The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1922-11-23
Locking In on Congress From
the House Gallery
CONGRESSMANS DAY
BY CONGRESSMAN GUY u. HARDY
Copyright. 1922. Western Newspaper Union
A CONGRESSMAN'S A
BY CONGRESSMAN GUY U. HARDY

pretty well Of him is indicated by the
fact that one of them who died recent
ly left 100000 to him, 100000 to his
wife and an equal aInoun to each of
his two daughters.
At Mr.. Gillett's left stands Il young
man who Is official timekeeper.
Whenever u member Is recognized to
speak he has a definite amount Of
time. Rarely it Is an hour, occasion
ally IT Is 30 minutes, but usually It 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 unani-
nous consent the member is some-
times permitted to proceed for five or
ten minutes longer. and l have seen
members plead and beg the house for
five minutes, or two minutes or one
minute more, like a Methodist preach
er pleading for money to pay off the
church debt. Sometimes ii is grant
ed, but often a member says II OBJ
ject," and that settles it.
a 'aII ! . l''Po'No'Ns
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 ~precedents
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 do
cided.
The house has been run mostly by
lawyers for Il hundred years or more,
and 1t Is not a difficult matter for
some lawyer member to dig up a prec-
edent on either side of any parlia-
mentary question brought VI The
house had a speaker II time OF the
name of Crisp. His son Charles be-
came the parliamentarian for Speaker
Clark. Charles is now a valued mem
Der Of the house. In the last congress
we had both e~x-Speaker Cannon and
e~x-Speaker Clark OF the floor, but they
all differ some times on points of or
der. 1t was one of the pleasures OF
Republicans to refer occasionally to
the fact that Speaker Clark ruled
thus and so" at some time in the past,
and Speaker Clark announced several
times in his f%acetious way: LAS n
member on the floor of the house, l
do not propose to be bound by any rul-
ings l made from the speakers chair"
So you can see hat with a couple OF
hundred lawyers in the house there Is
at times much argument and jangling
over points of order and modes Of pro-
cedure.
Mann Knows All the Rules
However, when james X. Mann Is
on the floor the chair soO gets some
advice that he can depend upon. /
think that Mr.. Mann knows more about
the rules and ~precedentS of the house
thar all the other members combined,
and he usually has his way, because
the man in the chair knows that he
knows what he Is talking about.
In front and below the speaker at
another marble desk are the reading
clerks, men have to 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
stenographer. There are five or six
OF them. They work in shifts Of about
20 minutes each AS soon as a ste
nographer is through with his task he
goes to his room and reads his notes
int, q nbnnnyroph An ~omaunpnSiQ
takes the record and puts the stuff
through n 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. 1t is a
valuable publication and contains much
information, little humor, some wis
dom, and a minute report of the
proceedings Of the house. 1t con
tainS some speeches that are not de
livercd in the house. Members occa-
s~ionally get permission to extend their
remarks. and a speech Of five minutes
may be extended over several pages.
To AZ tl4N unanimous VIZ IL ''''N
be asked in each instance, which
means that If any member merely says,
81 object the permission is not grant
ed. There are w~atchdogs Of the Rec
ord as there are of the treasury, and
someone 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
Record by Samuel j. Randall, and
was not made In the house.
The Congressional Record is issued
daily during the sessions Of congress.
A member has only about fifty copies
at his disposal. These he sends to H.
braries. 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
interested In the Congressional Record
however. can subscribe for 1t at $1.5O