Evening star., 1938-07-03
Capital Sideligghts
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

With Congress gone the Capitol Is
more or less deserted and there is no
major improvement or repair project
scheduled for this summer. Even the
tourist trafic has fallen off largely
Things are in the doldrums-its the
congressional election year and most
OF the members and their office stats
are busy beating the bushes" and
patching up the political fences back
home
But there is just one place that is
busy. that Is the House folding room,
which Is located on the ground floor
OF the new House Office Building. There
60 men. half of them on the regular
pay roll and the other half piece work
ers are busy sending out some 200
large bags of mail each day. They
Will be increasingly busy until August
l and fairly busy until after the No
vember election. which is expected to
spell defeat and the close of a legisla-
tive career for some 60 to 100 House
members.
This force is engaged in hectic
struggle with product of the Govern
ment Printing Office, mail schedules
and voters lists sending campaign ma
terial into every community throughout
this broad land in an effort to reach
each one Of the humblest voters. The
forgotten man" is being searched out,
the man on the street" is being
shadowed to his domicile-each indi-
vidual voter is being traced to his lair.
The Brain Trust and the secretariat
with passion of anonymity" and
the hierarchy of the New Deal, the
Corcoran Cadets and the other high
brow "intelligensia" units and groups
are being disregarded. The appeal is
being made direct to the sovereign
voters in each State and in each con-
gressional district.
The principal job is the sending out
OF speeches on wide variety of sub
)ects. but principally of outstanding
administration program subjects and
those of local interest Half of the
shock troops" in the document room
are engaged in inserting these speeches,
printed at the Government Printing
once. into envelopes and sending them
In wholesale patches to the voters in
each congressional district Upward of
zoOoOO speeches are being mailed daily
vast libraries of books, printed by
the Government. are being distributed.
The largest individual item is the Agri-
cultural Year Book. of which 400 copies
are being sent out by each member
OF Congress. This is only one of some
ESQ Government publications that are
ready for free distribution. The most
popular and valuable free book issued
by the Government for many years has
been the so-called Horse Book" There
are In fact two such books, one on
Diseases of the Horse" and the other
on Diseases of Cattle" which have for
quarter OF century been in great
demand. They are occasionally re-
printed. The last reprint was in 1923,
but they are still strictly up to date
and treasured. Another edition will
PROBABLY be reprinted next year.
Another big job facing the House
folding room is the distribution of the
congressional Record, the bound volumes
OF which are just coming in. They
have to be carefully wrapped and pro-
rated among the members Each mem
ber is entitled to three full sets of the
bound Records, and each set runs from
10 to IS volumes.
JuSC AOOuC The Time the shock troops
are finished with mailing out the count
less speeches, they will be called upon
to wrap and mail out the 1898 year
books. The busiest place in the Capitol
these days is in charge of Roy w. VIII
liams, superintendent; Harold L. Briggs,
chief clerk; Joseph H. Callahan, fore
man, and assistant clerks. Frank w. p.
Boquel, Harlie P. Clark and Ode E.
Cox.
The service given by the folding room
to members of Congress was developed
during nearly so years of most efficient
service by the late Martin H. Mckee,
and out of the folding room have come
Representative Bill johnson OF Illi-
nois, "the largest man who ever served
in the House." and more than q score
of the most prominent lawyers in the
country. Perhaps a dozen high Gov
ernment oficials formerly worked in
the folding room. The work being done
today owes much of its efficiency to sew
eral inventions and labor saving devices
which Martin Mckee originated. He put
his heart into the service, actually saw
ing Uncle Sam many times his salary,