Newport daily independent., 1913-06-09
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nO" tue Lu creased membership of the lower branch of congress will be cared for after March 4. 1913.
 There are several propositions be for the commission the most elab- crate of which provides for rebuild. ing of the entire hall. For this pur- pose congress made an appropriation of $350, 900 at the time the commIs- sion was created. The plan for rs- constructing the hall calls for smaller floor space and larger cloak rooms. There Is z good deal of op- position to this sch eme. which is felt by many to be inconsistent with the steady growth of the house in ruem- bership
 The commission consists of Speak. CT Clark, Representative Joseph c Cannon, Samuel w. Mccall, James R. Mann. John J. Fitzgerald. Swager Sherley and former Representative William M. Howard.
 The present hall of the house GOV. CTS an area of about 3.4O0 square feet, while the reduced hail would cover only about 5000, nothwithstandin the fact that seats have to be provtd- ed for 42 additiona members.
 The present membership of the house Is 391, and in the next congress 1t will be 435. including the new mem bers from New Mexico and Arizona These men were provided with seats on the floor when they were terrttori al delegates. but did not have vote.
 In order to scat larger house in a smaller hall, the plan presented t. the commission provides for a se' 'ies of benches, instead of separats a1lairs. All desks are to be removed One of the arguments in favor of smaller hall has been that 1t would facilitate debate and that members could be heard more easily in all parts of the chamber
 But when the commission came to consider the acoustics of the present house it found that they were amaz lngly good. There Is not the slightest difficulty in member being heard from all parts of the chamber, includ. ing the galleries, If he speaks in a reasonably loud tone of voice and If the speaker preserves order. The members of the commission them selves were unable to recall any per sonal difficulty they had in trying to reach the ears of their fellow repre- sentatives.
 So excellent are the acoustics of the house chamber that for long time 1t was supposed they were more of an accident than anything else. The south wing of the capitol was begun In 1851 and the house has been occu- pying it's present chamber since Jan uary 1, 1859. This wing was con- structed under the direction of Them as U. Walter. then the architect of the capitol
 Some time ago Prof. Sabin made an elaborate inve stigatlon of the acoustics Of tho hall Of tho house. Ho used delicate Instruments and con ductsd . part of his experiments ia tho middle of tho night. when hs could bo assured of absolute cessation of other noises. He declared to Su- periatandent Elliott Woods that the acoustics of tho houses were supsrt- or to those of any similar hall in tho world. so far as his knowledge vent He also was of the opinion that this must have been largely accidental. be- cause the science of acoustics was not much developed at the middle of tho last century.
 MT. Woods became curious as to this and hunted up some old note books of MT. Walter. In them he found that the architect of the hall of the house had devoted great deal of thought and study to its acoustic properties and had considered various methods of preventing annoying echoes and of so arranging the cell ing and other features of the chamber that a human voice would carry into all parts of 1t.
 The present chamber Is exactly as It was originally built. save for fro cuent redecoration and refurnishing.