The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1922-08-25

his two daughters.
At Mr. Gillett's left stands a young
man who is official timekeeper
Whenever q member Is recognized tt
speak he has definite amount OF
time. Rarely 1t Is an hour. occasion
ally 1t Is 80 minutes, but usually 1t Is
only FIVE or ten minutes. The time
keeper notifies the speaker and the
speaker calls the member down at the
end of his allotted time. BY unau6-
nous consent the member Is some
times permitted to proceed for five or
ten minutes longer, and have seen
members plead and beg the house for
five minutes, or two minutes or one
minute more, like Methodist preach
err pleading for money to pay off the
church debt Sometimes 1t Is grant
ed, but often member says II OBJ
Ject." and that settles 1t.
PariiamertarIan 10 Important.
AT the right of the speaker stands
another young man who is the par
Humanitarian. This young man Is sup
posed to be thoroughly posted and
trained In the rules and presidents
Of the house. He has various books
Of rules and precedents at hand, and
advises with, the speaker when any
knotty, points Of order are to be de-
cided.
The house has been run mostly BY
lawyers for a hundred years or more,
and 1t Is not q difficult matter for
some lawyer member to dig up q prec-
edent on either side of any parlia-
fnentary question brought up. The
house had q speaker one time Of the
name Of Crisp His son Charles be-
came the parfiamsntArian for Speaker
CLARK. Charles is now a valued mem
Der Of the house. In tho last congress
we had both ax-Speaker Cannon and
ex-Speaker Clark on the floor. but they
all differ some times on points Of OF
der. It was one. Of tia pleasures Of
Republicans TO rsfer occasionally to
the fact that Speaker CLARK ruled
"thus and sor at acme TINA In the past,
and Speaker Gafk announced several
times In his fscsHoos way: "As
member on the Hooe AZ the house.
do not propose to be bound by any ruL
ings l made from the apeaker's chair"
SO you can zee that with couple, OF
hundred lawyers In the house there Ia
at times much argument and jangling |
over points Of order and modes Of pro
cedure.
Mann Knows Al the Rules.
However, when James R. Mann b
on the floor the chair soon gets some
advice that he can depend upon. il
think that Mr., Mann knows more about
the rules and precedents of the house
than all the other members combined,
and he usually has his way. because
knows what he Is talking about
In front and below the speaker at
another marble desk are the reading
clerks, men have 10 be men of consid-
cradle ability.
Below and In front are the Congress
sional Record clerk and the official re-
porters Every word that Is spoken In
the house Is taken down by an official
There are FIVE or six
Of them. They work in shifts OF about
20 minutes each AS soon as STE
nographer is through with his task he
goes to his room and reads his notes
Into q photograph. An an1anuensis
takes the record and puts the stuff
through a typewriter and within an
hour a member may read and correct
the speech he has made.
Tomorrow morning the Congression-
al Record will contain a complete re-
port Of today's proceedings. The Rec
ord is a little abused, think It Is
publication and contains much
little hunror, some wis
dom, and a minute report Of the
Of the house. It con-
tains some speeches that are not de-
ivered In the house. Members occa.
get permission to extend their
and speech Of FIVE minutes
nay be extended over several pages.
To do this unanimous consent must
De asked in each instance, which
means that II any member merely says,
Il object" the permission is not grant
ID. There are watchdogs of the Rec
ord as there are Of the treasury, and
frequently objects. Mr.. Clark
once said that the greatest speech ever
made on an important subject of in.
terest to the country was put in the I
Record by Samuel ]. Randall, and
was not made in the house.
The Congressional Record is issued
1ally during the sessions Of congress.
A member has only about fifty copies
At his disposal. These he sends to IL
Draries, clubs, newspapers and places
where they may be seen by the pub ,
lie at large. He cannot fill out many
individual requests. Those who are ,
in the Congressional Record
however. can subscribe for 1t at $50
per month.
Cat Turns on Gas and Dies.