Senator OWEN. If the word "orderly" were omitted, would it not be better?

Senator CUMMINS. The Judiciary Committee could not of course prescribe any rule which would be inconsistent.

Senator Roor. Suppose, for instance, I draw up a little paper and say to the head of the drafting bureau, "The undersigned wish a bill drafted for a department of health," and I do not say anything more. I go around to you to sign it. It is the easiest thing in the world to get a paper signed. Ought the drafting bureau to be required to draw a bill on that information?

Senator LA FOLLETTE. I think not.

Senator ROOT. Do you think there should be anything more in the bill to confer this authority upon the Judiciary Committee?

Senator LA FOLLETTE. No. I think the Judiciary Committees of the two Houses would have ample authority under that provision of the bill to prescribe the rules. I suggest that the provisions of the bill as to the legislative drafting bureau be made as simple as possible, leaving all rules and regulations to be worked out in detail by the Committees on the Judiciary or some other designated authority. You will, I am certain, find it much better than to put such regulations into the terms of the law.

Senator ROOT. I fully agree with that. I think Senator Owen's suggestion to strike out the word "orderly" might meet that condition.

Senator LA FOLLETTE. Here are the rules for drafting in our legislative library at home:

RULES FOR THE DRAFTING ROOM.

1. No bills will be drafted in the reference room. A separate drafting room and a separate force have been provided.

2. No bill will be drafted nor amendments prepared without specific detailed written instructions from a member of the legislature. Such instructions must bear the member's signature.

3. The draftsman can make no suggestion, as to the contents of the bill. Our work is merely clerical and technical. We can not furnish ideas.

4. We are not responsible for the legality or constitutionality of any measures. are here to do merely as directed.

We

5. As this department can not introduce bills or modify them after introduction, it is not responsible for the rules of the legislature or the numbering of sections either at the time of introduction or on the final passage.

Senator OWEN. May I suggest an amendment there? After the word "Representatives" in line 9 of section 4, insert the following words: Under the rules governing said bureau." That would permit the Judiciary Committees of the House and Senate to make these rules in such a way as to provide reasonable limitations such as you have in Wisconsin.

Senator ROOT. Would not that same thing be accomplished by striking out the word "orderly"?

Senator OWEN. Yes: I think it would.

Senator LA FOLLETTE. I think it would too.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator La Foilette, was it not your idea that each House should control its own methods; the Senate for itself and the House of Representatives for itself?

Senator LA FOLLETTE. No, sir; I think the two committees should act together, jointly.

STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT L. OWEN, UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM OKLAHOMA.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Owen, the committee will be glad to hear

you now..

Senator OWEN. The bill which I introduced proposes to establish a corps of professors and experts in social and legislative science in addition to the bill-drafting and reference library provisions. I do not think that Congress is prepared to act upon so complete a bill at this time, and I do not expect to press it seriously. I should like, however, to make some comments upon the subject matter for the purpose of promoting discussion of the question, if the committee will permit.

At this point I should like to have my bill (S. 8335) printed in the record.

The CHAIRMAN. That will be done if there is no objection.
The bill is as follows:

[S. 8335, Sixty-second Congress, third session.]

A BILL To establish the Legislative Reference Bureau of the Library of Congress and the congressional corps of legislative investigators, and to maintain them until July first, nineteen hundred and fourteen.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE BUREAU.

That there is hereby established a separate division in the Library of Congress, to be known as the "Legislative Reference Bureau of the Library of Congress.' It shall have offices in the Library of Congress, except that such of the current legislative reference material as pertains to the subjects considered by the committees of both Houses of Congress shall be submitted in duplicate to the chairmen thereof for their information and afterwards be filed in their committee rooms: Provided, That references to the material may be made where to do so will result in considerable saving. SEC. 2. That the purpose of said bureau shall be to make more readily available for the President and Members of Congress the legislative reference material now within the Library of Congress and the departments of the Government, and to collect and index additional data, showing the legislative experience in the States of the Union and in other countries, with special reference to live issues.

SEC. 3. That each principal subject in the Legislative Reference Bureau shall, so far as practicable, be under the immediate direction of an expert in that subject, and these experts shall constitute the governing board. This board shall plan research work, publications, and the teaching of graduate students. The degrees of master and doctor shall be conferred upon such as attain a degree of proficiency the equal of that being demanded by the leading universities in this country. Each principal instructor shall be designated as professor. For the establishment of academic freedom the professors shall hold office during good behavior. They shall be appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The salary of professors shall be $5,500 per year. Ten shall be appointed to take office on June fifteenth, nineteen hundred and thirteen, or as soon thereafter as practical.

