Arizona republican., 1921-07-26
By Frederic j. Haskin

WASHINGTON, D. C. July 25-lt has been suggested, perhaps not all together as a joke, that General Dawes might tackle congress in his dollar saving campaign, and that he might use his influences particularly to prune the Congressional Record.
 By persuading congress to econo- mize on anecdotes and allusions to. "this great and noble republic" the general might be able to cut down the 57.00O words which daily are immor- ta1ized in the pages of the Record and dispatched to a waiting world. which regularly consume some pages Or. he might be able to stanch the steady flow of extended remarks which regularly consume some pages of the congressional news sheet.
 These are radical departures to suggest, but General Dawes seems to be able to produce radical changes, and with minimum of effort. No one seems to know if he has turned his attention to the reckless use of words in congress, but some seem to think it quite possible that the gen. eral will get to congress in time, in his search for superfluous expendi- tures
 Already, officials in governmental departments have been deprived of cherished prerogative-that of select ing the style and make of furniture most in keeping with their personal ity. and rank. Henceforth. says Di- rector Dawes, briefly, government office furniture will be of standard type. How many layers of red tape the general cut through to make this ultimatum possible no one has stopped to figure out. But the in cident shows that the budget is be- ing reduced without ceremony and in places where it was supposed to be invulnerable. Hence the remarks that have been heard regarding con- gressional oratory and the record thereof.
 Once Written by Hand
 The Congressional Record started out in 1872 to be an accurate journal of the proceedings of congress each day. Before that. hand written account had been kept by a secretary and for while a private newspaper had contracted to publish the pro- ceedings for s750 a column.
 One congressman in an early ses- sion overcame a feeble sentiment in favor of a congressional publication by showing that every congressman would want not less than four copies and that the resulting expense would be SO exorbitant that the republic would not stand for the extravaganza mat r1TlIlY SldltSlIldI1 NOuIu ldNt looked forward to a time when every senator would have SS copies of ths Record. and every representative 60 to distribute, he might have prophe sled the financial ruin of the country The Record has become an entirely | different publication from the ont planned by it's founders. It is al l much of record of what congress l men would like to say on the floor al | af hair SnanchoS n the l a member can talk at length withou 1 interruption and there are less than 1 hundred men to want the floor. Blu | in the house every minute Of tim 1 must be parceled out, and the unin l fluential member or the new on | finds weeks passing without his voic l being heard in the halls of congress. Chairmen allot time to certain | members of their committees to dis cuss the bills that have been consid | cred in committee meetings. Tn time assigned is generally brief, bu
 with 435 representatives, the anna teur congressman finds small chanc | to get into the spotlight. In thi predicament he turns hopefully
 the Congressional Record wher every congressman's chances ar
 equal.
 One new member was recognize for a minute after weeks of impa tient waiting. and after dramati pause, he said sadly that he had bee trying to make a speech for som time, and if there wasn't time for tha he would at least like permission | extend some remarks in the Recor with Laughter and applause in serted at suitable places. The hous laughed, but the young congressma l was statirizing a common practice. | "Extendino Remarks"
 | Representative unable to get tn
 house to listen to their speeches o
 local improvements or even on ma
 tional questions have long been ac
 customed to introduce a bill and hay .l their remarks extended in the Recort
 There at least they blazon forth wit
 oratorial flourishes and the dramati
 effect heightened as the 'humoris
 suggested by Laughter" and "Gres
 Applause marked in brackets by th
 author of the speech after the be:
 points in the discourse.
 l These speeches go back to the rer
 resentative's home news papers, lit
 raries and postoffices. They are.
 hopes published abroad to show ths
 while congress may be accused of da
 lying, one representative of the pee
 pie is not asleep at the post.
 The extension of remarks is pel
 haps a wise expedient in that it save
 time on the floor for important ma
 ters. But the privilege has undoub
 edly been abused. Before electic | time 2 candidate for re-elecfion h.