
frequently escaped similar Imprisonment
only by shrinking greatly in their size.
scraped off the naval appropriation bill in
trying to get out the committee door, 1t
IS only by the combined efforts of nearly
every member of the House and the use
OF liberal fabrication that a river and har-
Dor bill is got out in two years. one during
each Congress In the banking and cur
rency committee, where bills of a peculiar
~ aggressive character go, half a dozen
or more bills usually try to escape by
making rush at the door all at one time,
and invariably get blocked in the passage,
not one getting through. Claims of vari-
GUS sorts, involving an expenditure of pub
lie money, find it peculiarly difficult to get
out when once they enter a committee
room. Private pension bills are about the
only sort that are at all successful in
making their escape. Bills for national de-
Tense and fertilization bills invariably have
such difficulty that they cannot get out
OF the room until they have shrunk to
about tenth of their original size, and
then they are usually so disguised as not
to be recognizable.
. The most difficult of all these marvellous
doors is that to the room of the committee
on foreign affairs of the House. 1t is ex-
cesSlvely easy of entrance, The door
swings open invitingly to every bill or reso-
luton that relates in any way to foreign
affairs-bellgerency resolutions, annexa-
ton bills, resolutions calling for diplomatic
correspondence, and the like. Once within
the room they become incommunicado and
are as hOpeleSSly imprisoned as innocent
suspects in MORO castle. A large number
or resolutions recognizing the beigerency
or the independence of Cuba and of like
import We're confined there during the en-
tire Flfty-fourth Congress, and another lot
that entered at the opening of the special
session of this Congress are still impiison-
ed 1ncommunicado. 1t is recognized as al
most certainty that enc of them will
escape from this extraordinary rat trap at
any time during the entire Congress. To
all appearances the door opens as wide
from the inside as from the out but as
soon as 1t is attempted to get resolution
out 1t is found to be impossible