The Washington herald., 1911-03-01

The friends of Champ Clark are play
fully asking him to be allowed TO see a
copy Of an impromptu speech he de-
livered last Friday morning before a Sc
lect audience which gathered into the
hearing room Of the House Committee on
Ways and Means with all the secrecy i'm
aginable-
It was a rafting good speech, accord
ing to general rumor, even II it was
evolved merely for the purpose of de-
termfntng the accuracy and speed OF
fifteen shorthand writers.
Incidentally with the speech, certain
details Of the shorthand gathering, rang
ing all the way from the ridiculous to the
downright serious, have begun to leak
out The meeting was called for the
purpose of discovering the best shorthand
writer to I'LL one of the four positions
OF committee stenographer in the House
The recent death of a. G. Welch, of the
House CORPS Of debate reporters. caused
the promotion of one of the committee
stenographerS and left a vacancy in that
body. The position pays a salary OF
5000 a year.
The Stenographers Assemble.
Inasruuch as Mr.. Clark was soon to
become Speaker. and the committee
stenographers are the Speakers to desig-
nate, Mr. Cannon agreed that his sue
cessor-tO-be should do the selecting
Scores of applications for the job which
had poured in were turned over to him.
Mr.. Clark decided that the only fair and
proper way to determine the appointee
was to hold a test. He named the re-
naming three committee stenographers
as the judges of the test, and gave notice
that he would hold the examination him
self in the Ways and Means Committee
room on Friday morning.
The candidates were cautioned to as
semble with as little oStentstion as pos
sibie and TO keep the meeting secret,
for it was desired that there be as few
spectators as possible, and no newspaper
Spectators at all The reporters, II was
reasoned, might find something funny to
write concerning the contest which as
a matter Of fact, was no laughing matter.
Initiating a House Debate
As near as can be learned, no specta-
tors were present outside of Representa-
tive Hughes, Of New Jersey, who is to
be a member OF the new Ways and Means
Committee. To Mr.. Hughes, so it is re-
ported, the striving contestants owe their
rescue from complete annihilation in the
first round, for Mr.. Clark, armed with
book which is said to be Buckles His
tory of Civilization" commenced clat-
ter which he intended should be an ini-
tation of a busy day of debate in the
House. According TO one shorthand man. S
description, he rolled through several
paragraphs like a jack rabbit going
through a corn field. and inserted enough
jerks and qIIavers to make it sound like
recitative in grand opera One by one
the competing stenographers blew up
Half a dozen threw down their pencils at
the end of the first paragraph A few
tattooed their paper bravely through to
the end, and then nearly fell into fits of
exhaustion Representative Hughes sprang
10 the rescue by intimating that no de-
bate on earth ever went that fast or
sounded like what Mr. Clark was pro-
ducing. He protested that the contestants
should have a better show. The judges
Joined in the remOnstrance, and the fab
bergasted shorthand writer's themselves
emitted something like a gentle roar.
But that's about the way the average
debate sounds in the House." protested
Mr. Clark. IF you fellows can't write
that fast and catch on to what I'm read
ing, maybe you had better quit trying for
this job