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National Resources Corwmittee 



to the scarcity and difficulty of securing copies of the 

 early journals, the Senate, in 1820, ordered a reprint 

 of its journals for the first 13 Congresses, 1789-1815, in 

 5 volumes, and, in 1826, the House did the same for its 

 journal in 9 volumes. 



From the start, the Senate has kept a special jour- 

 nal of its proceedings while sitting in executive ses- 

 sion, that is, for the consideration of treaties with 

 foreign powers and nominations to office submitted by 

 the President. Wliile sitting in this capacity, it was 

 the invariable practice, down to 1919 when the Ver- 

 sailles Treaty following the World War was submitted 

 to it by the President, for the Senate to hold such 

 sessions in secret, the public being excluded and the 

 members and officers of the Senate being under the 

 obligation not to reveal anything taking place in them. 

 AVhile a journal was kept of these proceedings, pub- 

 licity to it was not at the time given. From time to 

 time, however, the Senate has removed the injunction 

 of secrecy as regards executive proceedings in the past 

 and directed the publication of the journals of such 

 proceedings. The last of such orders was that of 

 February 28, 1931, which resulted in the bringing of 

 the printed series of Senate Executive Journals down 

 to and including the Seventy-first Congress, though 

 the injunction of secrecy was not removed for the 

 journals beyond the Fifty-sixth Congress, 1899-1901, 

 with the result that the printed journals for the sub- 

 sequent Congresses have not been released for 

 distribution. 



The journals of the Continental Congi'ess were pub- 

 lished contemporaneously but, due to the scarcity of 

 certain of the volumes. Congress, in 1800 and again in 

 1823, ordered a reprint of them. In 1815 it also caused 

 to be published, in four volumes, the secret journals of 

 the Continental Congress.' Congress has also provided 

 for the publication as a Senate document of the "Jour- 

 nals of the Congress of the Confederate States of 

 America, 1861-1865" in seven volumes. 



As in the case of tlie National Government, the State 

 constitutions in all cases provide that each of their 

 legislative houses shall keep a journal of its proceed- 

 ings which, among other things, shall give specified 

 information regarding roll calls. These journals vary 

 greatly in character, not only as between different 

 States, but as between the two houses of the same 

 State and as between different sessions of the same 

 house. The Kentucky Journals are the only ones that 

 reproduce bills in full. Committee reports are printed 

 in full in the Senate Journals of Arizona, California, 

 Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, and Texas, and 



in the House Journals of Arizona, California, New 

 Hampshire, New York, Oklalioma, Texas, West Vir- 

 ginia, and Wyoming. All the journals, it is believed, 

 give in full the annual and veto messages of the Gov- 

 ernors and are thus the best sources of information 

 for such communications. 



For the foregoing information the author is indebted 

 largely to an article appearing in a recent number of 

 the American Political Science Review by Phillips 

 Bradley. It is of interest to reproduce here this 

 writer's general comments regarding the nature and 

 value of these documents. He writes : "^ 



The investigator of the content of proposed legislation is 

 therefore at a great disadvantage so far as most of the exist- 

 ing legislative journals are concerned. He will obtain a direct 

 knowledge of only a small proportion of the bills and resolutions 

 introduced and must have available the printed or mimeo- 

 graphed slip laws to get any adequate impression of the trend 

 of legislation in any State. Since off-prints of bills in passage 

 are not included, no permanent record of the evolution of biUs 

 enacted into law is available. The minutes reported in most 

 legislative journals are uninformative. The record of legisla- 

 tion introduced and carried from stage to stage contains little 

 more than the number and brief title of the bill. In some 

 journals will be found detailed committee reports which include 

 the actual wording of bills recommended for passage ; but 

 practice with respect to committee reports is not uniform even 

 within the same legislative house and session. Moreover, a 

 large proportion of the bills relate to existing statutes which 

 are cited by chapter or section leaving the reader in ignorance 

 as to their purpose. The history of bills tends to be more 

 effectively recorded though the journals vary In this respect as 

 much as in any other. 



In view of the fact, as is subsequently pointed out, 

 that, with but one exception, the States make no pro- 

 vision for the reportmg stenographically of debates 

 and other proceedings on the floor and their subsequent 

 23ublication, such as is done by the National Govern- 

 ment, it is especially important that the journals of the 

 State legislative chambers should give as full a record 

 as possible of proceedings. Furthermore, it is desirable 

 that the State legislatures, working through some such 

 organization as the American Legislators' Association, 

 should agree upon a more uniform system of legislative 

 journals. 



Bills 



The bills and resolutions introduced in legislative 

 bodies are not onlj' an important part of the latter's 

 record but, in many cases, have value in that they rep- 

 resent the final product of detailed studies of economic, 

 legal, and social conditions and the means recom- 

 mended for ameliorating them. It is important, there- 

 fore, that our legislative bodies shall make careful pro- 



'■ In 1937 the Library of Congress hronght to ponipleUon the repubU- 

 cation of these journals in a complete and carefully edited edition. This 

 work, which was begun in 1904, embraces 34 large folio volumes. 



' rhillips Bradley, "State legislative journals and mnnuals," Americati 

 Political Science Review, February 1935. 



