Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-03-05
THE STORY OF THE CONGRESS.
Myriads Of Bills introduced and Hundreds
of LAWS Enacted.

TIE srRUoGLE AT THE START ovER THE RULES
IMPORTANT MEASURES AND NOTABLE con-
TRovERsIEs-soME OF THE BILLS OF GENERAL
INTEREST THAT BECAME LAWS.
the Congress Just ended. The number, how
ever, was made up chiefly Of measures Of minor
| importance. The House took the lead in legis-
lation, the Senate acting as q check upon too
great haste. The majority leaders started out
with certain important legislation, which they
wanted to accomplish as matter Of party
policy, and their ambition was to make this a
business Congress.
But considerable time was consumed in the
preparatory course. The first great object Of
the new Speaker at the outset was to effect a
parliamentary reform. which would limit the
obstructive power of the minority and place
the control of the legislation more securely in
the hands of the majority. The purpose was to
lessen individual influence or power on the
moor, SO as to make it possible, when the
majority caucus decided upon any course, for
II TO be carried out promptly.
Inc republican majority, however. was too
small at the start to be relied on for the i'm
portant work contemplated. There were
eighteen contested election cases and some of
these had to be settled before the work of the
session could be proceeded with. This made a
radical course necessary from the start With
out rules which recognized the absolute power
OF bare majority it WAS difficult to settle
these cases speedily or to take other action
that would fully establish the majority's power
Under old rules and practices established by
the traditions of Congress and by many rules
and rulings the minority had a power which
would enable them to resist with considerable
promise OF success any course of proceedings
to which they were seriously opposed as party.
REVISING THE RULES.
In this emergency Mr.. Reed took matters in
his own hands and by a set of rulings under
general parliamentary law" which secured
for him the titles, conferred by democrats. of
car OF 'usurper" and of "tyrant," placed
the majority in power in the House for the
Congress. By means of these general parlia-
mentary law" rulings and by an exercise of in
dividual will power Nlr. Reed succeeded in
having new code of rules adopted which
placed legislation quite completely in the
hands OF the majority and increased the size of
seats were contested. The House seated eight
OF the republican contestants and declared the
seat OF one democrat, Mr.. Breckenridge of Ar
kansas, vacant. Two cases. Goodrich agt. Bull
lock from Florida, and McGinnis agt. Anderson
from West Virginia, in which the committee
recommended the seating of the republican
contestants, were not disposed of by the
House, and the elections committee itself never
acted on the Eaton agt. Phelan Tennessee case.
There was not complete harmony within the
majority party, however, and it was matter
OF constant anxiety and watchfulness on the
part OF the Speaker to keep the organization
compact.
ON THE SENATE SIDE.
Having arranged matters in the House so
that nothing could obstruct the carrying out of
the will Of the majority in the House, it was the
desire of Mr.. Reed and others of the radical
leaders to bring about similar state of affairs
in the Senate by the adoption of similar new
rules there. The question of joint rules was
discussed at several conferences. But in order
to make the change in the Senate recourse to
general parliamentary law rulings would
have been necessary. and many of the old re-
spectors of traditions and time-honored rules
and customs were not willing to do thing SO
radical. The House had been without rules
after assembling until the new rules we're
adopted and the Speaker might therefore fall
back on general parliamentary law" But the
Senate had Its rules, which themselves declared
how they might be changed. which made it not
as easy to carry out the plan there as it was in
the House.
Otherwise the chances are that every meas
ure which had the sanction of the majority
would have passed both houses Of Congress.
Under the new rules and such special rules
as were brought in from time to time Zone of
the features of the rules being the facility with
which they could be amended. temporarily or
permanently, at the will Of the ma jority) the
House was enabled to pass many bills, often
almost without debate, the previous question
being ordered on them at once.
This parliamentary REFORM" carried to
completion. was regarded as one of the most i'm
portant works of the Congress, and its failure
IN part was great disappointment to Mr..
Reed.
IMPORTANT MEASURES.
The tariff bill. the federal elections bill, a
shipping tonnage and mail subsidy bill.
silver bill, the direct tax refunding bill and the
Blair educational bill were regarded as meas
ures of supreme Importance. The Mckinley
tariff bill. together with the customs admins
tratlve bill, was enacted into a law at the first
session. law was enacted, as a compromise
increasing the compulsory coinage of silver to
4.S00,OOO ounces per month but an effort to
secure absolute free coinage was resisted by
the majority leaders and failed The shipping
bill in its entirety did not become law but
mail subsidy was secured.
THE ELECTIONS BILL STRUGGLE.
The struggle over the elections bill was what
its failure in the Senate is matter of bitter
This bill not only in itself agitated Congress
from the first day Of its meeting to the day of
Its close, but 1t had an influence on much other
legislation, either to defeat or to aid.
Inc BLAIR educational bill falle6 The direct
tax refunding bill became law.
THE RECORD OF THE SESSION.
During the session 1906 bills and resolu-
tions were introduced in both houses, a num-
Der very much larger than known in any pre-
vious Congress. The number of bills that be-
came laws aggregated 2,1S6, as against ], S24 in
the Fiftieth Congress, an increase of 362
Among the important bills of general inter-
est which became laws are: The copyright bill.
the private land court bill Ito settle disputes
arising over Mexican grants in the western
states and territories). the Indian depreciation
claims bill, the timber and presumption repeal
law bill (making general revision of the land
laws), general land forfeiture bill. the bill TO
relieve the Supreme Court by the establishment
of intermediate circuit courts of appeal, the
United States judges salaries bill; and besides
these:
For the worlds fair at Chicago to celebrate
the four hundredth anniversary of the dis
covery of America; for the admission of
Wyoming and Idaho territories to statehood.
the anti-lottery, the antitrust bill Ito prevent
combinations in restraint of trade): the re-
appOrtiOnmelt bill; provisions to add three
line of battle ships, one protected cruiser, one
fast cruiser of 800 tons. and one torpedo
cruiser and one torpedo boat to the new navy
Gn the naval appropriation acts); the Owen
bill. to further regulate immigration and to in
crease the efficiency of the existing immigration
and contract labor laws; the provision lin last
year sundry appropriation act) repeating
the act OF 1888 which withdrew practically ali
the western public lands from settlement (pro-
viding that hereafter only actual reservoir