The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-07-31
HOURS OF THE SENATE.
THE SESSIONS TO BEGIN AT 10
O'CLOCK HEREAFTER.

Senator Cockren Denies That the
Business of the Body Has Been OBJ
structed BY the Minority-He Quotes
Facts and Figures to Substantiate
Bis Assertion.
WASHINGTON, July 3o.-In the Senate
this morning the resolution offered yester-
day by Mr.. Sherman, fixing the daily hour
Of meeting at 10 o'clock, was taken up.
Mr.. Cockrell said he would support the
resolution, and wanted to give a few reasons
why. Some taunts had been made recently
by the senators from Rhode Island and
Maine (Messrs. Aldrich and Frye
about the delay on the part Of the demo-
cratic minority, and the senator from
Maine had said something about having the
previous question introduced in the Senate.
He wanted those senators to see the relative
amount of work done in the two houses.
The Senate had, up to July %, passed GAG
bills, and 400 other bills had been acted on
by committees and indefinitely postponed,
making the whole number Of Senate bills
actually disposed of E,445. That was con-
siderably more than one-third of all the
bills introduced in the Senate No such
record had ever been made before.
THE NUMBER PASSED.
In the House out of over 10000 bills
introduced there had passed S65, a
mere fraction of the whole. Out of
all the Senate bills passed, the House
bills the Senate had passed 61S. On the
House calendar of bills pending in commit
tee of the whole there were 3S1 of which
103 were Senate bills; while there were
pending in the House 1.7l8 public bills, and
967 private bills, including 1S7 Senate bills.
Then there were on the calendar
of unfinished business 90 cases pending, of
which 81 were Senate bills, aud that made
a total of 1,6l7 cases pending before the
House, of which 344 were Senate bills. On
the Senate calendar there were but 800
cases, all told, Of which only 81 were House
bills. There were S44 Senate bills acted on
by the House committees now on the House
calendar, with the iron heel of the one-man
power securely resting on that calendar.
NO FILIBUsTERING.
How, he asked, had so much work been
done in the Senatei Had the minority
been wasting time by interposing objections
or by unnecessary discussionl Had the
minority consumed the time as the ma
jority had done under the last adminisUra-
tion, in criticising the executive or in
pleading the civil service law to prevent
the removal of democratic officers before
the end of their terms of offices Nothing
of the kind. Had not the bills for the ad-
mission of Idaho and Wyoming as states
been allowed by the minority to pass, al
though every one knew that neither OF
them had sufficient population to entiult
them to a representative in the Housef
NCONCEIvABLE FoRBEARANCE.
Those bills had passed only through the
| inconceivable forbearance and conservatism
| of the democratic minority, and vet the
| democrats were criticized the moment they
wanted a little explanation aud little light
| on the tariff bill. If there was demo
cratic majority in the Senate, and had il
made an attempt to pass the bills for the
| admission of New Mexico and Arizona as
| states, the Senator from Maine Mr. Frye
| would have pranced up and down the cen
| tral aisle, and the senator from Vermont
| (Mr. Ednunds) would have raised his voice
| They would have ragged like Gagged lions and
screamed like chained hyenas laughter
| against the action Of the democratic ma
| jority.
| WHY IT HAD NOT DONE MORE.
Why, he asked, had not the House dis
| posed of more bills than it had disposed of
| The reason was that it ignored, in its organ.
ization and in its changed rules, the funda-
mental principles of parliamentary
discussion. He quoted from letter written
by Thomas B. Reed in June, 1886, published
in the ChGutduQuan 1t would be remenl-
bered, he said, that Mr. Reed was once @
member of the House of Representatives.
One Of the sentences in that remarkable
production" was in these words: ga full,
free, frank discussion is the very life of
intelligent action" Another sentence was
Needless suppression of discussion is tyran-
mic, whether done by king or a majority u
He challenged any republican senator to
show an instance where the democratic
minority had attempted any unnecessary
delay.
ALWAYS ON HAND.
The democratic senator's had been in their
seats when the senator from Maine (Mr.
Frye was enjoying the refreshing breezes
of the lakes in his native state, and when
the senator from Vermont (Mr. Ed
mundsl was also rusticating. The SEN
ator from New York (Mr. His
cock had stated yesterday that
the republicans had captured the democrats,
If the democrats were captives they would
stick closer to their captors. They would
come to the chamber at 10 o'clock in the
morning, but they would expect the repub-
lican senator's to come too, and they would
stay till o'clock in the evening and facil-
itate the transaction of business. if they
were treated as a decent and respectable
minority ought to be.
The resolution was then agreed to.