The United States Congress: Organization and Procedure

THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS: ORGANIZATION AND PROCEDURE, Floyd M. Riddick, Preface by Professor Lindsay Rogers, hardcover with unclipped dust jacket (price not printed), 1949. BOOK CONDITION: near fine. The text block is in fine condition, with no tears, dogears, or marks. No signature or bookplate of a prior owner. Not a library book or remainder. The gray cloth boards are in near fine condition. The dust jacket is in fair condition (chipping along top and bottom edges, some fading of spine). 8 ½ x 5 /2, 459 pages, 23 ounces. XX [From the dust jacket] “This volume pictures Congress at work. It describes the House and Senate legislative machines and their political and parliamentary procedures in action. Committees and their procedures and the political machinery of Congress are also set forth. Professor Rogers in his preface says that these procedures (the standing orders) ‘determine the efficiency of the legislature, and more frequently than not this is the efficiency of a large part of the governmental machinery.’ THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS: ORGANIZATION AND PROCEDURE offers the teacher and students of legislation a comprehensive, yet succinct volume of information necessary to an understanding of Congress at work. The resume of House and Senate procedure is based on the official precedents of the two bodies; its authenticity is assured, having been examined by the Senate and House Parliamentarians. In the preface, Professor Rogers says: ‘Text writers who now hope to deal with Senate procedure more adequately than they have been able to do in the past will have to quote from Mr. Riddick.’ He concludes: ‘The internal enemies are not yet formidable, but they can be kept few and the threat from without can be made less only if congressional government is efficient government. Efficiency is more likely if there is a full understanding of the rules that the two branches of Congress have and of how they are applied in practice. To this high end Mr. Riddick's volume has made a notable contribution." XX THE AUTHOR: “Floyd M. Riddick has been close to Congress and its procedure for over 15 years. After receiving his doctorate in political science at Duke University, he became affiliated with the Federal Government and subsequently joined the faculty of the American University. From 1939 to 1943 he was an editor of the Congressional Daily; he began the publication of the Legislative Daily for the United States Chamber of Commerce and edited it from 1943 to 1947; for the last two years he has been the Senate editor of the "Daily Digest" of the Congressional Record, created by the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946. He has written a number of articles on Congress and its activities, including the annual reviews of Congressional proceedings for the American Political Science Review, since 1939. He is presently the Senate editor of the Daily Digest, and lectures on American Government at George Washington University.”.