As the U.S. Senate passed the eleventh day of the civil rights filibuster last week, a team of recorders toiled round-the-clock to chronicle every syllable of the debate for official Washington breakfast table reading. Working ten-minute relays over two twelve-hour shifts, 14 Congressional Record reporters (six more than usual) took down verbatim the torrent of words, made it seem almost easy. "After all," explained one Record staffer, "the Southern Senators speak slowly."
In spite of such seeming offhandedness, the Congressional Record is in a sense a publishing wonder. It is a daily of more than 200 pages, with an average circulation of...
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