The advocate., 1891-12-23
interview which he furnished week

RPNp3AASA ~
briefly this: As things stand now more than ten
thousand bills are presented to the House in two
years. OF that work laid before IL, the House is
able to handle about or per cent. The speaker
is director OF legislative machine which can
NOT possibly consider all that Is submitted TO IT,
Somebody must decide what work can be done
and give that TO the House to do 1t.
This government, like every other, is matter
Of growth. No one could have fOrseen how absO-
lutely the affairs Of the country must ultimately
center in the speakers hands. Circumstances
have made it necessary that they should. While
the speaker and the committee on rules decide
what bills shall be put before the House, they
must also pronounce the fate Ofthe thousands
Of bills which are drowned, never heard Of.
The speakers position as chairman Of the
committee on rules and the power OF recognition,
enables him to have much influence In this Selec-
ton, which is to determine primarily for the
House what work lt shall do
\ At the same time there Is no power enabling
the speaker to advance those bills In which he
may feel an especial interest. The committee
on rules must select and give to the House that
good. They must choose for consideration those
bills which the House actually wants to pass
and will pass. The man Is a fool whO guppOses
II nc the speaker or his associates on rules win
court defeat at the hands Of the House by trying
to force upon them bills which the members do
not want, which are unnmely and which they
would kill
Tho d,,fvy ~ kho snankar na lnforurat II "a
to see to 1t, as the servant Of the House, that
the House has the nations business In hand and
does good sessions work. The speaker and
the committee know what is to be done and
about how much can be done, and they map out
a programme. They cannot afford, even taking
such 9 low view Of the matter as that Of per-
Sonal pride, to risk having their programme
failure. They cannot contemplate such thing
as giving preference to bills for which they
might have had q personal preference The
committee which should adopt such course
would court humiliation.
In fact, during the last Congress, so far from
trying to force bills down the thrOats of the
House, we carefully considered each bill In COM
mittee, canvassed the question In advance,
made up our minds whether It would suit the
House, and II we decided that the House would
not like to consider It, the bill was not presented,
no matter how desirable It might seem to us In
divIdualIy.
The duty Of the committee on rules is not only
to present good bills but to avoid presenting
bills at a time when they risk being beaten.
They may do useful work for the country by
holding OFF presentation Of good bill which
risks defeat until the proper time of presenting
IL has arrived.
Some committee as any one can see, must run
the business and decide what the members shall
go at They elect the speaker to aid in that
very work, He does not drop down from the
sky into the speakers chair or crawl In by d.
vine right The Constitution says the majority
shall do the law-making. The majority elects
the speaker as foreman to point out the work
TO be taken In hand. He must do that and must
do Il so as to meet the approval of the House.
II you want to make the situation plain to your
readers that do not follow politics, say that
Congress is a Ssw-mIll working at the business
Of the country The bills are the lumber, and
the speaker Is the lumberman who must pick
out the sticks of timber and shove them under
the buzz-saw. He must avoid the knotty ones
and those that are rotten and have nails in
them, to keep the mill from working nselessly.
Yes, he must also look out for the buzz.saW.
That is part Of the business.
AS matter Of fact, when became speaker
and made up my mind what my duty was, did
not realize myself how absolutely In the right
was, and how entirely lOGiC and authority were
on my side
No lawyer of any sense has ever been found
to take opposite views.
REPUBLICAN, CONFESSION OF THE NE