SEC. 4. That the assistants to the professors shall be employed by the governing board, the names to be supplied by the Civil Service Commission from those most successful in competitive examinations.

*

SEC. 5. That there is hereby appropriated for the use of the bureau until July first, nineteen hundred and fourteen, the sum of $100,000. * * Mail matter of a public nature shall receive the franking privilege.

CONGRESSIONAL CORPS OF LEGISLATIVE INVESTIGATORS.

SEC. 6. That there is hereby established a corps of investigators in connection with the legislative reference material in the Library of Congress and elsewhere. The duties of said corps shall be to aid the President and Members of Congress by briefing legislative issues, drafting and revising bills and other legislative measures, and to

serve as legislative counselors. The official title of the workers as a body shall be the "Congressional corps of legislative investigators." Said corps shall consist of two or more grades of experts in political science, political economy, and social science in general, assisted by stenographers, translators, and copyists. The headquarters shall be as near as practicable to the legislative reference material.

SEC. 7. That inasmuch as experts in social science have fundamental differences of opinion, the selection and direction of the ones who shall compose the congressional corps of legislative investigators shall be by the several parties in Congress, under the regulations in the four following sections.

SEC. 8. That, until July first, nineteen hundred and fourteen, the appropriation to pay the salaries and other expenses of said corps shall be divided among the political parties in Congress in proportion to the number of Members, after one-half of the appropriation has been deducted for the use of the party or parties in power, one-fourth for each House. For the payment of salaries and other expenses of the congressional corps of legislative investigators, exclusive of office equipment, for use until July first. nineteen hundred and fourteen, there is hereby appropriated the sum of $50,000. For office equipment for said corps there is hereby appropriated the sum of $1,000. Additional funds may be appropriated by either House from its contingent fund. The disbursements to the corps shall be by the Secretary of the Senate.

SEC. 9. That the first grade of legislative investigators shall ke known as "Chief legislative investigators." They shall be thoroughly trained in political science, or political economy, or social science in general, and shall receive a salary of $5,000 per annum. Within each of the two leading parties they shall be selected as follows: Nominations shall be by a partisan joint committee of the two Houses on legislative investigators, subject to ratification by the party Members in each of the two houses. SEC. 10. That within each of the two leading parties the selection of the investigators of the second and other grades and of the several other assistants shall be by means of nominations by a board composed of the party's chief investigators, from a list of those who have taken a competitive examination under a system approved by the United States Civil Service Commission, with ratification of investigators by the joint partisan committee on legislative investigators.

SEC. 11. That, subject to the aforesaid regulations, each partisan joint committee in charge shall enact rules for the conduct of the party's section of the corps.

THE PROPOSED CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE BUREAU

ITS SCOPE.

Senator OWEN. Taking the bill by sections, the first one proposed the establishment of a separate division in the Library of Congress to be known as the Legislative Reference Bureau of the Library of Congress, the purpose being to make more readily available for the President and Members of Congress the legislative reference material now within the Library of Congress and the departments of the Government, and to collect and index additional data showing the legislative experience in the States of the Union and in other countries, with special reference to live issues. (Sec. 2.)

That there should be such a collection of data, properly indexed, is universally conceded. On April 6, 1911, Dr. Putnam, the Librarian of Congress, in Senate Document No. 7, page 3, recommended the creating of a new division of the Library of Congress, under the title of a Legislative or Congressional Reference Bureau. What is needed is described as follows by Dr. Putnam:

A Legislative Reference Bureau undertakes not merely to classify and to catalogue, but to draw off from a general collection the literature-that is, the data-bearing upon a particular legislative project. It indexes, extracts, compiles. It acquires extra copies of society publications and periodicals and breaks these up for the sake of the articles pertinent to a particular subject. It clips from newspapers; and it classifies the extracts, the compilations, the articles, and the clippings in scrapbook, or portfolio, or vertical file, in such a way that all material relating to that topic is kept together and can be drawn forth at a moment's notice. To printed literature it often adds written memoranda as to fact and even opinion as to merit, which it secures by correspondence with experts.

The Librarian adds:

The above work, which organizes and concentrates all the data pertinent to a question in such form as to be readily responsive, is beyond the abilities of the Library with its present organization. The Library would gladly undertake it; it could undertake it without additional appropriation for the material itself, so far as this is in printed form; but it would require for it an enlargement of its present Divisions of Law, Documents, and Bibliography, and in addition the creation of a new division under the title of a Legislative or Congressional Reference Division.

