Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1911 — PLAN FOR RESEATING LOWER HOUSE OF CONGRESS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PLAN FOR RESEATING LOWER HOUSE OF CONGRESS

WASHINGTON. —Plans for reducing by over one-third the size of the hall in which the national house of representatives sits, and yet increasing the number of seats for members hare just been completed. They win he thought to the official attention of the members of the house within a short' time, with the expectation that they will be approved and that the work of alteration will be carried on in the eight months interven-. leg between the adjournment of the present session and the convening of the house of the Sixty-second congress. The present hall of the house is 139 feet long by 9S feet wide. Under the new plans it will be only 80 feet long and 61 feet wide. In the present hall there are individual chairs and desks for each member; In the prbposod hall there will be rows of chairs as In the big theaters, with a shelf in front upon which one who Is speaking can put bis notes and other books and papers. Agitation for a reduction in the size of the hall of the house has been continuous tdr several years. Many members have felt that they would like to be heard all rtver the chamber without shouting or without having lung power made the test of their oratorical ability. The present’ hall is so large that the left hand side doesn’t heir what the right hand side Is saying.