The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-01-16
MUSCULAR ORATORY.
The House Had Shouted Until It
Was IIoarse
WHEN MIR. REED CALMLY TOOK A
HAND IN THE DEBATE.


ment with Jokes and Then the Days
Performance Was Ffnished-The Dis
cussion Turned on the Question of
Wages-NIr. BouteIIe Prominent lin the
Days Proceedings-He Has Not For
gotten Hawaii.
Washington, January Is. The close of
general debate on the Wilson bill had the
effect to thin out the attendance of mem
bers OF the floor and in the gallery of the
House. On the Democratic side, in par
ticular was this attenuation apparent
and only about thirty Democratic mem
bers were present at the beginning of
todays session.
The committees having been called for
reports, without producing any import
ant results, Mr.. Boutelle, Repu blican, of
Maine, endeavored to call up his
Hawaiian resolution. He maintained
that the House could not SO bind itself
by its rules as to preclude the exercise
of the right to consider questions con-
cerning it's privileges, and he read the
ruling of the Speaker on January 3,
holding this opinion. Yet, said Mr..
Boutelle, the very position which he had
described as a hypothetical case, had be-
come an accomplished act and his (Mr.
Boutelle's) prediction had been verified.
The President had sent a special mes
sage to Congress with the question, yet
the House had not acted upon it.
The introduction of the Hawaiian ques-
tion into the House had its usual effect
and in a moment the House was in an
uproar. The Speaker endeavored. to Sc
cure order but his poundings had about
as much effect in calming the stormy
waters as vial of oil would have on q
West India cyclone.
demanded that the special order adopted
by the House be adhered to.
Mr.. Boutelle expressed his Indignation
that Mr.. McMillin and his Democratic
associates should be willing to lend
themselves to the infamous scheme of
smothering the Hawaiian question and
should blind themselves to the degrading
position in which the President was
placing the country.
The Speaker said there was some limit,
even to the rights of the gentleman from
Maine, to violate the rules of the House.
There must be somewhere a power in
the majority of the House to support it's
rules and to insist that they should be
respected and to take some action to re-
obIdlu d gcllGltIudu WHO pefSlSL6O, QaY
after day, in violating the rules of the
House.
At 11.25 the clerk began to
Read the Wilson Bill.
1t required TWO hours and twenty-three
minutes to finish it. Immediately after
the reading Chairman Wilson suggested
that for three days the bill be open to
amendments by secti ons instead of
having amendments offered at any point
in the bill indiscriminately.
Mr.. Reed, Republican of Maine, re-
torted that he was glad to see that the
chairman of the committeeoon ways and
means had recognized the impropriety of
the way in which it had been proposed
to push the bill through as it had put
the question of recognition for the offer
ing of amendments Solely in the hands
of the man who occupied the chair. To
remove the time limitation and allow
the House in free and untrammelled
fashion, to consider every proposition as
it came up was all right SO far as it went
but it did not go far enough, for the
gentleman from West Virginia proposed
to try that plan for three days and it he
did not like it he would go back to the
original proposition. He could not agree
to any such narrow plan as that.
Mr.. Bynum, Democrat, of Indiana, OBJ
jected to Mr.. Reed making speech
and Mr.. Wilson, Democrat of West
amendment to the bill This was to the
tobacco schedule, and struck out the
words commercially known as" in the
paragraph following:
son all leaf tobacco or such part there
of as is wrapped tobacco suitable for
cigar wrappers if unstemmed 81 a pound;
if sternmed 81. 25 per pound"
F,x,
were offered from both sides of the
chamber, in presenting one of which
greatly reducing the duty, Mr.. Marsh
Repu blcan of Illinois said that if the
mem bers ON the other side were advo-
eating revenue tariff and opposed
protective tariff he proposed to give them
a chance TO vote on a revenue substitute.
1T was by such clap-trap reform as
this" he said fiercely as he turned to the
Democratic side of the House that
you bamboozled the people in 1892. "
(Republican laughter.)
All the substitutes were rejected and
Mr.. Wilson's amendment adopted.
Mr.. Burrows announced that he wished
to offer an amendment but the chairman
stated that Mr.. Wilson had been recog-
nized. On this hinged an interesting de-
bate as to Mr.. Wilson'S right to be recog-
nized a second time before any one else
had offered any amendment. The Chair
held that the committee on ways and
means had the right to offer as many
amendments as it wished to bill of it's
own. Mr.. Wilson as chairman of the COM
mittee had this right
Mr.. Burrows contended that Mr.. Wilson
had offered the amendment in his indi-
vidual capacity and not as chairman of
the ways and means committee.
Mr.. McMillin, Democrat of Tennessee,
said it had always been the custom of
both parties to allow the man who had
charge of the bill to make all the amend
ments he desired before allowing any one
else to amend it.
Mr.. Reed, Republican of Maine, said
that if the Chair recognized Mr.. Wilson
the members ON the Dmocratic side of
the House could pass their amendments
to him and occupy the time for the two
weeks and thus absolutely foreclose any
amendment from the Republican side
The plan of sending up amendments to
the chairman and arranging for a recog-
milton was without precedent.
Mr. H ooker, Democrat of Mississinni
said Mr.. Wilson had right to be heard
because he was the exponent of the
majority in the House.
Mr.. Reed Asserted
that the chairman of the committee on
ways and means had not submitted his
amendment as coming from the COM