MARCH 2017 • NEBRASKAland 13
the designers of the senate and house furniture did their
best to keep the manufacturers of laws from enjoying their
accustomed comforts.
"Trenmor Cone of Douglas County, who recently tried out
the acoustics of the new house chamber by making a sample
speech there to an imaginary audience, has already voiced
his dissatisfaction. 'These seats are so diabolically contrived
and set up,' Cone says, 'that a man can't get his feet on his
own desk, and he can't swing around to see what is going on
in the rear of the chamber. His only chance of getting a good
footrest is to use the desk of his neighbor on one side or the
other, and I'm afraid that won't work very well.'
"However, the plan of making swivel chairs fast to the
floor has one advantage from the lawmaker's standpoint.
It makes certain that he can lean back in his seat and go to
sleep without any danger of tipping over, as has happened
not infrequently in former sessions. A dignified statesman
doesn't like to be tumbled backwards on the floor in full
view of his colleagues and the public. The arrangement,
too, gives the taxpayers assurance that members will not be
taking the chairs home with them at the close of the session.
"Some solons will see a drawback in the fact that the
front of each desk does not rise far enough above the top
to permit the attachment of a placard showing his name
to the people in the side and rear balconies. There will be
a nameplate on the front, which the presiding officer and
secretary or clerk can see, but that is all. It will be tough,
indeed, to get up and make a ringing speech, only to have
people in the audience asking: 'Who is that
man?' and answering each other: 'I don't
know.' Legislators naturally don't care to be
classed with children. They want to be seen,
heard, and known." ■
Visit the Nebraska State Historical Society's
website at nebraskahistory.org.
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Senators make themselves comfortable in the "diabolically
contrived" chairs in 1947.
NSHS
RG2813-1947-107-5
