The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-04-28
CONGRESS FLEETS IN SEPTEMBER.

The President announces that he will
summon Congress to meet some time in the
early part of September, that is to say three
months sooner than usual. 1t is not stated
that this is to be a precedent; butthe change
has been so often suggested, and the argu-
ments in It's favor are so convincing, that
the practice will probably prevail hereafter,
at least in the odd years.
Our present plan was adopted when the
business of Congress was so trifing that
members sometimes neglected to attend : it
Is entirely unified for an era during which
beneficial and necessary measures of legis-
lation fail to become laws, for want of the
time to pass them. Under that plan, If
there Is contest over the speakership or
the rules, the holidays are reached before
the House is organized for business. Even
when there is no contest the Speaker rarely
frames his committees before the middle of
December; Christmas comes before the
members of committees have got together,
made each others acquaintance and felt
each others pulse on tile questions which
are to come before them. Ii is the middle
OF January before they settle down to the
digestion of the bills which have been re-
ferred to them by the House, and to the
hearing of testimony on their merits. A
whole month has been wasted without any
work being accomplished.
Under the new rules of the Flftleth and
Fifty-frst Congresses, Intelligent efforts
have been made to obviate the scramble
which ensues toward the end OF the session.
Elaborate methods have been devised to
keep the House to its business and to re-
move distractions out of the way of com
mittees. But these desirable ends have not
haan of Wit
involved a suppression of congressional
oratory to a degree which the outside public
hardly realize. When n committee reports
bill. the member in charge announces
that the vote will be taken that day, at an
hour which lie names, and that the inter-
venlng space Of time will be divided be-
tween the supporters Of the bill and its OPP
ponents, each speaker being limited to five
or ten minutes; thus Il member vino is max
Ing fine argument is often cut off in the
middle, and hidden TO sit down. As 10
speeches BY members who are not in charge
OF bills, or leaders of their party, they are
out OF date. There was a bright man who
was tiGe orator, and served two terms he
said when he retired thai Congress had
never once heard his voice. Now, of course,
while work in committee is more valuable
than mere orstoTy. yet still a member of
Con gress, who is supposed TO know more
about public affairs than other people
ought to have chance of telling what he
knows without being induced to get himself
interviewed in a newspaper.
By meeting in September Congress ought
to be able to get the appropriation bills and
the main measures Of the dominant party
ready for delivery by the committees I'M
mediately after the holidays. Then there
would be plenty of time for debate in the
full house. Four months would be ample
time for flowers of rhetoric and expositions
Of doctrine. In such a period every meas
ure would get chance of a hearing and
there would be less danger than there is
af meritorious bills being killed by being
placed at the foot of the calendar, or OF bad
bills being carried in the hurry and scurry
Of the closing hours. Under such a plan
Congress might adjourn in the first week Of
May, and members would escape the heat
and malaria OF the season when spring
merges into summer on the border of the
Potomac
The main measure to which the present
administration is committed by its platform
and by Mt Cleveland's memorial is a revi-
sion of the tariff on free-,rade lines The
President il quoted by those who claim to
have It from his own lips as saying that a
bill with that object Will be ready for sub
mission to Congress before the holidays.
That appears TO be the expe ctation of
Senator Teller of Colorado, who, though not
in the councils of the psrty in power, is
likely to be well informed. II anything is
going to be done several months may be
required TO ADJUST q measure which will
command The assent Of both houses; and
certainly eight or ten weeks are as short
period as can be allowed for the adjustment
Of details In committee. If that were out
of the way an adjournment might be an
ticipated before midsummer, but if n new
tariff bill is held back till February there is
no saying how late Congress may sit.