The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1910-12-21
BENCH CONGRESS-
LIKE COMMONS
Plans Reduce House third,
but With More Seats.
SHELVES TO REPLACE DESKS.

Changes Likely to Be Made In Time
For Opening of Sixty y-seeond Session
In December, 1911 - Orators Will
Benefit, as Extreme Lung Power Will
Not Be Necessity.
Plans for reducing by over one-third
the size of the hall in which the ma
honal house of representatives sits and
yet increasing the number of seats for
members have just been completed.
They will be brought to the official at
tention of the members of the house
within short time, with the expecta-
ton that they will be approved and
that the work of alteration will be car
ried out in the eight months interven-
ing between the adjournment of the
present session and the convening of
the house of the Sixty second congress.
The present hall of the house is 139
feet long by % feet wide. Under the
new plans it will be only 80 feet long
and 81 feet wide. In the present hall
there are individual chairs and desks
for each member; in the proposed hall
there will be rows of chairs, as in the
big theaters, with shelf in front upon
which one who is speaking can put his
notes and other books and papers
Less Lung Power Necessary.
Agitation for reduction in the size
of the hall of the house has been con.
tinuous for several years. Many mem
bers have felt that they would like to
be heard all over the chamber without
shouting and without having lung
power made the test of their oratorical
ability. The present hall is so large
that the left hand side doesn't hear
what the right hand side is saying
Visitors to the house who have heard
the great debates in the house of com
mons or in the chamber of deputies
have not been complimentary to the
American statesmen, and their com
ments have More than once drifted to
the ears of members of the house.
In searching for a cause the Ameri-
can politicians have discovered 1t in
the size of the hail in which they must
carry on their debates. The other
parliamentary bodies with which they
have been compared meet in chambers
of much smaller size, in which every
infection of the voice is clear. II the
American representative must use his
extreme lung power with every word
in order to be heard, it is argued, how
can he make an impression as an ora
tor?
The plan now proposed will not in
TOlve any structural changes in the
I'm Of p1 nd nf
trial the new house is found to be un.
satisfactory or too small the hall can
be changed to its present size by
knocking out of the partitions which
practically make the smaller hall
chamber within a chamber. That's
what the latest plan proposes-to erect
partitions of II substantial character
within the present chamber and to
devote a part of the present floor space
to lounging and cloak rooms.
Smaller Than Present Senate.
If the plan now proposed is carried
out the hall in which will sit the 400
members of the house will be smaller
than the chamber in which gather the
ninety ty-two-soon to be ninety-six-
cillth FNllltS StHdlbIS. ne StudlS
chamber is 113 feet long by so feet
wide. to accommodate the same num-
ber.
One of the objections raised against
the former plan for a smaller house
was that pillars were TO be placed in
front of the galleries. Under the new
plan there will be no pillars except
in front Of the press gallery, but the
press gallery will run the entire length
of the house ana therefore give the
newspaper men more room than they
have had
Inasmuch as the ceiling will not be
lowered, it is thought that the other
galleries, while reduced in length In
accordance with the reduced length OF
the sides, will be wider and have
enough more rows of seats to accom-
modate the same number as now.