ABSTRACT
According to the most familiar set of charges, Congress is slow, inefficient, archaic, horse-and-buggy in its methods, "out of touch with the 20th century". The professional staff of Congress is as competent as the average in comparable jobs, and turns out more work at lower pay. A congressional committee and its staff can turn out a competent report on an urgent problem at least as quickly as an executive agency. The stereotyped contrast between a creaking, horse-drawn Congress and a streamlined, jet-propelled administration is a myth without much substance. The fact that Congress, as well as the American people, makes up its mind in public has much to do with the appearance of indecision. Congress operates through its committees, and especially through the committee chairmen. The liberals have never forgotten the dread example of the Senate murder of the League of Nations in 1919, which touched off a fourteen-year revival of congressional power and national reaction.