The subjects upon which data are to be compiled covers the entire field of government, of industry, and of social science in general—an immense field. To get something of an idea of its extent, I will state that the American and English Encyclopedia of Law and of Pleading and Practice comprises 57 volumes. This immense mass of law is in a state of change, of evolution, and to bring it up to date, month after month, and in the detailed way described by the Librarian of Congress is the function of the proposed Legislative Reference Bureau of the Library of Congress. It will contain references to thousands of volumes in the Library of Congress in addition to an immense mass of other data.

We have already provided a great Library of Congress, and what is needed is the collecting of the remaining portions of the material described by the Librarian of Congress.

Now, as to the best possible system for collecting the data and properly indexing it.

COLLECTING THE DATA AND PROPERLY INDEXING IT.

Had we a social-science department of a national university, as other great nations have, the professors in that department and their assistants would be charged with the duty, first, of collecting an accurate description of the workings of the laws in each of the several States and countries; and, second, of adequately indexing this vast collection of data. This would be the best possible arrangement, for the experts in charge would be among the most accomplished of the social scientists. But as we have no national university, my bill provides:

SEC. 3. That each principal subject in the legislative reference bureau shall, so far as practicable, be under the immediate direction of an expert in that subject, and these experts shall constitute the governing board. This board shall plan research work, publications, and the teaching of graduate students. The degrees of master and doctor shall be conferred upon such at attain a degree of proficiency the equal of that being demanded by the leading universities in this country. Each principal instructor shall be designated as professor. For the establishment of academic freedom the professors shold hold office during good behavior. They shall be appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The salary of professors shall be $5,500 per year. Ten professors shall be appointed, to take office June fifteenth, nineteen hundred and thirteen, or as soon thereafter as practicable.

This plan is feasible and nothing short of it will adequately meet the situation.

One of the most important fields in the government of a nation is that which collects the data setting forth the actual workings of human institutions, so that the people can ascertain what has proven beneficial and otherwise. In so far as the people are actually represented in Congress, the aim of Congress will be to provide for a thorough collection of this data and its proper arrangement, which

requires the services of experts in the several departments of social science, namely, the department of government, of industry, and of social science in general. State universities are employing experts in these several departments, but as yet the Federal Government is not doing so, for it has just passed from the control of the few (who have operated through machine rule party government) to a People's Rule Party government. Thus a peaceful revolution has taken place and the Senators and the Representatives who represent the people are charged with the solemn duty of establishing an adequate legislative reference bureau. Already the Library of Congress has in it a large part of the needed data but the legislative reference materials therein are seriously inadequate.

By employing 10 experts in social science and the required number of assistants, say 10, and the needed stenographers, the development of the Legislative Reference Bureau can proceed rapidly. In a few years it would become the most thorough collection of social science data in any one place on our globe; and this bureau and the teachings which the experts in charge can give would attract hundreds of graduate students from all parts of the world. The completeness of the collection of data and the minute classification thereof would be far in advance of the collections in the State universities and other centers. Our national collection would be as far in advance of the other collections as the great encyclopedias of law are an advance over the isolated textbook treatment. These encyclopedias of law have wrought a revolution in the legal textbook field during the past 25 years, and the time has come when the entire field of social-science reference work is to be revolutionized by a thoroughgoing collection of the data in the Library of Congress, this data to be adequately handled by social-science experts.

Unquestionably such of the experts in social science throughout the Nation as at heart believe in the People's Rule will recommend the establishment of the proposed system. And I believe that the former professor in political science at Princeton University who is to become the President of the United States after March 4 will heartly approve the proposed system.

ACADEMIC FREEDOM FOR PROFESSORS IN SOCIAL SCIENCE.

An essential element in my proposal is that the professors in social science employed by the people of the United States shall be employed under such regulations as will yield freedom of thought and speech. The prime requisite in the employment of these experts is that they shall be in a position where they will search for the truth and tell what they find. In other words, academic freedom is needed, and this can be secured only where the professors in social science are appointed to office during good hehavior. Year after year they should hold office provided they behave properly. If they were to be elected each year, or each few years, it would banish freedom of thought and of speech, because they would be obliged to adjust their speech in such a way as to insure their reelection or be charged with incompetency or something worse.

This academic freedom is an established principle in Europe, where the universities have had a struggle for existence. The universities were the centers where reason held sway, and was divorced from the

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