Evening star., 1933-05-21
Capital Sidelights
by WILL r. KENNEDY.

| The fight over curtailment OF tint
right Of members Of Congress to extens
themselves in the Congressional Record
the daily newspaper of proceedings II
the legislative chamber - was taker
onto the floor of the House by Repre-
sentative Raymond Cannon Of Wiscon'
SIM an energetic new member. who !!
| taking vacations from an extensive ant
lucrative law practice to help make the
laws He told his colleagues: i thinl
| it is a colossal fraud upon the people o1
this country for man to stand on thi!
floor and speak for a period of two
minutes and 20 back to his office, ant
on a great many occasions accompanied
by a ghost writer, and turn out beau
tiful speech of Is to 20 pages. I think
it is wrong and II you had any nerve
about you you would agree with me.
He pointed out that the Congressional
Record is costing the taxpayers close tt
SIS, 900 day. He has introduced bill
to strictly limit the number of copie:
for free distribution from 80 900, as al
present, to 5000.
Various members protested, including
Representative Thomas l.. Blanton OF
Texas, recognized as one of those
whose remarks and extensions" occupy
day after day many pages of the Record
Mr.. Blanton said: With my limited
allotment cannot furnish one third oi
the schools in my district that ask me
for them. I cannot get enough to fur
nish daily newspapers and large school,
libraries that demand COPIES"
Representative Clifton A. Woodrun
Of Virginia expressed the opinion that
"a great deal of good could be accom-
plished. the size of the Record could be
reduced and its value as a documen,
of INF finy, nnY1ld ha ipcrcocod A
there could be some sensible and logi-
cal understanding between the House
and Senate and among ourselves as tC
what we put in the Record. 1t will be q
sad day in this country whenever the
people do not have full and ready and
accurate information as to what we are
doing, or what We are not doing, in
this body"
Mr.. Blanton recalled that a distin-
guished Senator from Wisconsin had
made famous extension Of remarks in
the Record covering nearly 100 pages
Mr.. Woodrum said he had figured up
on another extension which cost some
thing like $1,000 to $1,40O 1t Is asti~
mated that the cost Of the Record Is
SIS per page.
Representative Cannon said that q
member Of the House recently sent out
100000 copies Of printed speech,
printed at the Government Printing
once at the rate of s11.aO for the first
thousand and $3.50 for each additional
thousand, while a local union printer
estimated the cost without profit to be
$40 for the first thousand and $50 for
the balance. The Government Print
ing ONCE, he claims, had advised him
that they are losing money daily on
these speeches and not receiving the
actual cost of printing them.
Representative Blanton protested that
the franking of these speeches cost the
Government little or nothing. Testi-
mony on the economy bill, he said
showed that all of the. documents
franked by the Government from all
the departments, and including Con-
gress, constitutes only one-tenth of l
per cent Of the deficit of the Post Office
Department. He called attention that
the President in recent radio address
on postal matters said that with the
present Post Once force it could handle
twice as much mail at the same cost at
which the mail Is now being handled
The Post ONCE employees, he insisted
receive nothing additional for handling
franked Gree Of postage) mail of Con-
gresSmen.
House Leader Byrns said that to keen
the record clear it would not show that
members OF the House are having the
printing OF their speeches done at less
than cost. He emphasized that the
Public Printer estimates the actual cost
OF all speeches he prints and members
reimburse the Government
Chairman Cochran of the House
Committee on Expenditures said that
ne had conferred with the minority
leader, Mr.. Smell, and suggested a con-
ference with House Leader Byrns SO
that they might agree upon two Re-
publican members and two Democratic
members whose duty 1t would be to
represent their respective parties on the
requests for extension of remarks, espe-
cially the insertion of editorials and
newspaper articles.
Representative Weideman of Mich
igan, stressed the fact that the Con-
gressional Record will stand as a part
Of the current history of the country" ."
He suggested that ''it Is necessary to
print this Record so that the people
who are elected here to Congress, but
who do not seem to have time to attend
the sessions, may know what is going
on" He declared that this is our
open forum for discussion, where we
meet and exchange views" and ex-
pressed willingness to vote for in
creasing the number of Congressional
Records to be distributed throughout
the country.
Now comes veteran member of
Congress-Representative Edward T.
Taylor of Colorado, born on a farm,
who IN his younger years was school
teacher and school superintendent,
served five terms as city attorney and
two as county attorney, IL years in
the State Senate, where he was presi-
dent pro tempore, and who conducted
a campaign through "a Western States
to educate foreign born citizens of 46
different nationalities to vote intelli-
gently. Having for many years been
interested especially in the Interior De-
partment and taking an active part
in making appropriations for those ac-
tivitieS, which extend from the Arctic
Circle to the Equator" and which he
considers "has wider variety of inter-
esting activities than any other branch
Of the Government" he is urging his
colleagues and the public to read a
recent address by the new Secretary
Of the Interior. Harold L. Ickes, "ex-
ceedingly informative and instructive" :"
covering the work of that department
Secretary Ickes explains that the
department was established by act Of
Congress March 3. 1849 From build
ing up reindeer herd in Alaska to cul-
tivating tomatoes in the Virgin Islands;
from supervising the business and So
cial affairs of approximately 228,0
Indian wards of the United States to
keeping in touch, with the activities of
hOSDitalS and schools for the Negroes.
from administering the 14,702, POS acres
of the national parks and monuments
and seeing that they are available at
all seasonable times for the enjoy
ment of millions Of American citizens
who visit them each year to passing
upon such technical matters as are in
volved In the administration of the
General Land ONCE, the Geological Sur
vey, and the Reclamation Service, offer
sufficient variety to engage the en-
thusiastic interest Of any man." he
says.
That department employs some
: 1f