New-York tribune., 1891-12-26

legiaiat,on In It's prcgont crowded state becomes
n mere jumb'c and nobody is responsible for tac
failure or success Of any measure Forcc OF oh-
cumstances has developed The Committee on
Rules into the body which shall select the hlisl-
ness to be acted upon, and take the responsioiity
for that selection exactly as Is done py the
English Ministry. This fact has been already
ponted out by Professor Hart in very admir-
able article. 1t is a most valuable advance III
the direction of getting true responsibility, as
it is a native growth along our own hhes' ou'
it has met with no favor at the hands OF those
who care less for official responsibility than ior
the way in which it is obtained
But the question of responsibility Is much
broader and deeper than either the deveiopmeht
of the powers of the Speaker or oil the Ooni-
mittee on Rules important as they are. III INC
minority in a legislative body Is to have the power
nv any system of rules or through any condition
of business of stopping all legislative action' all
poltical responsibility comes to an end' Inc
majority goes to the country and bays tho
minority would not let them legisate, and so they
are not responsible for what has been done or ie1t
undone. while the minority, OF course, has nlerely
TO say that they were minority, and therelore' i
the nature of things, could not legisate. 10 put
it in another way, Congress adJourns, goes u ''c
country and nobody is responsible for anythlhs
The school of writer's to whom | have already
referred like to explain this by saying that IL 10
due to our system of committees ana because
Cabinet officers are not on the floor OF the HOUSE
They utterly fail to see that these things are
superfcia details and that the real difficulty has
been that there was no organized body in the
House. either majority or minority, which could
be held responsible for the action of the House
as n whole. The reform, made by the List Con-
gress and put in force by Mr. Reed, did some
thing more important than clear the path Tor
majority action at the time, great as that service
was. Mr. Reed, and those who followed him.
restored power, and with power responsibility, 70
the majority in the American House OF Represen-
tatives. For what was done in that Congress the
majority was held to strict account and no future
majority can ever go to the people and escape re-
sponsibility for their action or their inacton by
saying that the minority would not permit them
to legislate.
NARROW CRITICISM AND FAULT FINDING.
Whether the present Congress rejects the
changes made by Mr.. Reed in whole or in
part makes absolutely difference, so far as this
point of party responsibility is concerned 1t
has been demonstrated plainly that a majority in
the House of Representatives can legslate If they
choose 10. IN OtneT WOruS, MI, Nctu anu hio
party, as has been said, restored responsibility TO
the majority, and yet many Of the people who have
been clamoring most loudly for the need of in
creased responsibility were the first to find fault.
This was due partly to the fact that they did
not understand what had been DONE partly to in
tense party spirit. but most Of all, to their in
ability to grasp the idea that American consti-
tutional development must be along its own lines
and cannot be advanced by foreign CRAFTS. Some
of them appear to care more for the shadow than
the substance, for the name than the thing. II
they cannot get responsibility in the Eng
sh fashion, they seem to prefer that no advance
at all should be made. But this narrow criticism
and fault-fnding does not alter the great fact
that majority responsibility has been clearly es
tablshed in the House of Representatives, and
that the rights Of the minority have been better
defined 1t is known now of all men that the
minority can no longer arrest legislation unless the
majority chooses to permit them to do SO.
HENRY CABOT LODGE.