Capitol Page School - Congressional Yearbook (Washington, DC)

Page 61 text:

THE SUPREME COURT AND. ITS PAGES Today, of all the eighty pages on Capitol Hill, only four continue to wear the black knicker suitsf-the pages of the Supreme Court. The day of the Court Pages is somewhat dissimiliar from that of the Capitol pages. Our duties begin, after leaving school at ten o'clock, by signing in at the Marshal's Of- fice. Then we change into our traditional uni- forms after which we begin to carry out the duties assigned to us in the order of our senior- ity such as setting the Bench, the Bar, watch4 ing the conference room, or that of the Mar- shaI's. The buzzer sounds at five minutes before twelve sending us four hastening to the Bench, where at twelve o'clock Court convenes with the delivery of the famous Court Cry by the Crier, Mr. Lippitt, who is also the boss of the pages. Court sits from twelve to four-thirty o'clock except between two and two-thirty, which is the lunch period. When the session ends each day we hurry to the page room , where we take .off the monkey suits , and go home or sometimes play ping-pong. The Supreme Court sessions alternate between sit- ting for two weeks listening to cases and re- cessing for the following two weeks. We pages of the Court have an almost un- equaled opportunity to acquire knowledge at work. This has been confirmd by the fact that the Marshall, the Clerk, and other Court of- ficials have been pages. Besides the four pages assigned to the Bench, there are two boys who do messenger and clerical work in the library. Court pages are fortunate in having a new and very beautiful building in which to work. The Supreme Court building was completed in l935. The court-room is very impressive with its 500 pound drapes and huge marble col- umns. The building as a whole is one of Amer- ica's masterpieces in architecture. These and other conditions make paging at the Supreme Court a real pleasure. l, for one, feel proud and honored to have been appointed a Su- preme Court Page. L. J. W. .-57.-

Page 60 text:

HOUSE PAGES - ' ' kg , . . . . .. , . ., Lm,,, . 1 - Lkk, .- g .- - ' . , : Q .-if em ' ' r '- V - A g I A ' P - - . , ,. M .f .- uf- - ' Are you one of the forty-niners? lf so, then you are one of the Pages of the House of Representatives. Our duties, much like those of the Senate Pages, are varied in that we run H. O. B.s and floor calls, file records, call members from the floor for visitors and friends or to the telephone. Each Page must be appointed by a Member of Congress, and he is assigned a job by the Doorkeeper of the House. Beside each chair on the House floor is a button, which when pressed, connects with a number on the board by the Page bench. The overseer immediately calls out the number and the Page sitting next to him runs to this assigned chair to ask if he may be of service, which will probably amount to getting a bill from the desk in the front of the chamber, running an errand to an office, or obtaining a Congressional Record of a past date. -.56-. . The telephone Pages place and receive calls for Congressmen. Through the Pages the of- ficers keep in touch with their various mem- bers. The Pages stationed on the doors of the House floor get members for friends and con- stituents. There are also Pages who are liasons between members of the press and Congress- men whom are asked for statements concern- ing some important event which happened or will happen concerning domestic or foreign affairs. The House Pages have in some respects more responsibility than the Senate Pages due to the fact that we serve a greater number of members, committees and constituents. We Pages are very fortunate in that we are witnessing history in the making and the pos- sible destiny of the world unfolds before us during our stay on Capitol Hill. J. R. F.

Page 62 text:

SPECIAL EMPLDYEES The title, Special Employees, covers a very extensive field ranging from elevator opera- tors to messengers. However, we shall be in- terested here primarily in those special jobs in which members of our student body par- ticipate. The Folding Room employs the largest group of Special Employees. Here the delivery boys spend their busy day distributing books, reports, and other documents to the Congress- men who send this informative material to constituents. ' They also' make pick-ups and deliveries to and from offices, getting material that is re- quired to be wrapped, bundled, boxed or placed in mail bags for mailing. After this has been done it is.mailed out directly or re- turned to the office from which it came. Another very interesting job on Capitol Hill is that of working among the laws of the na- tion, Yes, laws, bills, documents, reports, reso- . y. ..... M . s t lutions, many passed, defeated, side-tracked, out-dated, all these are found in the Docu- ment Room. Here the employees file, re-file, and un-file all sorts of scriptures. lt is the duty of this personnel not only to keep the demand from Congressional offices filled, but also to take care of information seekers, curious individuals and people in gen- eral who are continually roaming in and out of the Document Room generally asking fool- ish questions. Usually the page is not the least bit interested in what these characters talk about, but, he will grin, drop a casual remark and bear with them. These constitute the main jobs of the Spe- cial Employees, though there are those who function in different capacities, including the elevator operators. The Special Employees, like the various pages, are a necessary part of Congressional proceedings. D. E. C.