From the rotunda, broad corridors lead north to the Senate Chamber and south to the House of Representatives. Following the corridor to the south, we come to a large semicircular room. When the central division of the building was all there was to the Capitol, this room was occupied by the House of Representatives, and here were heard the speeches of Adams, Webster, Clay, Calhoun, and many other famous statesmen. It is now set apart as a national statuary hall, where each state may place two statues of her chosen sons. As many of the states have been glad to honor their great men in this way, a splendid array of national heroes is gathered in the hall. Among the Revolutionary heroes we find Washington, Ethan Allen, and Nathaniel Green. A statue of Fulton, sent by New York, shows him seated, looking at a model of his steamship. Of all these marble figures, perhaps none attracts more attention than that of Frances Elizabeth Willard, the great apostle of temperance, and to the state of Illinois belongs the distinction of having placed the only statue of a woman in this great collection.
Leaving Statuary Hall, we go south to the Hall of Representatives. Here representatives from all the states gather to frame laws for the entire nation. Seated in the gallery it seems almost as if we were in a huge schoolroom, for the representatives occupy seats which are arranged in semicircles, facing a white marble desk upon a high platform reached by marble steps. This is the desk of the Speaker of the House. The Speaker's duty is to preserve order and to see that the business of this branch of Congress is carried on as it should be. Before delivering a speech, a representative must have the Speaker's permission. The Speaker is a most important person, for all business is transacted under his direction. The representatives come from every state in the Union, and even far-off Hawaii, Alaska, and the Philippines are allowed to send delegates to this assembly to represent them in making laws. Think what a serious matter it would have been to the people of the far West to have the capital of their nation in the extreme Eastern section of the country if the development of the railroads, the telegraph, and the telephone had not made travel and communication so easy that great distances are no longer obstacles.
THE OPENING OF CONGRESS
But we can pay only a brief visit to the House of Representatives, for there is another body of lawmakers in the northern end of the Capitol which we wish to see. Back to the rotunda we go and then walk along a corridor leading to the northern, or Senate, end of the Capitol. Each day, for a number of months in the year, an interesting ceremony takes place in this corridor promptly at noon. Nine dignified men, clad in long black silk robes, march in solemn procession across the corridor and enter a stately chamber which, though smaller, resembles Statuary Hall in shape. These men make up the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest court of justice in the land.
Often in cases at law a person does not feel that the decision of one court has been just. He may then have his case examined and passed upon by a higher court. This is called “appealing,” and some cases, for good cause, may be appealed from one court to another until they reach the Supreme Court. Beyond the Supreme Court there is no appeal. What this court decides must be accepted as final. The room in which the Supreme Court meets was once used as the Senate Chamber, and many of the great debates heard in the Senate before our Civil War were held in this room.
The Senate Chamber of to-day is further down the north corridor. This room is not unlike the Hall of Representatives in plan and arrangement, though it is somewhat smaller. Instead of having a chairman of their own choosing, as is the case in the House, the Senate is presided over by the vice president of the United States. This high official, seated upon a raised platform, directs the proceedings of the Senate just as the Speaker directs those of the House of Representatives. There seems to be an air of greater solemnity and dignity in this small group of lawmakers than in the House of Representatives. It is smaller because each state is entitled to send but two senators to the Senate, whereas the number of representatives is governed by the number of inhabitants in the state. The populous state of New York has thirty-seven representatives and but two senators, the same number as the little state of Rhode Island whose population entitles it to only two representatives.
The purpose of having two lawmaking bodies is to provide a safeguard against hasty and unwise legislation. In the House of Representatives the most populous states have the greatest influence, while in the Senate all states are equally represented, and each state has two votes regardless of its size and population. Since every proposed law must be agreed to in both the Senate and the House before it is taken to the president for his approval, each body acts as a check on the other in lawmaking.
INAUGURAL PARADE ON PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE