Evening star., 1921-12-18
"BEHIND THE SCENES"

Of the members and run their errands
, quickly.
| Preserving the utterances of the
| great statesmen for history and pos
! terity during the last thirty-one
! years. Fred Irland has been on the
| job. as official reporter of debate. Tie
was appointed to the floor by Speaker
! Reed without applying for the posi-
ton. Having been on duty so long
! he is senior man on the corps. six in
all. They take their turns in 1900
| word relays, then dictate their notes
! to monographs, and this is imme
| diately Transcribed, making the copy
| available for the members within
| half an hour after the speech is de-
| livered.
! Mr. Irland is a member Of the bar
| of the Supreme Court of the United
States. and also studied medicine. He
/ knows Greek, Latin, German and
| French, and finds all very useful in
! the understanding of English. He
has found that members of the House
! in their quotations refer to three
great sources, consciously or uncon-
|
Horace-which he defines as "the
| three great sources of the common
| wisdom of life"
THOSE who know Congress best re-
alize that only small portion Of
| the work of that legislative body is
lactually done on the floor. Most of
& -,
! there the clerk of the committee plays
very important part. This is espe-
| cially true in the case of the super
| appropriations committee, which is
| now handling the first federal budget.
Marcellus C. Shield during the last
! fourteen years. has prepared appro-
priation bills carrying total of
| considerably more than s25,0o0,000.o00
i-and no man in the world can come
anywhere near reaching that record.
! Few members of Congress even
/ know the difference between the en-
crossing and enrolling of bill, or
! how it is handled after the House
! votes upon 1t. There is special
clerk to handle this work-W. H.
! Overhue-who is now serving his
| second trip on this job. He was here
! first in the Sixtieth, Sixty-first and
| Sixty-second Congresses. When Champ
| Clark was Speaker Mr.. Overdue went
| back home to Illinois. He is from
\ Uncle Joe" Cannon's district. He has
been back here again during the
Sixty-sixth and Sixty-seventh Con-
/ 10 assistant
rolling clerk under c. r. McKenney
of Minnesota. who held the job for
more than twenty-five years.
X X X
oF course any big organization like
" Congress has to have a cashier
and so Kenneth Romney has been in
the cage for five years. He handles
! in cash about $10.000,000 a year. He
has charge Of disbursement of sal
| aries and mileage to members of the
House. In addition to this he cashes
checks for all employees of the Capt.
| tol and House Office building on pay
day, and this frequently runs $780,
! 600 a day. 1t used to be the policy
| of that Office not to cash checks for
i extended the service and will cash
checks for any one who can prove his
identity. and he has never lost cent
through this courtesy.
Mr.. Romney was educated at the
University Of Washington at Seattle.
He had no previous banking expe-
rience, but was a newspaper man. He
first came to Washington with the
Montana delegation in 1914, and for
a time was assistant serseant-at-
! arms. Among his achievements he is
proudest of the fact that he organ
ICED "The Little Congress-" composed
of House employees, secretaries to
members of Congress-, etc, who hold
meetings at which matters of national
Importance are debated. to get expe-
rience In public speaking and famil-
iarity with parliamentary procedure.
Mr.. Romney was speaker OF 'The
Little CoE.reSS."