9. Champ Clark (D.), Mo.
Copyright, 1909, Harris & Ewing, Wash.
Photo by Clinedinst
NEW HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING
This building is connected with the Capitol by a tunnel. Electric automobile service is also maintained between the two buildings.
There came a small cloud in the horizon. Mr. Littlefield, of Maine, whom rumor claimed, at the opening of a former Congress, to represent Presidential opinion, saw his trust bill turned down. However, Mr. Littlefield always delighted his hearers, who realized that his fight against commercial monopolies was no make-believe.
The following extracts from a speech of Hon. F. W. Cushman, of the State of Washington, on the question of reciprocity with Cuba, will throw much light on present legislative methods in the House of Representatives:
THE RULES OF THE HOUSE
We meet in this Chamber to-day a condition that challenges the consideration of every patriotic man, and that is, the set of rules under which this body operates, or perhaps it would be more nearly correct to say, under which this body is operated. [Laughter.]
Mr. Chairman, I deem it my duty, knowing as I do that this measure could not have been brought here in the shape in which it now is, save and excepting for the remarkable conditions created in this House by these rules—I say, sir, I deem it to be my duty to pause for a moment or two on the threshold of this debate and place a few cold facts about these rules into this Record and before the 70,000,000 of people to whom we are responsible.
I approach this subject with a decided degree of deference. In the three years which I have been a member of this body I have endeavored to conduct myself with a modesty that I conceive to be becoming alike to the new member and to his constituency. I represent a Congressional district comprising the entire State of Washington, a Congressional district with half a million people in it, and with vast and varied interests demanding legislation for their benefit and protection in many of the channels of trade and branches of industry.