El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-02-12
RENE BACHE'S BUDGET
CONGRESSIONAL BURROWS
LEGISLATIVE RAT HOLES HAVE UNDERMINED
THE CAPITOL HILL.
For Heating and Lighting Purposes-NewS Senate Wing,
Just Finished, the Handsomest Office Building in
the World Housekeeping for Congressman on
Gigantic Scale.

VTAsHINGToN. D. G. Feb. "a
~ By next month the wonderful
w new power plant established
by congress, four blocks south of the
capitol. will be started up. supplying
with light and heat not only the capitol
itself, but also the two great office
buildings of house and senate, and the
national library. 1t is a very inter
esting engineering enterprise, the whole
of Capitol hill having been literally
undermined with burrows TO carry the
pipes and wires for the purpose.
Henceforward there will be no sepa-
rate outfit for heating or illumination
in any of the above mentioned build
ings, all of which will depend for
Hight and warmth upon the power
plant in question. The latter is con-
nected by a cement lined conduit, big
enough for man to walk through,
with the system of tunnels, newly con-
structed, which joins the library Of
congress to the capitol and the two
huge white marble annexes. All Of
the system described is subterranean n,
not sign of it appearing above
ground
Senate Office Building.
The starting up Of the power plant
is practically coincident with the COM
pletion of the senate annex, which.
about a year behind the house annex
in its construction, has only just re-
ceived its finishing touches. 1t stands
today, however, beyond comparison the
handsomest and most magnificently
equipped office building in the world
To all intents and purposes. 1t is an
immense hotel, and is conducted on
that basis, save only for the fact that
it contains no bedrooms 1t is for
daylight use only, and nobody sleeps
in it.
There are 10 suites of rooms. All
Of them are beautifully furnished. and
they differ in point of disturbances
only through the fact that some of
them comprise three rooms, while 9TH
ers have but two. Each senator has
a suite for his own exclusive occu-
pancy. and in every instance the apart
ment is connected with the meeting
room of a committee over which the
senator himself presides as chairman.
These committee rooms, by the way,
are superbly fitted up, the great table
around which the members sit on leath
er covered chairs being Of massive
mahogany.
Cost Same as House Offices.
The house office building, which in
plan and external aspect resembles that
of the senate, is quadrangular in shape.
But the senate annex, though Of the
same dimensions, has no fourth side.
Thus ($2, 100000 having been originally
appropriated for each of the two build
ings), it has been found practicable to
make the newly finished senate wing
far more beautiful and luxurious in
side than that of the house of repre-
sentatives. The money saved by omit
ting the fourth, or east, side, has been
put into interior improvements.
Now, there is a good deal about this
new senatorial palace that is out of
the ordinary. For one thing, there
are no charwomen. All of the clean
ing and busting, etc., is done by the
might men, who, Is in number, come
on duty at midnight, and go off at s.
o'clock in the morning. Thus, the sena-
tor, when he comes to his rooms, finds
them in perfect shape. He is not both
cred by intrusions for cleaning pur-
poses, and never even sees. the person
who does the work
When a senator wants anything, he
tells his clerk (paid by the government
to telephone to the hotel office-that is
TO say, to the office Of the building,
which is on the first floor, just inside
the main entrance. There are II mes
sengers and laborers always on duty
in the daytime, and they are at the
service of the occupants Of the legis-
lative flats. No women are employed
in the building, save only three. Of
cOlored persuasion, who have charge
Of the retiring rooms for women Wis
itors.
The housekeeping of the senatorial