The Springdale news., 1890-02-14
TO THE PUBLIC.
Speaker Carlisle Issues an Explanatory
 Address.

i VI AsHlHGT0N, HeD. o.-An au- dress to the country explaining the position of the Democratic mem- bers of the House has been prepar- ed by ex-Speaker Carlisle and wlll be signed by all the minority mem bors tomorrow.
 The address in its full text is as follows:
 The present situation in the House of Representative IS so anomalous, and the unprecedented decisions of the Speaker are so full of danger to the integrity of future legjs lation, that we consider it our duty to submit brief statemon. of the facts Tn ordo that the propre. ty of the course We have taken may be fairly determined.
 The House of Representatives met on the second day of December, 1889, and immediately organized by the election ot Speaker and other officers.
 On the same day, by resolution of the House, the Speaker was au- thorzed to appoint committee on rules, and the rules of the last prt. ceding House were referred to that committee. The committee, con sisting of the Speaker himself and four other members, was appointed on the 9th of December, and on the 9th 1t made q report authorizing the Speaker to appoint all other com mittees and defining thelr jurisdie- ton.
 The committee on elections, to which was referred all cases involy- Ing the rights of members to their seats, was appointed on the 9th day of December.
 Although nearly two months  have elapsed since the committee on rules was appointed, il has made nn report upon the matters referred to it except the partial one made on the 9th of December, and conse- quentiy the House has been com pelled to conduct its business with out any rules or system, except tie general parliamentary law a. con strued by the Speaker. There have been no calendars, no order of business, no fixed time to receive reports from committees or for their consideration of bills or resolu- tons, and in fact no regular meth ods whatever Tn the proceedings Of the House.
 oNE-sfAN POWER.
 The American House of Repre- sentatives has been, during all this time, and still IS, so far as the rules for it's government arc concerned, in precisely the same condition, as I popular meeting or a political convention in which the chairman and his partisans absolutely control all the proceedings. No measures can get before the House for consd- eration unless the Speaker chooses to allow it to be presented, and members have no means otknowing in advance what they are called up on to discuss or decide. This IS the first time in our history that Legislative assembly, or even q pub lie meeting, has attempted to trans act business for any considerable period without a regular code of rules prescribing the order of its proceedings, and inconvenien and injustice resulting from such an at- tempt have been foreibly llIustra- ted in the present instance.
 The Speaker has repeatedly, dur ing these extraordinary proceed ings, refused to entertain parlia mentary motions tha; have been recognized as legitimate ever since the government was established, and when attempts have been made to appeal from his declslons he has refused to submit the question to the House, By hIs arbitrary rul- iIngs, sustained in some instances by less than quorum, he has subyertsd Iearly every principle of constitu tional and parliamentary law here totore recognized in the House.
 This personal and partisan domi- nation of the House was submitted to, though not without repeated protest, until we became convinced that it was the deliberate purpose of the Speaker and his supporters to proceed without rules to oust the Dem ocratic members whose seats are contested and admit thelr Re- publican opponents, whether cleo ted or not.
 On Wednesday, January 29, the committee on elections called up a