The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1897-08-12
UNSPOKEN SPEECHES.
The COngressiOnaI Record Contains
Many of Them


Many of Them.
The greater part of the contents of
the congressional record these days is
composed of belated revisions of re-
marks made in the house while the
Dingley tariff bill was under discus
sion, or post-mortem observation on
the general subject of the bill, which
are printed 10y the authority of the
house contained in the special order for
regulating the consideration of the
measure in the house. 1t provided that
for 20 days subsequent to the final vote
on the passage of the bill members
might print in the record extensions
of remarks made in the debate, or, if
they 50 desired, speeches. no part of
which had been delivered. This prac
tice of granting leave to print" has
come down to the present from the
mists of antiquity, as it were, and no
one knows it's origin. 1t is and has
been grossly abused, and at times has
been the occasion of animated discus
sions in the house as to the right Of
member to insert remarks he never
made in the house.
Representative Wheeler, of Alabama,
holds the record for expansion, under
leave to print" Getting the floor for
a single minute on one occasion, mem
bers were astounded to see in the
record the next morning that in that
minute he had delivered himself of
about four pages of the record, a space
which ordinarily covers an hour to an
hour and a half of proceedings. Dr..
Hunter, a member from Illinois, whose
speech on the tariff bill appeared re-
Gently, seems likely to give the genial
Albanian a close brush for first place.
His post-mortem effort covers 25 pages
of the record and is believed to be an
unequaled performance in its line.
The Withholding of speeches for re-
vision, a practice also sanctioned by
hoary headed precedent, is subject to
criticism. There is apparently no rule
regulating the matter, and the cOnSe-
quence is that the record occasionally
fails to fully record the proceedings.
A member on one occasion made a
speech the newspaper report of which
formed the basis of an attack by his
opponent in the next campaign. The
congressman denied having uttered the
remarks attributed to him, and APP
pealed to the record to sustain him.
The challenge was eagerly accepted by
his rival, who not being up to all the
tricks of congressman, was covered
with confusion at his failure to find
the alleged speech. The member had
simply withheld his remarks for re-
vision" and then calmly pocketed
them.
In the old days of the Congressional
Globe the reporters of debates We're the
victims of this practice. Among the
traditions at the capitol is one in which
the late Gen. Nathaniel F. Banks, at
one time speaker, was the chief actor.
The story goes that at one stage of his
career Mr.. Banks was a pupil of a
teacher of elOcutiOn in Washington,
and he sought every opportunity on the
floor of the house to practice the art.
Many of these speeches, evidently. he
did not care to embalm for posterity
in the enduring record Of the house pro-
ceedings. After having concluded he
would ask the reporter to Withhold the
manuscript from the printer and give
it to him for revision. These speeches,
it is related he never returned, and
subsequently chestful or two were
found in his room. In those days the
Globe reDOrterS were paid four dollars
column for their work as it appeared
in print, and it cost them about one
dollar of this to transcribe their notes.
SO it may easily be inferred that that
part of the tradition is true which
AYERS that whenever Mr., Banks rose to
speak groan traversed the reporters
bench-N. y. Sun.