Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-02-21

more animated and practical in the
| much smaller room which the House for
merly occupied.
Not only is the present room so big
| that only a powerful and well-trained
voice can fill it, but the desks and chairs
make a speaker feel as if he were ad-
dressing furniture rather than men,
while of the members few seem to listen
to the speeches. 1t is true that they sit
in the House instead of running out into
the lobbies, as people do in the British
house of commons, but they are more oc-
cuped in talking writing or reading
newspapers than in attending to the de-
bate.
ITO attend is not easy. for only shrill
voice can overcome the murmurous roar.
and one sometimes finds the newspapers
in describing an unusually effective speech
observe that Mr.. So and Sos speech
drew listeners from all parts of the
House. They could not hear him
where they sat. so they left their places
to crowd in the gaEgways near him.
Speaking in the House, says an
American writer, is like trying to address
the people in the Broadway omnibus from
the kerbstone in front of the Astor
House. Men of fine intellect and of good
ordinary elocuution have exclaimed in
despair that in the House of Representa-
tives the mere physical effort to be heard
uses up all the powers, SO that intellectual
action becomes impossible. The natural
refuge is written speeches or an habittual
silence. which one breads more and more
to break
1T is hard to talk calm, good sense at
the top of your voice, hard to unfold a
complicated measure. speakers vocal
organs react upon his manner, and his
manner on the substance of his speech. 1t
is also hard to thunder at an INSCRIPTIONS
majority or a fractions minority when
they do not sit opposite to you, but all
around you and behind you, as is the case
in the House.
1.-The Americans think this an ad-
vantage, because it prevents scenes Of
disorder. They may be right, but what
| order gains oratory loses.
LIT is admitted that the desks are a
| mistake. as encouraging 1nattention by
enabling men to write their letters; but,
| though nearly everybody agrees that they
would be better away, nobody supposes
that a proposition to remove them would
| succeed
Opinion of Woodrow Wilson.
80 far as the committee is informed,
| the opinion of writer's of repute upon this
subject is all one way. But since it has
cited a very great British authority, it
will quote from an eminent American
writer, President Woodrow Wilson. In his
book on Congressional Government he
says:
"'There are to begin with, physical and
debate of public affairs by the House of
Representatives is out of the question.
| To those who will visit the galleries of the
representative chamber during a session
| of the House these reasons are as obvious
| as they are astonishing.
| 1T will be natural to expect that a
| body which meets ostensibly for con-
sultation and elaboration should hold it's
sittings In a room small enough to admit
| of an easy interchange of views and a
ready concert of action. while its mem
| bers would be brought into close. SYM
pathetic contact. 1t is nothing less than
astonishing to find it spread at large
| through the vast spaces Of such a
chamber as the hall of the House of
Representatives, where there are no close
| ranks of cooperating parties, but each
member has a roomy desk and an easy
| revolving chair: where broad aisles
stretch themselves; where ample soft
carpeted areas lie about the spacious
desks of the Speaker and his clerks;
where deep galleries reach back from the
outer limits of the wide passages which
lie beyond the bar; and the immense
capacious chamber, disposing it's giant
dimensions freely beneath the great level