Gurley Herald
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Description: Government's Reporters - History of Stenographers
Date: June 5 1902Newspaper published in: Gurley, AL
Source: Madison Co. Library, Huntsville, AL
Page/Column: Page 1, Column 4
GOVERNMENT’S REPORTERS
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Proceedings of Senate and House at Washington
Taken by Expert Stenographers
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For over 50 years the proceedings of the senate and house of representatives have been reported verbatim. It was not until 1848 that this practice was begun, but since then a complete report of the proceedings has been as important a part of the routine work of the senate as has been the keeping of the journal itself. There have been important changes in the method of doing this work since it was inaugurated, says the Washington Star. When it was begun there were no typewriters and no graphophones. The typewriter came first to lessen the labor of transcribing the reporter’s notes, and a few years later the graphophone was added to still further facilitate the work.
The work of reporting the senate is given out by contract, $25,000 a year being allowed for it. In the house of representatives the stenographers who take the reports on the floor are paid salaries of $5,000 a year each, which is regarded as a moderate salary to secure men of the ability to do the work. The practice of having the senate debates reported by contract resulted from the suggestion of Mr. Dennis F. Murphy, who was the first to take the contract, in 1873. Mr. Murphy preferred having complete control over the corps of stenographers that he might select to assist him, and, upon his request, he was given a lump sum for doing the work instead of a salary. Mr. Dennis F. Murphy, who died some years ago, was a brother of Mr. Edward V. Murphy, who, with Mr. Theodore F. Shuey, now holds the contract for reporting the proceedings of the senate. Other members of the senate corps of reporters are Henry F. Gensler, Daniel B. Lloyd, Milton W. Blumenberg, Eugene C. Moxley and James W. Murphy.
The official reporters of the house of representatives are David Wolfe Browne, John H. White, A. C. Welch, Fred Irland, Reul Small and John J. Cameron.
The events which led up to reporting debates in the senate are of interest and related to the earliest development of the phonographic art in this country. In 1848 Oliver Dyer went to Philadelphia and formed classes in shorthand with high school boys as his pupils. Among these pupils was Mr. Dennis F. Murphy. The whig national convention which nominated Gen Taylor for the presidency, met in Philadelphia in 1848, and Dr. Dyer organized a corps of his pupils, among whom was Mr. Murphy, to report the proceedings of the convention. The success of their efforts came to the attention of the senate and then considering the question of obtaining full reports of its debates, which up to that time had never been regularly secured. Before the close of the session in August the senate arranged for reports of its proceedings to be published in two of the leading party organs in this city, the National Intelligencer and the Union. Among the assistants in this work was Mr. Murphy. The corps as organized was made up of phonographers—sound writers—rather than the old class of writers, who used only arbitrary characters. In December, 1848, this corps of reporters began the making of regular complete reports of the debates, which have never been interfered with. The making of regular reports of the proceedings of the house of representatives was begun at about the same time. In 1851 the reports of the debates were published in the Globe. When Mr. Sutton retired from the corps of reporters of the senate, of which he was the head, Mr. Dennis F. Murphy was made chief of the corps of senate reporters. In March, 1873, congress began publishing its reports at the government printing office.