The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-06
MEMORY INDEX
 FOR CONGRESS
Would Require Special Statute To Remove
 GraysOn From Job

Mention the name of Joel Grayson to any member of Congress who has served at any time within the last fifty years cnd he will promptly tell you "Old Joel" is one of the most valuable work CTS Uncle Sam ever had on his payroll, says The Kansas City Star.
 In fact, Congress attested it's appreci- ation of the. indispensable quality of MT. Grayson's services by writing in into the statutes that he shall continue to hold his present post as presiding genius of the House document room, a job that wass'created for him, and that he can be removed only by special ac of Congress signed by the President of the United States.
 He has the distinction of being the only person in the whole government seryioe-from the President down to the humblest charwOman-whOse pay is ap- propriated from the treasury in his own name. Others, of course, are named in the appropriation acts. but their pay is for statutory. jobs and goes to whoever holds the job. while in Grayson's case the job was created for him by virtue who could do the work, and the job dies with him.
 Started As A Page.
 It happened this way: He came to Congress in 1875 as a page, under the patronage of Representative John T. Harris of Virginia, about the same time islative debut. But Grayson has never missed Q session of Congress in the years that have rolled by since, while tTIr,Nln TAaSt hna kA<H NxNIvIx, ,&a,. ,.fIrr nd involuntarily. In the first six years Joel Grayson was page and then was shifted over to the House document room, where the law designates him "a special employe." ~.~s. t.
 This legislation was put through by Judge Savers of Texas, then chairman of the appropriations committee, be- cause of Grayson's familiarity with the bills, resolutions, reports, executive communications and acts. Incoming majorities of either party, hunting for patronage berths, had been shunting Joel from post to pillar, giving his job other titles while he continued to do the same work.
 Joel Grayson is invariably appealed to as an authority in regrad to old bills and acts and the history of legislation. He has wonderful memory, and any member of Congress who is in doubt re- garding bills and resolutions calls on him and gets set right,
 Has Private Files.
 <. There is no one else who can find old documents. In ten large dungeons in the basement of the capitol that re- semble the cayerns of Luray, Page county, Virginia, near which Mir. Gray son was born March 23, 1858, there are more than one-half million documents and books, many of them now out of print and containing valG .ble data. Fully h million more are tucked away in the attic of the capitol.
 There are two rooms away up under the roof, over what used to be the hall of th. house and which is now Statuary hall A hoie was cut in the wall and these rooms prepared for MT. G'aysOn' s use. They are reached only by ladder. In this loft he has filed in on orderly way all dOcuIlents from the nineteenth the forty-'econd Congress. AFbiI, IL the garr. tN>nCr the old part formerly used for the ngressional lib'I Mir. Grays'n has disposed of all documents from the forty-secOnd Congress down to the present time,
 Besides being q special employe" in the House department room. MT. Grayson has the additional distinction conferred upon him of being special assistant private secretary to some 435 members of Congress. If Gen. Isaac IL. Sherwood of Ohio, wants to know the number of q bill he introduced in the reconstruction days all he has to do is to go into the House document