The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1900-06-14
INDEXING THE WIS.
MEMORiZiNG DEVICES IN THE GOV
EMINENT BUREAUS.
The Method by Which the Mass of
Legislation Which Congress En-
acts Each Year Is Untangled and
Sent to It's Proper Department..


Legislation Which Congress En-
acts Each Year Is Untangled and
Sent to It's Proper Department.
In view OF, the immense mass Of leg
islation which congress enacts from
year to year, much Of it simply In the
form Of half hidden clauses attached
to appropriation bills, strangers often
wonder how any one can keep tracy
Of the details and make sure that soH,s
Of the minor laws are executed. When
a bill Is In the last stages preceding
completion, 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 con-
gress 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 question. in
surfing the compilation of one more
public document which few persons
outside will ever read and at which not
one congressman in so 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
department to ask the reason why. 1t
Is enough for him that the lawmaking
power has issued it's command and fur
nished him with the men and the mon
ey 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? When the accumu-
lation of statistics for whole session
is bound up in fat book in the chron-
illogical order of their approval by the
president, how is any one to dig out
the details that the secretary of the
treasury and the secretary Of the in
terror must know?
This is the work of digest clerks and
indexers. who take each enactment
and cut it into bits. One bit in the leg
islative appropriation act. another in
the sundry civil act, third in an ur-
gent deficiency act, fourth in gen.
eral deficiency act and fifth perhaps
in special statute, all relate to one
subject and belong together. Each
subject has it's proper place under one
of the broad heads. legislative. execu-
tive or judicial. and again under one
of the subcategories as pertaining to
the senate or the department of the in
terror or the circuit court of appeals or
what not. When. therefore, all the
fragments of legislation for session
are shifted about and regrouped &C.
cording to topics and the topics arrang-
ed in their normal order. we have
very simple but effective digest for ref
erence on any subject touched by con-
gress.
With a pretty exhaustive index add
ed we can do either Of two things
consult the index for the specific title
of a certain subject or search the body
of the book for the subject itself. in it's
place in a certain invariable order of
topical sequence. For example. If we
wish to ascertain how much it has cost
to light the New York postofice build
ing for a certain year. we may either
look in the index under New York"
or we may turn in the digest itself to
the executive branch Of the govern
ment, there find the appropriations for
the treasury and in the group of public
buildings under 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 distri-
button Of functions between the sew !,
eral bureaus and divisions of each de-
partment there is no difficulty in each
functionary's learning from the digest
just what he is to do and usually how
he is to do 1t. Y.
But what shall keep congress remind
ed Of the reports and recommendations
which it has ordered all these persons
to prepare? Here comes another mem
orizing device. A standing rule of the
houco of roproSopfafivpS roO11iroS tho
clerk Of that body to submit at the be-
ginning Of every session list of the
reports which any Of the laws say shall
be made to congress during that ses-
sion. He incloses the list in formal
letter of transmittal to the speaker,
and letter and list are printed together
as a document. Each page is ruled in
four columns. the first containing the
title Of the officer and the nature Of the
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