The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1881-01-22

THE TRANSACTION OF BUsrEEss IN THE
HOUSE BECOMING ALMOST
IMPOSSIBLE.

I
IMPOSSIBLE.
Washington, Jan. Shedding dem
ocrats in the House have decided to
call caucus to consider what is best
TO be done about the absentces. il
was thought before that almost all OF
the members who were absent during
the session before the recess would be
in their places on Wednesday, but roll
call showed one hundred and ten alb
sent or not voting. This. is more than
one-third of the house. "A few of those
who did not vote yesterday have to-day
taken their places, but there still re-
mains about 100 members who are alb
sent or do not vote. There was no roll
call to-day, so that it was impos-
sible to learn the names of all the abb
sentees. A few Of them have written
that they viii be here shortly, but it is
evident to the members present that
unless something is done, not only
general Legislation will be very greatly
impeded, but also that it will be i'm
possible for any rule for counting the
electoral vote to pass Unless these
absentees take their seats at once there
is no way to avoid an extra session.
One hundred and forty-seven votes are
a quorum of the house. The green
back members have appraised Mr.. Ran
dali that they will always vote, so that
if the democrats who are away will re-
turn the house will always be sure of
quorum, and the purpose of the re-
publicans to block all action on the
electoral count will be defeated. Aside
from the political question there is
great danger that action on important
non-partisan bills may he greatly de-
layed. Before the recess the consular
appropriation bill temporarily failed
simply because quorum did not vote.
Yesterday the army bill was passed by
the narrow margin over quorum of
27 votes, though only seven of the en-
tire number voting were recorded
against it. OF the lilo members who
did not vote AZ were paired, and it is
this system of pairing that is at the
bottom Of the evil The caucus that
will be held may decide to refnse to
grant leaves of absence, and then do
away with pairing. a member asks
for leave, nobody objects, he gets a
pair and stays away as long as he likes.
But there were sixty-two who did not
vote who were not paired. Almost all
of them were away without leave.
Some of these absentees are rarely or
never seen here. New Jersey has three
democratic members. The democrats
of the state are really represented by
one for ID. A. Clark and H. b. Smith
are hardly ever in their places. They
were absent yesterday. Dickey of Ohio
has not been here this session; neither
has ELAN of Louisiana OF Ewing of
Ohio. Three of the New York con
grcssmen, Muller, O'Brien and O'Reilly
have been absent almost the entire time
since the session began. Kitchen of
North Carolina, is away almost all the
time. Conger, Crowley, Dick, Dun
nell, Einstcin, and Orth are supposed
to be taking more interest in outside
political matters than in the session of
the house. The same evil prevails in
the senate. Nearly one-third of the
senate was absent Or not voting on roll
call yesterday. Bailey, Baldwin, Cam
eroi,, Cockrell, Grover, Hampton, Jones
of Nevada, Paddock, and Sharon are
known to be absent. Jones of Nevada,
Hampton and Sharon have not taken
their seats this session.
-