Evening star., 1936-12-06
Capitol Mans Memory
Is Guide of Legislators
Elmer Lewis, Wisconsin Marvel, Has Found
Ways to Answer Numberless Questions
About Bills and Congress Members.

Iowa, "for adopting the decalogue and
Jesus rule as standard measure for
laws and regulations of the Govern
ment of the United States"
H. R. 1908, Sixty-seventh Con-
gress, Mr.. Herrick of Oklahoma. pre-
scribing rules and regulations under
which newspapers and advertising
agencies may hold beauty prize con-
tests"
And, again, Mr.. Herrick, H. R. 8453,
Sixty-seventh Congress, prohibiting
the holding of any pageant, carnival,
celebration, exposition, theatrical or
vaudeville shows where any person
shall impersonate a king or queen or
do any act or thing to keep promi-
nently before minds of the public the
ideas of kingcraft or royalty in a
laudatory manner"
There there was Mr. MoritZ in this
very Congress, who wants Ito provide
each Congressman with $1.000.000.
to be spent in his congressional dis
trict to build homes to rent for not
over $40 per month"
And Senator Frazier's bill ''to make
it crime to represent ones self to
be an Indian" and Representative
Celler's "to encourage inventive ge-
MUS by amending the income-tax
laws with respect to the income Of
inventors"
Perhaps the incest of all is Rep
resentative Sadowski's optimistic bill
Ito stabilize and standardize money
and labor prices by the establishment
of a labor hour monetary system, to
guarantee work to all at all times, to
give normal prosperity and prevent
1epressions and for other purposes"
Vice President Jack Garner de-
serves some sort of medal for being
the only Congressman on record who
went through an entire Congress with
out introducing a single bill, resolu-
ton or anything else. That was dur
ing the Sixty-sixth Congress-, when
he was in the House.
To date, this Congress, Senator Royal
S. Copeland is far and away ahead
in number of bills introduced. In
Lewis office. they are starting to fill
a third box for him. Representative
McSwain. chairman of the Military
Affairs Committee, is probably the
House leader.
ELMER LEWIS reads the bills as
they come in-which is more than
many Congressman and public officials
do. It's often very necessary, he re-
ports, because the bills title doesn't
mean thing or at least not what it
seems to mean in many cases. Take
that Amlie bill, for instance, ITO
amend an act entitled an act to
amend an act, entitled" etc. After
he reads the bills, Lewis knows how
properly to list them on his card in
dex. At this writing, there have
been 17,108 bills and resolutions in
troduced in the Seventy-fourth Con-
gress, both sessions, and 929 have
become law.
He has made an extra headache"
for himself by a. special service. Every
time a Senator or Representative
makes a speech-the kind that 60 in
the Congressional Records appen-
dix, you know-Lewis asks the G. P. o.
to send him a few copies. Then,
whenever would-be debaters write in
to Representatives or Senators for de-
batting material, the besieged legis-
lator calls Lewis; Lewis says why,
Senator So-and-so and Representative
Such-and-such made speeches on that
subject on January 10 and February
IL, and I have copies" and the Rep
resentative or Senator sends them
back home and the debate can go on.
We asked Elmer Lewis lots of ques-
tions and here are some facts we
picked up:
There have been some thousands
over a million and half bills intro
duced on Capitol Hill since the First
Congress convened.
The usual number of bills and res
olutions introduced in each Congress
is about 21,000-with the House ac-
counting for $4,000 to 10000 and the
Senate between $50 and 600.
About 4 per cent become law (our
mathematics, not Elmer's).
Each two-page bill introduced costs
Uncle Sam $8.91 for printing the first
100 copies; each four-page bill, $14.79;
each eight-page bill, $27.14; each IL
page bill, $41.89. and SO on. OF course.
the price decreases as the amount in
creases, say, in 500 or 1000 lots.
If a Representative or Senator dies
his bills are not affected, unless, of
course, there is no one left to be
interested in pushing them.
And, judging from some samples,
there is absolutely no limit on what
subjects bills may cover or queer forms
they may take.
| Elmer Lewis is married, but he has
no children. He hasn't time for any
hobbies. He's friendly, he's helpful
and we're sorry we're not related. but
| we're not