Newport daily independent. (Newport, Ark.) 1901-1929, 1913-04-02
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TVWT 1N19T7t III
ktnSiEhuIke 9. Il

creased membership OF tue NV.
branch of congress will be cared lo'
after March 4, 1913.
There are several propositions Do
for the commission, the most eiau-
crate of which provides for reou'i1'
ing of the entire hall For TINS pui'
nose congress made an appropriation
of s35O,oO0 at the time the conlliS-
sion was created. The plan LOT 10
constructing the hall calls TOT
smaller floor space and larger CLOAK
rooms. There is good deal OF op'
position to this scheme, which Is lei'
by many to be inconsistent VITA tne
steady growth of the house IN 1oeM
bership.
The commission consists OF SPEAK
er Clark, Representative Joseph "
Cannon, Samuel w. Mccall, James H.
Mann, John ]. Fitzgerald. SWaeer
sherley and former Representative
William NJ Howard.
The present hall Of the house Gov
ers an area of about s.400 square feet
while the reduced hall would cover
only about 5000. notwithstanding
the fact that seats have to be prov'o'
ed for ~ additiona members.
The present membership OF the
house Is 3s1, and in the next congress
It will be AIS, including the new men,
bers from New Mexico and Arizona
Thess men Fsre provided With seat'
on the door when they were TERRITORY
al delegates, but did not have q vote
In order to seat = larger house In
q smaller hall. the plan presented t.
the commission provides for a So
ries of benches, instead Of separate
chairs. 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 1t found that they were amaz
ingly good. There is not the slightest
difficulty In a member being heard
from all parts of the chamber, includ
ing the galleries, If he speaks in a
reasonably loud tone of voice and II
the speaker preserves order. The
members of the commission them
selves were unable to recall any per
sonal difficulty they had in trying tc
reach the ears of their fellow repre-
sentatives.
So excellent are the acoustics of the
house chamber that for a long time
it was supposed they were more of ar
accident than anything else. The
south wing Of the capitol was begur
In 1851 and the house has been occu
plying its present chamber since Jan
uary 4. 1859. This wing was con
structed under the direction of Thorn
% q. Walter, then the architect o.
the capitol.
Some time ago Prof. Sabin mad.
an elaborate invs stigat1on Of tn,
acoustics of the hall Of the house. H,
used delicate instruments and con
Quoted a part Of his experiments ig
the middle Of the night, when b.
could DO assured Of absolute cessation
Of other noises. He declared to Su
perintendent Elliott Woods that tn,
acoustics Of the houses were superi
or to those of any similar hall In tn,
world. SO far as his knowledge went
He also was Of the opinion that thi.
must have been largely accidental, be
cause the science of acoustics was no
much developed at the middle of tn,
last century.
Mr.. Woods became curious as t,
this and hunted up some old note
books of Mr.. Walter. In them h,
found that the architect Of the hall q
the house had devoted great IL
of thought and study to its acs
properties and had considere' 70 49,
methods Of preventt,sas annov1ns
ecnoes ana OF .. - arranging the cell,
ing anu Htner features Of the chamber
tnat human voice would carry into
ar parts Of It,
The present chamber is exactly az
Il was originally built, save for fre-