Evening star., 1914-07-29
The Congressional Record.
By Frederic ]. Haslin.

The second session Of the sixty-fhird
Congress has broken all records for
speechmaking. and as adjournment 10 not
yet in sight new altitude achievements
In the political atmosphere are yet to be
recorded.
As this is written the Congressional
Record. the daily report Of the proceed.
ings Of Congress. has reached a total
Of 1870 pages. The highest previous
record was that OF the first session OF
the Fifty-first Congress. Its debates nlled
a total OF 11.s47 pages Of the Congress
sional Record. At the present rate, IL
Congress should not adjourn before aus
tumn. the total for this session may ap.
proximate 10000 pages.
It Is a remarkable fact that the great
est number Of words spoken in debate on
any bill in the history OF Congress were
devoted to discussing one OF the shortest
measures OF importance ever placed on
the statute books. 1t was the Sims bill
for the repeal Of the free tolls clause OF
the Panama canal act
The bill itself Is printed In n dozen lines
Of big type on one page OF paper. In
the debates on 1t no less than 2.39O.On
words were spoken and printed In the
Record. The bill occupied the time oil
the Senate for hve weeks. and more than
a million words were spoken in debate,
after II was admitted on all sides that all
the speeches could not by any possible
chance change another vote. In this dis
cussion the Hay-Pauncefote treaty was
referred to more than 4,so0 times, which
shows in the index of the Record as the
greatest number Of references to q single
subject in the whole history OF the de-
bates OF Congress.
u
Another record broken in this session
is that Of the longest single speech.
AS a matter of
Longest Single Speech fact, it was not
Made This Session. nu, spe.ea a. the a.
matter presented in connection with
brief speech by Senator La Toilette Of
Wisconsin. and had to do with the cam
paisu for influencing the interstate
commerce commission to grant the ap-
plication of certain railroads for an in
crease in freight rates. This speech
filled a total OF 3S5 pages in the Con-
gressional Record and set a mark thai
doubtless Will not be exceeded fJr
many a year.
The Congressional Record is remark
able for many things. but perhaps tae
daily feat of its mechanical prepara-
markabie feature.
Congress take down every word said
In debate One stenographer works for
while and Is then relieved by an
other. The first man then takes his
graph while they are fresh. Clerks
take the phonograph records and tram
scribe the results of the stenographer's
notes on the typewriter.
Several copies of the typewriter re-
port are made and one always is taken
to the representative or senator who
made the particular speech. He goes
through the notes, revises them so as
to correct chance errors in grammar
or to eliminate repetitions. The type
resentative or senator by an employe
Of the government printing ONCE.
Sometimes the revised notes are not
sent back to the printing Office until
O'Clock in the morning. The Record
must be printed and ready for delivery
to all Of the members Of Congress. the
heads OF the executive departments and
the newspaper correspondents by
largest batteries of typesetting ma
chimes in the world Is employed in this
work. and the Record is never late Ia
going to press.
wise his notes in time to get them back
to the printer by 1 am holds them
longer for revision, and instead of be-
ing inserted in their proper place in the
report Of the debate. they are printed
later In the back Of some daily Record
When the permanent Record 10 made
up for the bound volumes. such
speeches go to the appendix and are
not included in the regular running
report.
y X
The wax phonograph records which
are used for transcribing debates are
shaved after
Enough Wax for each use. and
p;or-..< p.I,,.. used again and
6oSes AS~AAAvVAAAs aRafu until thAy