Evening star., 1938-06-26
Capital Sidelights
BY WILL P. KENNEDY.

Congress just can't get away whenever
the Speaker bangs his gavel on the mar
Bile rostrum, or the Vice President makes
a similar gesture. There are certain me-
chanics and Identical unison action is
required And even after Congress has
"sine died" there are formalities that
must be gone through. Ask Harry New
lin Megll. assistant to the clerk of the
House, who had hectic time when the
Seventy-fifth Congress finally adjourned,
after whirlwind of business. There
were S6 measures cleared by the House
in the closing session, 70 bills and joint
resolutions. Friday morning the Speaker
asked the clerks Office to have all of
these measures ready for his signature
before 4 pm, as he was leaving for At
lanta. The reply was: ITS whale of
job. We don't know what may interfere,
but we'll do our best"
-Four expert proofreaders were sum-
moned from the Government Printing
Ofhce. Maj. Matthew J. Ripon, the en-
rolling clerk: H. v. Hesselman, clerk to
the Committee on Enrolled Bills, and two
assistants from the Office of South Trim
BILE, clerk of the House, Mrs Kathryn
Pinton and j. v. Dood, we're called in for
expeditions service to assist Mr.. Megill
AS copies OF these SO measures were re-
ceived from the Government Printing
Once they were hastily, although care
fully. studied, corrections were phoned
direct to the composing room at the
printing office, relays of messengers were
kept busy running back and forth to the
printing office. all routing slips were
carefully checked-with the result that
at o'clock the Speaker had all OF these
86 measures on his desk awaiting his sig
nature.
The public little realizes the minutiae
of detail required for this job. These 86
measures included the big deficiency ap-
preparation bill, the largest peace time
bill OF this character in the entire history
OF the Government. Every figure in the
billions OF dollars had to be carefully
checked and rechecked, because this was
final draft and If there was any error
1t would require special act Of Congress
to correct it.
During the last week more than 1000
items OF legislation we're messaged from
the House to the Senate, including the
monster 136-page bankruptcy bill, second
IN size only to the l84-page tax bill-all
OF which were enrolled on parchment
paper. The volume of legislation at the
session just closed forced the clerk of the
Committee on Enrolled Bills to use six
large file boxes where q couple of years
ago only two boxes were used and last
year three. These are the oficial signed
papers, attested by the clerk of House
and the secretary of the Senate, which
stay permanently in the files of the House
as its onicial record Of legislation enacted.
During the session just closed 1900
bills were introduced. During the last
week 1854 enrollments were sent from the
House to the President for his signature.
In addition to making these careful en-
rollments, the special battery of House
clerks had to make reports to the Senate
on amendments to Senate bills, which
are usually printed and run from two
or three amendments to 81. In the clos
ing rush some II amended measures had
to be run of on the typewriter to get in
under the wire, instead of waiting for
them to be printed.
x%E
This battery of House clerks under Mr..
Megill's direction also drafted all mes
sages from the House to the Senate
agreeing to conference reports and House
agreements to Senate amendments to
House bills, engrossed all special mes
sages, such as that indicating the passage
over the Presidents veto of the measure
extending for two additional years the
32 per cent interest rate on certain
Federal Land Bank loans. They also
prepared the Endorsement on the back
OF the original parchment copy of the
bill to be signed by the clerk of the
House. indicating its passage by the
House over the Presidents veto.
These same clerks, in their rush lob.
prepared all messages indicating ap-
pointments by the Speaker on special
committees; all records of amendments
IN disagreement on conference reports to
be transmitted to the Senate. These all
had to be letter perfect. because they are
acted upon directly by the Senate and 90
into the Official journal The only way
to correct any error would be by passing
special act Of Congress.
The Speaker congratulated South
Trimble, clerk Of the House, on his expe-
ditious and ellcient service and the clerk
In turn gave credit to the force Of en-
ployes under the supervision Of Mr.. Me-
gill. The9S . former House page who
has SaAAa ,AAaA L. q 1nAO 0AV