The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-02-10
PECULIARITIES OF THE FILIBuSTER.
A. Troublesome Fellow Who APP
peared In Congress in 1873 2.
How He Has Managed to Have Pretty
Much His Own Way,
Until Speaker Reed Taught 'Aim a
Lesson Last Week.


of the new rules. In6Se rules 0mD0Qy sol N
departures from the practices of Congress il
the immediabs past, which alone is of suffi C
lent Importance to lend to the discussi OF
great interest But there is much more con
nected with the new code than this. The
discussion and decision of the House vii
be discussion and decision whether the
Republican majority elected at the last eilec
tion shall be allowed. to assert its rights OIL
be throttled by the flibuster. Last summer
Roger @. Mills publicly boasted that the fill.
buster would prove more mighty than the
Republican majority. Mr.. Reed, however.
has put the iilibuster under his feet in tie
great battle of last week and the Republi
cans expect blythe new code of rules to Ike er
the disturber down. The rules will be un
derstood best by examining the peculiarities
of the filjbuster and his methods of operating
In the first place the filibuster is a fellow
who wants to do everyth ing his own way
and who. if disappointed in this. is bound
that nobody else shall do anything. He is a
dog in the manger who, finding that he can
not eat hay himself, wants to keep everyone
else away from the hay. In this year Of
grace the most fully developed filibusters
come from the South, and v y
Democratic There is no invariable rule
that every filihuster shall be a Democrat
but it is the rule of this Congress that every
Democrat shall be filibuster. Republicans
have been filibusters occasionally, but they
have been ashamed of it afterwards. as Mr.
Mckinley has confessed so frankly. II
should be borne in mind at the outset that
the filibuster is young fellow. He was
born in 1882 and before that time didhot ex-
ist as distinct species. There had been FL
clustering before 1882. notably in the pro-
ceedings which defeated the force bill when
Mr.. Blaine was Speaker. But this obstruction
was but temporary scheme for the defeat
of particular measure which was regarded
with the greatest detestatlon by 1.-THE Demo-
Gratis Under the lead of Bandall they re-
fused to vote. thereby breaking the
quorum and defeating the bill, But
even by its authors this scheme seems to
have been regarded as too exceptional and
of too doubtful propriety to be Invoked on
any but the greatest occasions. but In 1852
what had passed as a doubtful /xpedient be-
gan to be used as an ordinary means for pre-
venting legislation. 1t be@me common
thing for members to refr'in from voting IN
order thereby to breat quorum and so
hamper and DELAY. If act fully defeat. the
majority. Another .aYorite trick of the fill
buster is to NOV to adjourn, although he
knows very well,hat neither the House, nor
even himself. yAnts to adjourn. AS the mo-
tion To adioup is privileged question, it
has seneraly been entertained. A simple
vote r;ra zee, or by rising, would determine
to the eaAsfaction of everyone whether the
Ho,Ye wanted to adjourn or stay; but this is
MT sufficient for your filibuster. He must
nave the yeas and nays called by the clerk.
AS there are over 300 members in the House.
and as the absentees must be called after the
list has been gone through with the Fl rst
time, and then as members who have not
even then answered may rise in their seats
and ask to be recorded, the roll call consumes
about three-quarters of an hour. AS motions
to adjourn may be made at every turn in the
business of the House, it is easy to see that
the fiIibuster can very easily wear away as
much time as he likes if the Speaker is
bound to recognize him whenever he makes
his rofarious motion. The call of the yeas
aad nays is also fruitful expedent Of the
flibuster on other questions than that of ad-
journment. The constitution provides that
when one-fifth of those present
demand the yeas and nays they must be
taken. Of course the intention of this
is to compel members to vote formally on
measures of Importance. But the filibuster
demands the yeas and nays on the most triv-
81 ;,,s nfb
ing the Democrats who wanted to worry
Speaker Reed took the opportunity when the
journal was read to have the yeas and nays.
The journal was very short that morning,
and no Democrat stated single reason why
it should not be approved. A simple cicd
0Oce vote would have settled to the satisfac-
tion Of every reasonable man there the ques-
tion of approval. But the Democr ats de-
manded the yeas and nays. This wasted
yeas and nays were being called not single
Democrat answered to his name. The result
was that a quorum did not vote. Had the
House been proceeding under the rules of
the last House business would then and
there have been suspended of necessity for
want of quorum, since there were not
enough Republicans voting to make the quo
rum. Mr.. Reed, exercising the privilege he
claimed and maintained several days before,
counted enough of the silent Democrats to
make quorum and annouced the presence
of quorum. Another pet scheme of the
flibuster has been to rise to point of order
and when that has been decided by the
Speaker to take an appeal to the House from
his decision. Upon that appeal the filibus-
ter demands the yeas and nays, thus sue
ceedlng in wearing away three quarters of
an hour of time OF course such appeals, with
their attendant roll calls, could be taken very
often. Still another method of delay
is, when Senate bills come over to the House,
demand the yeas and nays on the reference,
when an ordinary method Of voting would
answer every purpose. Another favorite
method of killing time has been for some
member to demand the reading in full of
some bill on its introduction. If there yhap-
pens to be no bill convenient the filibuster
often produces one. In the last session an
inventive filibuster produced, at a moment
when an important bill was about to pass, a
bill to codify the laws of the District of Co.
lumbia. The bill had already been before
the House, but by changing it somewhat he
was enabled to present it as a new measure
technically. He demanded the reading of
this outrageously long document, and Mr..
Carlisle had to allow it, By this scheme the
time for passing the bill which the majority
of the House wanted to pass was over The
scheme of the filibuster was successful. Still
another method of obstruction was afforded
under the old rules by the arrangement of
morning hours. There was the first morning
hour for the introduction Of bills and their
reference to committees. Then following
was a second hour, of sixty minutes strictly,
during which the committees in turn report
ed bills for consideration. A bill as soon as
reported could be considered all of the morn
ing hour of that day, and if unfinished,
the morning hour of the next day. But
II any bill, having been up for consideration
Tor TWO morning hours, was yet unfinished it
must be put aside, while all the other COM
mittees took their turns. The committees
being so numerous, this meant really the
death OF the bill. OF course the filibuster
had a fine chance here, for by wasting the
two hours in roll calls, ETC., he could kill apy
measure Objectionable to him. It was an
easy matter to filibuster two hours
The new code Of rules aim to break up TO