Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-08-25
KEEPING THE RECORD OF CONGRESS

run off all three may be called into serv-
Ice, the big press printing the first sixty
four pages and the smaller ones what
ever number still remains.
The Record is printed by the night force
at the printing Office, and while all the
workers may not be employed on the
Record, that is the most important piece
Of work under way then. The night force
comes on anywhere from Z, that being the
hour at which the linotype operators re-
port, until l in the morning, when the
force numbers 49, all Of whom may be
put on the Record II it is an unusually
heavy edition. The foundry force, en-
ployed in stereotyping. numbers fourteen.
In the proofroom there are ninety-three
people. Only about half OF them read
proof on the Record, however. The bind
cry force numbers thirty-four. while the
pressroom force consists of four press
men and about six laborers.
Sam Robinson and Billy Madden
begin their work at about In the even
ing, the stereotypers beginning at Z. Al
the following morning the Records are
at the post Office, rol. ed, wrapped ana
addressed. Each day. in the division OF
wrappers for the Congressional Record
are printed. after which they are sent
to the bindery room, there to await the
night force. AS soon as the Record comes
off the presses 1t Is taken to this room,
where 1t Is put on machines which gather
all the parts together in proper order and
put the little wire staples through. thus
making the completed copy. Each copy
Is then rolled and wrapped, and placed In
q mail bag ready to be sent out. ABOUT
the remainder going by mail to SUBJ
scribers.
The nightly edition Of the Record
varies. An average edition Is about
26,65O, although at the
Circulation present time nearly 10000
copies are run off each
lsuIes. night. Each senator is al
lowed eighty-seven copies Of the Record
to send out, while each representative Is
allowed fifty-nine for the same purpose
The full quota Is not printed. however.
as that would reach about $4,000. What
ever number Of copies member rails
short Of in his daily quota he Is allowed
to make up in the bound or permanent
edition. It is estimated that about 5000
sets of the permanent edition will be
printed this year.
The size Of the Congressional Record
for a session is, of course. dependent
upon the amount of business transacted
during that time For instance. the first
session Of the present Congress lasted liz
days and 4,G64 pages Of the Record were
required to report it. while the present
session has been a little less than twice
that long, but has required three times
as much space in the Record. In one
year 1886 pages OF type were set up Tor
session, while the total edition num-
bered 4S,023449 pages. There were
more than 100000 bound volumes that
same year. Dependent upon the size,
too, is the price. The regular subscrip-
ton price is S1.50 month. or $500
short and $500 a long session. Single
copies, however, are priced by the Sig
nature, one signature being eight pages,
and costing l cent. Thus one days
Record may cost or 5 cents, while
another may cost 20 cents.
The cost of printing the Record varies
each year. For the year ending June 30
1911, the cost was $437. 1897, of which
amount $5O,3S3 went for paper. $76622
for composition and SS4,327 for binding
the permanent edition.
4 y
Every two weeks an index is published
with the Record, this forming one of the
most important parts of
Fortnightly the publication. The index
AAucA. office building. Fl. L. Stray
err Is the chief indexer The indexing is
done under the card system. OF which
there are some 9. 500 separate cards Each
days edition of the Record is gone over
minutely by the six persons doing this
work and the indexing is classified under
three heads-personal, that is, under the
name of each senator or representative.
according to subjects, and topical to some
extent this classification containing such
topics as United States courts. army,
navy, District of Columbia and the other
important matters. Every two weeks
when the index is published the Records
for the period of the index covers and
that index are made into one volume.
paper covered. Another index has to be
made for the permanent bound edition of
the Record. The difference between the
daily copies of the Record and the per-
manent edition is that in the latter all
matter appears in its proper place. head
ings are cut and unnecessary matter Is
discarded. This process alters the num-
bering of the pages and consequently
changes the paging shown In the BIZ
monthly index. This must be corrected for
the permanent edition index. and in adj
dition the work is gone over with eagle
like minuteness in order to insure absolute
accuracy in the index for the permanent
work.
With the convening Of the first session
of the American Congress no word-for-
word reports were made. At that time
such reports as were taken were known
as the annals of Congress" These ran
until 1924. when the title was changed to
the Register Of Debates" This account
of the proceedings. while not full. con-
tanned considerably more material than
the former style Of report. This contin-
ued until 1888, when the Congressional
Globe came into existence, continuing
until 1873. All this time the printing of
the congressional reports had been done
under contract, even after 1861, the year
in which the government printing office
was established. In 1873, however, the
federal government took over the print
time that the Congressional Record made
it's appearance.
Since the beginning of Congress, up to
and including the present session, the
volumes contained in the
Increase in permanent edition number
Size. n,sts set ., these Volumes
would probably bring a much higher
price, that quoted by the superintendent
of documents is approximately $40. The
usual price for each volume is $1.5O. al
though Of recent years the price has
reached as high as $3.50. During the
early years of Congress a single volume
was sufficient for the abbreviated reports
given of the proceedings OF an entire ses-