The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-01-01
IMPROVEMENT BADLY NEEDED
Hall of the House Not in Proper SAN
ftary Condition.

1t has long been admitted that some
thing should be done for the hall Of the
| House of Representatives to make 1t more
habitable. Many plans have been propos-
ed from time to time, and all have failed
of adoption. Beautiful as the Capitol I'M
doubtedly is from the outside, it would be
hard to conceive more unsanitary, badly
arranged building on the inside. This is
not strange, as the Capitol was not con-
structed for Congress as large as the
present or for the needs of nation OF
10000, 000 people. The ventilation has al
ways been a most troublesome question,
and the process of solution has cost an
enormous amount of money The base
inent has many dark and eheerless rooms,
almost uniighted and unyentilated, the
restaurants are almost underneath the
ground and the House present atiSes
sits in close quarters To remedy all the
numerous defects of the present building
at one time is manifestly impossible. for
it would take so long to correct them
that Congress would be compelled to sit
in a torn-up building. But one by one
they can be taken in hand and gradually
the Capitol can be brought to conform 10
modern ideas of a building for a great
legislative body. Preliminary to other
changes Ii Is proposed to reconstruct the
House of Representatives, and Chairman
Prince. of the Committee on Ventilation
and Acoustics, has introduced bill for
that purpose.
After considerable study and discussion
a commission once prepared plans for the
remodeling of the House. 1t is along the
lines OF this plan that it is proposed the
alterations shall be made. Briefly tEey
contemplate the removal of the desks
from the chamber, the chairs to be re-
placed by benches. The dimensions OF
the chamber are to be contracted and the
space about the sides to be utilized for
reading writing and smoking rooms. 4
new system of ventilating is contemplated.
Aside from the fact that the chamber
would thus be made more habitable, the
great argument from a popu ar point OF
view in favor of the proposed change is
that the business Of the House would be
greatly expedited. At present the men,
bers who .,ttend the sessions devote most
of their time In the chamber 10 reading
and writing and conversation. Ordinarily
little attention is paid to what Is being
said or what business is being transacted,
with the result that because Of the confu-
sion much OF the time is wasted. On the
other hand an argument used against the
removal of the desks is that II the mem
bers were to carry on their correspond
ence elsewhere and did not have the at
fractions of a desk to hold them in the
House the greatest difficulty would be ex-
perienced in securing and maintaining
quorum Thirty members of the House
OF Commons is a sufficient number to
transact business, but a majority of the
House of Representatives is required.
An attempt was made two years ago to
pass a similar bill, but Speaker Reed de-
clined to let It come up, largely on the
ground that it would create too much I'M
favorable comment to the effect that the
House was patterning after the House of
Commons The advocates of the plan for
gemodeling the House are hopeful that the
bill Will pass this year, as the work can be
done only during the long recess. and if
not done during the coming summer two
years must elapse before sufficient time
will be had.