WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.000 The Ways and Means Committee Room was never intended 2 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:05.000 for a plenary session of the House of Representatives. 3 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:12.000 And when we were forced to do that—you see, it wasn’t for a 4 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:16.000 frivolous reason that the House had to make that change. 5 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:19.000 But what had actually happened, the old House Chamber 6 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:24.000 had a skylight that on bright days made the chamber bright 7 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:27.050 and on dark days or at night it was a very dark chamber. 8 00:00:27.500 --> 00:00:29.100 And, the lighting was grossly inadequate. 9 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:35.000 But worse than that, the superstructure, there was the center of 10 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:38.000 this roof in the old House Chamber they told me 11 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:41.000 was 18 inches off of alignment. And they had 12 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:49.000 put up a superstructure of I-beams. It looked like a construction under way. 13 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:52.000 And it had to suffice throughout World War II, 14 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:55.000 because they certainly could not undertake a major 15 00:00:55.000 --> 00:01:01.050 restructuring of the chamber during the war. 16 00:01:01.500 --> 00:01:03.100 So along comes the war’s over and 17 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:07.000 they’ve got designs for a new House Chamber. 18 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:12.000 What are you going to do with the 435 Members of the House? 19 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:17.000 Well, the only large chamber, and it isn’t large by comparison at all, 20 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:20.000 was the Ways and Means Committee Room in the Longworth House 21 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:25.000 Office Building. And, the plan was made to move 22 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:30.050 over there and hold the session both in 1949 and in 1950, 23 00:01:30.500 --> 00:01:34.100 because in 1950 then they did the second level of the House Chamber, 24 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:41.000 the old House Chamber. All of the things that we have discussed 25 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:50.000 previously were absolutely true. Informality became really very 26 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:58.000 unsophisticated and casual. It lost its dignity. 27 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:02.000 I don’t know that the laws that were passed during that 28 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:07.000 period of time were any of the worse for it. I have 29 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:11.000 no specifics in mind. But I do know it wasn’t 30 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:17.000 a very becoming situation. We didn’t have the public 31 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:17.000 looking down on us. We didn’t have a very good way of reporting, 32 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:31.000 of accommodating the press media. I’m sure in your life you’ve 33 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:34.000 gone from the classroom to the class picnic, and you know 34 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:38.000 how different things are. You say things to the teacher 35 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:41.000 at the picnic that you wouldn’t begin to say to them in the classroom. 36 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:44.000 Well, that was pretty much the way it was there. 37 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:47.000 There was some informality. 38 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:50.050 That’s the nicest word I can use to describe it, but there were 39 00:02:50.500 --> 00:02:56.050 things that were not very—were certainly no credit to the process. 40 00:02:56.500 --> 00:03:03.100 It was a necessity I gather, and it certainly we survived it. 41 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:08.000 The Members returned to an absolutely gorgeous chamber. 42 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:13.000 It had deficiencies of light and sound, but it was a 43 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:17.000 beautiful chamber when we first went back. Color coordinated 44 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:22.000 and bright, and many of the things that we had not had before. 45 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:25.000 There were those of us who were pretty excited 46 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:28.000 about coming back to work in a situation like that.