The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-02-06

mans that thirteen months elapse between
tbe time the members of Congress are elect
cd and the time they take their seats and are
sworn in. For the Maine Congressman the
period is fifteen months. Moreover, as the
old Congress dies on March 4th, and the new
does not assemble until December following,
there is period of nine months when Con-
gress is not organized and when there is no
Speaker of the House, AN officer of considera-
BILE Importance in our government in certain
contingencies. When the members do as
semble in December for the first session,
more than a year after their election, it may
be that the issues on which they were chos
en- have passed away or been crowded out
of sight; while new ones may have come up
Of which the people had no suspicion when
they elected the House. The first of the first
session is interrupted very much by the hol
idays; during the last of it, If it drags along
into the summer AS it is apt to do, the public
business is not benefited by the excitement
of the 'eaucuses and conventions IN which the
contestants for seats in the next Congress
are nominated before this Congress is hail
through And every other Congress the eX-
elements of an approaching Presidential
election are added embauassments OF the
transaction of the business Of the last OF the
first session. The second session be-
gins in the next December, always
after the elections of November Tor Septem-
Der in Maine) by which new Congress has
been chosen. The holidays bother as usual;
then those members who have not succeeded
in getting reelected naturally feel little in
n.,l E,,oI tha QQn
session cannot lawfully extend beyond noon
of the 4th of March, So the second session
is a session of little work; while the first,
though long enough, begins too far
from one election and ends too near to
another These are the circumstances
which have impelled the committee to re-
commend the change. They urge that,
should the proposed amendment be adopted
and Congress assemble Dec. 31st, the mem
bers of the House elected in September and
November would have sixty days or more in
which to receive their certificates of cleo
tion, prepare for contests, arrange their
private affairs in contemplation of protrac-
ted absence from home, and reach the
capital. The holiday adjournments would
not stop business at the very outset; the
Representatives would come fresh from the
people the House chosen at the Presidential
election would assist in the counting OF the
Presidential vote, and elect the Presl-
dent in case the election should
| devolye upon the House; there
would be two long sessions without any
| fixed time for adjournment, except such as
might be agreed upon by both houses, and
there would consequently be no failure OF
important bills for want of time. There
would be no election between the sessions,
and therefore each member would be as ell
ficent during the second session as he was
during the first; Representatives would not
be placed in the dilemma of choosing be :
tween temporary abandonment OF their
nosts of duty and the alternative OF defeat at
| home; and they would have an opportunity
| between the sessions to visit their constitu-
ents and to discuss pending measures with
them. This is the summing up which the
| committee make of the defects OF the old
method and the advantages of the new one
| proposed Perhaps on the floors OF the
House and Senate there may develope serl-
| GUS opposition. though the committees re-
port sets forth changes that are most reason
able. The old plan, however, has the weight
Of years and custom on its side, and they
count for considerable.