Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-12-31
BENCH CONGRESS
LIKE COMMONS
Plans Reduce House 01e-third,
but With More Seats.
SHELVES TO REPLACE DESKS.
Changes Likely to Be Made In Time
For Opening Of sixty-second Session
In December, 1911 -Orators Will
Benefit, as Extreme Lung Power Will
Not Be Necessity.

oonoUI, dS G%tToUo IHHS Vo"ST WIZ
Not Be Necessity.
Plans for reducing by over one-third
the size of the hall in which the na-
tional house Of representatives sits and
yet increa sing 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 converting 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 tho 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 a reduction in the size
of the hall Of the house has been con-
tinuous for several years. Many men,
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 hall 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. IT the
American representative must use his
extreme lung power with every word
In order to be heard, 1t il argued, how
can he make an impression as an ora
tor?
The plan now proposed will not IN
volve any structural changes In tne
main walls Of the capitol, and If afte1
trial the new house is found to be un
satisfactory or too small the hall car
be changed to its present size oy
knocking out of the partitions which
practically make the smaller hall
chamber within a chamber. That
what the latest plan proposes-to cree
partitions Of a substantial characte
within the present chamber and t.
devote part Of the present door spac
to longing and cloak rooms.
Smaller Than Present Senate.
If the plan now proposed is carries
out the hall in which will sit the 40
members Of the house will be smalle
than the chamber in which gather tn
ninety-two-soon to be ninety six
United States senators. The senat
chamber is 113 feet long by 80 fee
: vide, to accommodate the same nun
Der.
One Of the objections raised agains
the former plan for smaller hous
. was that pillars were to be place
front Of the galleries. Under