New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-12-28
THE CHAINED CONGRESSMAN
1rc1S1 ALTON BY COMMITTEES.

"w,sH pAYo AND HAVE SPECIAL CALENDARf
70 the Editor OF The tribune.
SIR: Mr.. Alexander II. Stephens makes most
sensible suggestion in proposing to change the rules
of the House so that the majority can close debate
and vote on an amendment without ordering the
"prevous question" and thereby cutting of all
further amendments and compelling an immediate
vote on the passage of the bill. The previous
question" originally intended an exceptional ex-
pedient 10 arrest the otherwise intermnable oquac-
ity of three hundred orators after the exhaustion OF
fhe subject has of late years become the regular and
ordinary method Of passing a measure. The elect
has been to compel the House-not the minority
alone, but the majority well-to accept
or reject measure in the precise shape IN which IT
comes often without previous warning, from the
committee room. The member who introduces or
reports the bill can, under this practice of the
previous question, speak for an hour. or he can
farm ont the floor for an hour, or he can give up
these privileges and force an immediate vote with
out single word of debate. IL amendments be Of
fcred there can be only two-one amendment to the
act itself and one to that amendment. The practl-
cal effect has been to throw all the power OF the
House into the hands Of the committees The prac-
teal remedy has been fbustering. We all know
what waste Of time and temper-what prolonged
and repeated "allnight sessions" with their attend
ant scenes always dsorderly too often disgraceful
are implied in that word filibusterng." Usually
the contest is for the right of offering amendments
for the modern legislator does not value the priv
lege of oratOry his predecessor did generation or
so ago, and almost invariably this right has to be
conceded in the end. 1t is time for change, and
the proposed change is good one
But no one familiar at all with legislation can
have failed to observe that the practice of the
House has outgrown its rules in other directions,
inst as il has in this The power of the committees
has become almost absolute. The power OF the
Speaker has grown with the power OF the commit
tees not only because he appoints the committees,
but because every new uncertainty and every new
complication in the rules or practice OF the House
necessarily adds the power of the man who has to
decide the doubtful point perhaps in critical emer-
lency / once heard it said The Speaker
used 10 count for eight members Blaine counts
for sixteen An instance 1T the close OF his last
session before his translation to the Senate. when
this gentleman by a motion To reconsider, took the
pending measure out Of the hands of the commit
tee and got in his amendment after the majority
had shut it ont, shows that all this power does not
reside in the gaye and the high desk. The absurd
results of recent attempts at smart tricks ard
the absurd surprise OF their clever authors at tine
undesirable consequences, may render credible the
assertions that hardly fourth Of the members know
ell the present rules of the House, and that not half
dozen OF these know the practical effect of ali the
complications that can arise and Go arise almost
every week.
Az IRRESPONSIBLE SYSTEM.
Now the objections to this established and grow
ing practice OF legisating by committees are grave
aud obvious. It's an irresponsible system Nobody
suffers for its blunders mistake OF defeat. which
would cost an English Ministry their seats, pro-
duccs scarcely more effect upon committee Of
fire American Congress than if 10 had been made OF
suffered on the other side of the Atlantic. Besides
being an irresponsible system. 1t is secret system
Except when the members choose TO reveal in con-
hdence.n no outside: can know what IS done by the
more or less dimifcd gentlemen who SIT IN the
leather arm-chars around the long green-tabe and
decide what The House snail be made TO do.
The House itself cannot know. Nobody must ask.
Let any OVERLOAD or uudcr-inforIned member pre-
sumo to enquire as to anything done or said within
the sacred precincts; let any uuwary committeeman
rise 10 reply and loud and clear above the din rings
the voice OF the chairman Il call my colleague TO
order IL ne seeks 10 divulce the proceedings OF this
committccw Besides being secret and irre5qonsl-
bic system il is dcspotc system. All legislation
that is possible except with a twO-thlrds majority,
necessarily emanates from some committee. Every
committee has some measure or measures which 1t
wants 10 pass. So all the committees are
under strong inducements TO stand by each
committee Every member has some meas
ure or measures which he wants to pass or
defeat by the cooperation Of a committee So every
member besides his bias as q committeeman is I'M
der strong personal inducements to stand by the
committee Committees may represent different or
conflicting interests and pull in different directions.
Chairmen may quarrel. Except in these cases, the
instances are few indeed and very far between when
the will of the committee does not stand rs the act
of the House. have seen It done; but have never
seen il 50 mich as attempted without exciting the
anger sometimes the furious anger, of the commit
tee occasionally expressed in threats whose mean
ing honorable gentlemen Of the least experience are
not slow TO understand
And how is this will reached Why, as a rule,
every committee is governed absolutely Icy Its ma
jonty; the majority by the chairman alone or at best
by q clique the clique at last by one man, usual
" the chairman, but sometimes not The minority
save in matters Of personal strOng political in
terest usually take but little part in the proceed
ings Of the committees. the majority stands by the
chairman or the clique, the clique acts as one man.
aud that the man whose interest in the subject
or whose personal power is strongest at the moment
III is so in all deberative bodies and this is one
among several reasons why the united action of ten
men, or q hundred men, or thousand men, whether
organized as a board a legislature, or dis
organized as a mob is often curIously different
from the personal will. or at variance with
the personal character of every individual IN the
semblage. The autocrat of the moment cOmpes
them all to do what nobody wants as the nearest
approach to his own purposes that can be reached
without arousing power stronger than his In this
way the House is often called upon TO vote on
measure which no member has ever seen, upon
which no member permitted TO speak, and to which
no member j. permitted TO offer amendment IL
is needless 10 specify instances They are familiar