The Colorado statesman., 1908-10-03
WILL BE PALATIAL
NEW SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
NEARING COMPLETION.
Two Rooms and a Bath for Each
Statesman-Tunnel and Electric
Cars to Carry Member to
Chamber

COnlOTI Ol SeIdlOTS, lHe new senate
office building, it is now announced
will be ready for occupancy by the
time congress meets next December.
1t is now about so per cent complet-
ed and the purpose is to rush it to
completion in the next few months.
When finished the new Senate of
fee building will have cost $4,500,000,
inclusive of the site. This provides
office rooms for 80 members of the
senate and their attaches. 1t is rath-
er more than the cost of the House
office building, which was occupied
early in the last session of congress.
There is no doubt that a genuine
need for an office building of some
sort. both for the senate and the house
members, has existed.
In the capitol there are not enough
committee rooms to go around. Some
of the senators have little, dingy
rooms down in the terrace and many
are obliged to have their offices in the
old Melby building, known as the Sen
ate Annex, a short distance northwest
of the capitol. The senator who is
able to get an office room inside the
capitol building, even if it is dismal
and cramped, considers himself for
tunate.
When the Senate Office building is
completed it will connect with
the capitol by a subway, as is the
House office building, and in the sub
way will be sidewalk and an electric
car line. One will be able to de-
scend an elevator in the capitol, get
into an electric car and get out at
the foot of an elevator in the office
building. The subway itself is al
ready finished.
Each senator will be entitled to a
suite, consisting of two handsome
rooms and private bath. The build
ing will have 80 such office suites in
the three principal stories above the
basement, ten single offices and six
committee rooms, besides a confer
ence room and dining-room. The
larger room of each office suite is in
tended for the use of the senator him
self, and will be 16 by 25 feet. The
smaller room, IL by 25 feet, is for the
senator's secretary.
One of the convenient features of
the building will be the conference
second floor. 1t will be 81 by "A feet,
will seat 300 people easily, and is in
tended for public hearings.
Not the least interesting room of
the office building will be the dining
room, 30x65, on the second floor,
overlooking the capitol grounds and
the library of congress. Heref the
senators hope to be able to partake of
their mush and milk and senate pie
in something more of peace and soli-
tude than they have been able to find
end of the capitol.
One of the banalities of senate
membership is that, whereas the aver
age senator would like to HE himself
away to some secluded spot for lunch,
where his ears will not be beset with
the troubles of pension-hunting and Of
fice-seeking constituents, it is impos-
sible to exclude the proletariat entire
ly from the senate restaurant as it
now exists. 1t often happens even,
that a senator has to wait for serv-
to some mere private citizen. Sen
ators hope that under the new regime
they will be enabled to be more thor
oughly in retreat when they want to
partake of something to eat.
In design the Senate office building
| resembles the House Office building,
the two being fashioned to harmonize
with the exterior of the capitol The
house members are allowed but one
room each. number of the COM
mittee rooms will be rearranged when
the office building is completed, some
of them being in the new structure.
While in some respects the new build
ing is expected to prove a great con-
venience, yet it will have it's draw
backs. This has been shown in the
experience on the house side.
Many members find their rooms in
the office building so convenient that
they absent themselves more freely
than before from the house chamber.
So it is expected to prove on the SEN
ate side, especially when Superin-
tendent Elliott Woods gets installed in
each Office the ticker apparatus that
will enable the occupant to see at a
glance just what is going on in the
body to which he belongs. The new
office building will, moreover, greatly
increase the difficulties of finding mem
bers. This was the experience with
the House office building last winter.
The next great building that will be
erected by the government near the
capitOl will dOuhtlesc ha n ,on,,,,>di
Gus home for the United States su-
preme court. The present quarters in
the capitol are inadequate and unsatis.
| factory. Even the accommodations
| for attorneys who are forced to at