A speech in the House of Representatives
Subject(s): Americans--Politics and government, Legislators, Public speaking
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At center a man speaks on the floor of the House chamber while other legislators attend to their own business. The audience in the gallery above strains to hear without realizing that the process of legislation takes place in committee rooms and not on the House floor. Caption: A sample session in these days of legislation in committee rooms. Just a little side-show for the gallery.
Comments and Context
Albert Levering’s brilliant and complicated cartoon — he seemed incapable of ever designing a simple or uninteresting drawing — provided readers with a humorous but actually fairly realistic depiction of “action” on the floor of the United States House of Representatives. Except for relatively few visitors to the House galleries through the years, it was not until C-SPAN that citizens could see how realistic this scenes was. Alternatively, how empty the House chamber often is during debates.
It is clear that Levering was not offering a civics lesson, that legislation was effected in committee rooms. More, his cynical point was that legislation is not introduced nor considered nor dispatched and voted upon in the well of the House. Then, as now, business is conducted more in cloak rooms than in committee rooms.
That point being made, effectively, the reader can get lost in the humorous details of Levering’s fine points: Congressmen telling jokes, picking their teeth, reading newspapers, yawning, and napping. Ironically, the only people paying attention are in the press gallery, and in the visitors’ gallery, where rows of similar-looking bearded constituents cup their eras over the din to hear the lonely speaker holding forth. It is to be noted that, among Levering’s hundred-plus people in the cartoon, no one is meant to resemble an actual public figure.
Collection
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Creation Date
1908-05-13
Creator(s)
Period
U.S. President – 2nd Term (March 1905-February 1909)
Repository
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Page Count
1
Record Type
Image
Resource Type
Rights
These images are presented through a cooperative effort between the Library of Congress and Dickinson State University. No known restrictions on publication.
Citation
Cite this Record
Chicago:
A speech in the House of Representatives. [May 13, 1908]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o286109. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Levering, Albert, 1869-1929. A speech in the House of Representatives. [13 May. 1908]. Image.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. March 12, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o286109.
APA:
Levering, Albert, 1869-1929., [1908, May 13]. A speech in the House of Representatives.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o286109.
Cite this Collection
Chicago:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. March 12, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs.
APA:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-prints-and-photographs.
