oms duties and excise taxes, is by far the most important.

Other important committees are those on (1) Elections, (2)
Appropriations, (3) Judiciary, (4) Foreign Affairs, (5) Manufactures,
(6) Commerce, (7) Labor. Every Representative is on one committee, and
most of them on several. Unlike the custom in the Senate, in the House
the presiding officer has the sole power of appointment, which makes
him, next to the President, the most important and powerful government
official. The chairman of each committee has, of course, a large power
over affairs with which his committee is concerned, and for this reason
it is often said that it is the chairmen of these committees who rule
the land.

The precise amount of effective work done by Congress during the two
sessions of the Fiftieth Congress was as follows: There were 4,000 bills
introduced in the Senate and 145 Senate joint resolutions: of this
number 1,127 bills and joint resolutions passed the Senate, and 554 were
either postponed indefinitely or referred to the Court of Claims, so
that the total number on which final action was taken by the Senate was
1,681. The committee on enrolled bills examined 667 Senate bills and
joint resolutions and sent them to the President and 591 became laws,
the number of vetoes, including "pocket vetoes," being 76.

The House of Representatives passed 1,561 House bills and sent them to
the Senate, and the Senate passed 1,347 of them, leaving 214 to perish.
The House passed 56 House joint resolutions and the Senate passed all of
them but eight. The House passed, therefore, 2,284 House and Senate
bills, and the Senate passed 2,522.

The first session of the Fifty-first Congress (1889-90) was, with one
exception, the longest ever held.[1] During the session there were
introduced in the House 12,402 bills and joint resolutions, and in the
Senate 4,570, making a total of 16,972. The total number of acts passed
was 1,335 as against 1,790 for _both_ sessions of the Fiftieth Congress.
Of these 881 were pension bills.

[Footnote 1: The longest session was the long session of the Fiftieth
Congress.]

Congress ordinarily assembles at noon, and remains in session until 4 or
5 p.m., though towards the end of the term it frequently remains in
session until late in the night. The first thing upon assembling in the
morning is prayer. On Mondays, as stated, there is next a roll-call of
States for the introduction of bills. Sometimes a committee is
in