Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1907-10-11
C0NeRESSMEN IN CLOVER

NSINNNIseS
Representatives VIII BE Ready for Use
In Deeember-senate ONCE Building
VIII Be Even Finer.
The office building of the House Of
Representatives win be ready for the &C.
cupancy OF the $50 members Of that body
when Congress meets in December. Each
member will have one large, well-lighted
and richly furnished room. Heretofore,
only chairmen OF committees were sup
piled with office rooms at government
expense, and even some of the chairmen
had to be satisfied with dingy, little
offices down in the basement of the
capitol where natural light never pene-
trated and where air was always bad
says the Washington correspondent Of
the New York Post.
The new building Is one OF the largest
and most luxurious distinctively office
buildings in the world. 1t will have cost
when completed about s3,100, 900. II is only
two stories high. but 1t covers an entire
block. 1t contains four hundred rooms
After the members have all been pro-
vided for there will be rooms that may
be used for committee work, II members
prefer them to the rooms that are now
occupied in the capitol.
The most exacting member of the House
will not find much lacking in his room
whom he arrives ready to take possession
A set of solid mahogany furniture has
been ordered for each room, including n
large desk for the member, a desk for
his clerk, a centre table, and a type
writing desk and easy chairs The gov
eminent will maintain a telephone in each
room over which the member may call
up his contingents back home provided
he is willing to stand for the tolls. He
will not have to meet any charges for
m biG friends in Washington
1t is proposed also to put in each room
a dictograph or some similar instrument
which will enable the member, II he be
indisposed, or busy with his office work,
to put a receiver to his ear and hear
what Is going on in the House one block
away. This instrument will connect with
a disc on the speakers desk, which will
pick up every sound in the hall and carry
it to each OF the $50 members rooms in
the, office building.
Down in the basement of the building
there will be a restaurant exclusively
for the members, also big swimming
pool and bath rooms, There Will be a
barber shop and most of the accessories of
a first class office building, or even modern
hotel. There will not be a bar. Repre-
sentative Charles B. Lands put the con-
gresslonal bar out of business perma-
nently.
Each OF the political parties will be pro-
Vided with a caucus room capable of seat
ing about 300 persons. At a cost of
about SIS, 900, a tunnel is being construc-
ted which will connect the office building
with the capitol. Through this passage
way, which will be as inviting as the cor
ridor in either building, the members may
pass back and forth between the two
buildings without having to brave the
weather
1t may be that some of the members
who buck at the lodging prices charged
by Washington boarding houses may de-
eide to put folding beos in their offices,
and thus make the office building a per-
manent place of abode during their stay
here. AS yet the superintendent OF the
capitol has not decided whether this
would be permissible. 1t is probable that
In the assignment of rooms In the new
building members may be grouped ac-
cording to states.
The Senate office building, which is a
counterpart of the House building, will
not be completed until one year from
December. 1t win be even more luxur-
ious than the House building. AS there
are only ninety-one senators (ninety-two
counting the new state OF Oklahoma),
the government will be able to provide
each senator with a suite OF rooms.
The erection OF the two congressional
office buildings has changed greatly the
general appearance of Capitol Hill. The
office building Of the House is to the east
and south Of the capitol, the Senate
office building to the east and north. They
form a part of the general scheme for
the Identification OF the national capitol
Ia Congress at the coming session, will
be asked to take additional steps toward
carrying out that scheme.