The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-04-20
IT HAD TO COME.
The Old System of Procedure in
the House
Was So Cumbersome as to Para
lyze Legislation.
DEMOCRATS HATED 1T
But Necessity Made Them En-
dOrse Reed.
DEMOCRATS HATED 1T


Mr. Springer has been talking with great
freedom the necessity of a radical
change in the management of the house,
and his several talks may be summed up
to this: We are about to enter on new
system of parliamentary procedure be-
cause the old system is so complicated and
the country has grown so large that a
change is of necessity. The growth of the
country, the increase of representatives
and the growth and increasing complexity
of interests have made the old rules obso-
lete. Summary process must be adopted
We must have some way Of forcing pres
ent quorum to act or adopt a method like
that of the party whips in the British
parliament. The power of the whips is
only partisan, but there is held to be a
strong moral obligation on the member to
obey the call of the whip This country
is now SO big that we cannot possibly at
tend even to the necessary business with
out some way of bringing members to
book.
Radical Measures Were a Necessity.
Such, in very general terms, is Mr..
Springer's justification for his rather
strong measure, and all the Republicans
and probably q majority of the Democrats
quito agree with him. 1t was the meth
cd to be adopted that the fighting took
place Everybody agrees that the time for
scenes like those of a few years ago, when
Mr.. Oates and a mere handful of support
is gone forever. Neither party would now
stand such obstruction, and, as it is, the
disgrace has become uncomfortable. For
few weeks tie long mOnOtOny of roll call
and futile motions was considered only
wearisome nuisance, next it was looked
upon national scandal, and then it
bid fair to become international. The
Democrats very naturally hated to do any
thing which looked like an Endorsement of
Gear Reed methods in the Fifty-first
II .A~-.t
their own men from adjacent cities ana
states forced them to consider extreme
measures.
Driven from the house galleries by the
dull repetition of roll calls, and dry debates
on parliamentary points, and the rules of
the house, reporters sought the senate gal
1ery and listened to the wearisOme plati-
tudes of PETER & Co. or amused them
selves by speculation as to the four Dem
ocrats who are relied upon to defeat the
Wilson bill in that body. The matter has
been figured down fine. AS Mr.. Stewart
now calls himself e Populist and Mr. Irby
insists he is a straight Democrat, the SEN
ate stands A Democrats, 81 Republic
ans and POpulists. 1t is no longer
doubted that Nessrs. Kyle and Allen viii
vote for the sill, and, while it is not GER
tain, it is claimed by its opponents that
Messrs. Stewart and PETER will vote
against it. so this leaves the straight party
strength as before, with a Democratic ma
jority of seven.
Opponents declare, with great conf
dence, that they have four Democrats to a
certainty, and the most popular list in
cludes Hill, Murphy, Smith and Brice-
When any of these is omitted, one of the
Louisiana senators is inserted. In the
house committee the saying is that the bill
must lose two Democrats with the income
tax in it, and the other two POpulists if
the income tax is stricken out. So it is as
broad as it is long, and the bill with the
income feature retained could be passed
Immediately through the house regardless
of the senate amendments. Others put the
number lost and gained by the n%>me
clause at three Back of all, however,
there is still a considerable body of enthu-
siastic Democrats who claim that the bill
will pass the senate by a unanimous party
vote
An Anomalous Spectacle.
All this time the great strike in the coal
regions, along with the half ludicrOus, half
tragic and wholly pathetic episodes of Cox |
ey's army and its related movements, ex-
cites increasing interest among congress
men. There is something so unnatural in (
the march of unemployed men from west |
to east and in q general strike at a time |
when thousands are eagerly seeking work /
that statesmen confess their inability to |
it. All sorts of bills to make |
money plenty and help the poor, and espe- |
cially the farmers, are piled up in the COM |
mittees' rooms, but everything has had to |
wait until the house invented some way L
of doing business. In the banking and cur /
rency committee the Springer bill to pro-
vide national currency, the Warner bill /
to provide a safe and elastic banking
rency, and the Walker bill to reorganize
the entire system of national banking and /
currency are considered from time to time,
and arguments are heard, but none of the
committee ventures to set am early date for
action on any Of them
The Pacific Railroads Problem.
The committee on Pacific railroads give
rather terse answers to all questions and /
say pointedly that they intend to take
plenty of time on the measures laid before /
them One plan, as the public has often
been informed, provides for an immediate
foreclosure and government possession of
the road, and the other for an extension
Of time in which the road may pay out.
This practically amounts to doing nothing
and postponing the whole subject for 10
years or so, and is consequently agreeable
20 the managers of the roads General
Wade Hampton, railroad commissioner,
'avors the plan of requiring the roads to
begin at once by setting aside a portion of
heir earnings yearly to establish a sink
ng fund to pay what they owe the govern
nent and thinks this will be the plan
finally adopted
Mr.. Cooper of Indiana, who was mem
Der of this committee in a former congress,
mas a very searching plan for recovering
rom the original owners of the road and
he heirs of such as are dead He says he
has figured it out very carefully, and all
he money that was made by the original |
and their immediate successors
who evaded payment to the government
AN he recovered. as it is in their rOSSeSSiOn