The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-12-15
the HOUSE As HE RAN II.
Reed Holds Forth on the Duties
and Burdens Of the
Speaker.
His Power OF Killing OF or Ad-
vancing Measures Once
Introduced.

4 tort Of Forsman-Thinks the Democrats
viii Adopt His Tactics Sooner
OF Latcr. NJ.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 14.-"No man who has
not filed the position Of speaker" said
Mi. Reed, "knows to what extent the man
acement Of the nations business is pnt
upon the speaker. Before beihs IN Tie
speakers chair / was twelve years a mem-
her Of the house. In that twelve years, in
spite Of the work which l did, l got no
conception as to the extent Of the sneaks''s
pcwer, duties and responsibilities. That
power, and the responsibility which goes
With il. must inevitably increase as the
country grows, as the wants OF the country
GROW and AZ the number of representatives
increases.
..The~ situation which confronts a speaker
ID briefly this: As things stand now, more
than 49, 600 bills are presented to the house
in two years. OF that work laid before 1t
the house is able to handle six or eight per
cent. The speaker is director of . legisla-
tlV0 IuuCulu0 WAlOA dAAoV P0SSA~AJ W.
slider all that is submitted to it. Somebody
must decide what work can DO lone and
give that to the house to do. This govern
ment, like every other, is q matter OF
growth. No one could have foreseen how
absolutely 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 rules shall
be put before the house, they must also pro-
nounce the fate of the Thousands of bills,
never heard of. The speakers position, as
chairman Of tho committee on rules. and
the power of recognition, enable him to
have much influences in this selection,
which ia to determine primarily for the
house what work it shall do. At the same
time this 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
work which is most important for the coun-
try's good, They must choose for consider
alton those bills which the house actually
wants to pass and will pass.
:s'The man is a fool who supposes that a
speaker or his associates on rules will court
defeat at the hands of a house trying to
force upon them bills which the members
do not want, which are untimely and which
they would kill. The duty of a speaker, as
] interpret il, is to see to 1t. as the servant
of the house. that the house has the nations
business in hand and does a good sessions
work. The speaker and committee know
what ia to be done, about how much can be
4 49, -.-I 49,, -n.-~ ~,k n r,eorrn ~ voa
They cannot afford even taking such q low
view of the matter rs that of personal pride
to risk having their programme a failure.
They cannot contemplate such a thing as
giving preference to bills for which they
might have had a personal preference. The
committee which adopted such a 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
mittse, canvassed the question in advance,
made up our minds whether it would suit
the house, and if W Q decided that the house
would not like to consider it the bill WAS
not presented, no matter how desirable it
might seem to US Individually.
'The duty of the committee on rules is
not only to present good bills, but to avoid
presenting bills at Il time when they risk
being beaten. Iboy may do useful work
by holding off the presentation of a good
bill which risks defeat until the proper
time of presenting it shall have arrived.
MIR. Randall, in tho Forty-sixth congress,
caused to be adopted rules by which every
bill which came up was to be presented in
its order and acted upon. That would
have been a good plan had it been possible
to carry it out, but it was not. Then came
the scheme for demanding the unanimous
consent Of the house to put certain impera-
tive bills ahead of others. This looked
promising. but it soon became plain that
one man could kill the bill for revenge, or
other reasons. 1t also became plain that
one man would kill the bill and that the
system would not do.
Some committee, as any one can see,
must run the business and decide what the
speaker to aid in the very work. He does
MOI reach down from the sky into the
Speakers chair or crawl in by divine rignt.
1.-THE constitution says the majority
elects the speaker as a foreman to point
out the work to be taken III hand. He must
do that, and must do it SO as to meet the
approval Of the house. If you want to mako
the situation plain to your readers that do
not follow politics, say that congress is n
sawmlll working at the busipeS3 of the
country. The bills are the lumber, and the
is a lumberman who must pick out
the sticks of timber and shove them under
the buzz saw. He must avoid the knotty |
oAo5 duA GAOob Gidb arc EOhtel duu Lave
nails in them, to keep the mill from work
ing uselossly. Yos, he must also look out
for tie buzz saw. That is part of the
business"
"Mr. Reed, do you believe that the meth
DDS of forcing ahead legislation will be
ultimately by the democrats under
their speakers in future to carry on the
business in the house in the same line that
you did?'
81 do. I shall not, however, undertake
to say how soon. Virtue is bound to tri-
umpb. out it is hard to tell whom right, yir-
tue and good will prevail. Sometimes it
comes slowly and sometimes rapidly. If
the right always o we should all be good
and there would be M democracy and no
variety.
A to the counting reform which We in
augurated, l think that any sensible, we'll
balanced mind, with legal parliamentary
knowledge, rarely contends, for other than
partisan purposes, that we were in the
wrong. Take the article which was re-
Gently published il the North American Re
view, and in ii MIR. stanton proves that nv
views are hsld by every patliamentarian in
Europe. Gia not know that Stanton wa
engaged in such q work. l did not care
anything about it, bat l was Interested, of
course. IN his researches. As a matter Of
fact, whom l became speaker and made up
my fn!iid what my duty WAS. / did not real
iz1 how absolutely in the right | was. and
how entirely logic snd authority was on my
side. No lawyer of sense has ever been
found to take opnDSiaa yigySs