The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-02-01
REPORTS TO CONGRESS.
THE LARGE NUMBER REQUIRED
TO BE MADE
And the Systematic Manner in Which
the Work Is Done

lation which Congress enacte from yeai
to year, much of it simply in the form
of half-hidden clauses attached to APP
preparation bills, strangers often Won
der how any one can keep track of the
details and make sure that some of the
minor laws are executed. When bill
Is in the last stages preceding compile"
ton, one member after another thinks
of something he wishes to throw into
it before the final vote is taken. 1t is
perhaps, proviso that the Secretary
of the Treasury shall do this, or that
the Secretary of the Interior shall do
that. Up springs another member, who
wishes to make sure that the duty shall
not be neglected, and who therefore
adds an amendment that the Secretary
shall report to Congress at each session
so-and-so And thus it goes into the
permanent law Of the land, adding one
more to the multitude of tasks already
assigned to the Cabinet officer in ques-
ton, insuring the compilation of one
more public document, which few per-
sons outside will ever read, and at
which not one Congressman in fifty will
ever glance.
But the work will be done and the
report made, as ordered by Congress, for
there Is no one to utter a protest. 1t
is not the business of the head of a de-
partment to ask the reason why. 1t IS
enough for him that the making
power has issued its command and fur
nished him with the men and the money
required to do the work. The clerks
who toll painfully through the process
of collecting the data and preparing the
report do not bother their brains with
the conundrum, Who is going to read
It when it is finished and in print? They
are there simply to obey orders and
draw their salaries. But how does any
one keep track of the odds and ends of
laws tucked away in budget bills and
the like?
With the accumulation Of statistics for
a whole session Is bound UP in fat
book in the chronological order of their
approval by the President, how is any
one to dig out the details that the Sec
rotary of the Treasury and the Secre-
tary of the Interior must know?
This Is the work of digest clerks and
1ndexers, who take each enactment and
and cut it into bits One bit in the
Legislative Appropriation act, another
in the Sundry Civil act, third in an
Urgent Deficiency act and a fifth, per-
haps, in a special statute, and relate to
one subject and belong together. Each
subject has it's proper place under one
of the broad heads, legislative, executive
or judicial and again under one of the
sub categories as pertaining to the Sem
ate, or the Department of the Interior,
not. When. therefore, all the fragments
re ell nj fnr cascinp ora shifted
about and regrouped according to top
les and the topics arranged in their nor
NAL order, we have a very simple but
effective digest for reference an any
subject touched by Congress. With a
pretty exhaustive index added, we can
do either Of two things consult the in
dex for the specific title of certain
subject, or search the body of the book
for the subject itself, in its place in .
certain variable order Of topical Sc
quence. For example, if we wish to as
certain how much 1t has cost to light
the New York Post Office Building for
a certain year, we may either look in
the index under "New York or we may |
turn in the digest itself to the execut-
aAive branch of the Government, there
find the appropriations for the Treasu-
Iy, dllQ III LIE 5loup " pubiiS bIiid-
ing sunder Treasury jurisdiction, follow
the paragraphs down till we come to
the particular building in which we are |
interested
So much for the convenience of the
officers charged by law with such and
such duties with the orderly distribu-
ton and functions between the several
bureaus and divisions of each depart
Az l. ID, y, f,,.,o
tionariy's learning from the digest just
what he has to do, and usually how he
is to do it. But what shall keep Con-
gress reminded of the reports and rec
concentrations which it has ordered all
these persons to prepare? Here comes
another memorizing device. A stand
ing rule of the House of Representa-
tives requires the Clerk of that body to
submit at the beginning of every SEES
sion a list of the reports which any of
the laws say shall be made to Congress
during that session. He incloses the
list in a formal letter of transmittal to
the. Speaker, and letter and list are
printed together as document Each
page is ruled In four columns the first
containing the title of the officer and
nature of the report required of him,
the second reference TO the VOluTne OF
laws authorizing the report, and the
third citation of section or page, and .
the fourth the date at which the report
is expected, or the period within which /
it may be pesented, or the frequency /
have a certain class of reports r4ady. ;
To show to what dimensions the ''re- {
port fad has grown in Congress, 278 re-
ports are required from various offices, &
bureaus, commissions, associations s
&C., for the present session, or an /
average of about one for each working ]
day through a period of eleven months, s
If the session were to last so long |
Some of these reports are expected to Y
be in several parts, thus greatly swell E
ing the total number. For instance, t
every street railroad corporation in the 6
District of Columbia is expected to re- S
port on or before Feb. l in each year. /
'the names of all the stockholders 6
therein and the amount of stock held f
by each" together with a detailed G
statement of the receipts and expendi- I
lures, &c. On the other hand certain t
reports are left, as to subject matter, v
and extent, to the discretion e
IF the otficerof the officer making