St. Paul daily globe., 1895-12-14
HARD TO MOVE.

The younger members OF the Unit
ed States senate who are endeavor-
ing to secure an amendment or re-
peal of the obsolete rules of proceed
ure which govern that body have
undertaken a large contract. There
is no place where the mere force of
inertia is so great as in the senate.
Things stay as they are simply be-
cause they have been. Change is re-
sisted strenuously and even fiercely
for no other reason than that it is
change. The senate of the United
States is the only deliberative body
in the world, of it's rank, which still
permits absolutely unlimited debate.
There is no conceivable reason for
retaining this denial of majority
rule. We have seen it demonstrated
over and over again that a mere
handful of men in the senate can,
at any time, block ali legislation.
Provided only that they have the ap-
proval of the small constituencies
which they represent, or that the
great corporate influences which
may have sent them there demand
their adherence to certain line of
action, they can set at defiance the
will of the people of all the rest of
the United State. AS long as there
is no means or terminating a de-
bate in the senate, and while the
consent of the senate remains nee
essary condition of legislation, it
cannot be said that the rule Of the
majority, or even self-government,
rightly understood, prevails in the
United States.
The men who have been more re-
Gently admitted to that body, and
who went to it with traditions fixed
by their experience in legislative as
sembIies that had real power to act,
are amazed by the conditions that
surround them. They see that, un-
der the rules, the senate is really no
more a popular representative body
than the English house Of lords.
While it is impossible for major
ity of it's members to even come to a
vote upon a bill, or to pass to some
other order of business as long as
factious minority continues to OBJ
struct, the people are powerless to
10
other abuse has reflected greater dis
credit upon the senate than the re-
fusal to so modify the rules of pro-
cedure as to permit the transaction
of business by a majority. 1t is
quite possible to do this without in
terfering with minority rights or cur
failing in the least the privilege of
full and fair discussion.
Now is the time, when no ques-
ton is in sight upon which lines will
be drawn bitterly, and whose fate
some senators may regard as vital
to their interest, to work for the
necessary reform. Public opinion is
all on one side. The members of the
senate who argue for a reform of it's
| rules have the unanimous support Of
| the people. They will be resisted by
a band of antiquated incumbents Of
| the senatorial office, who have come
to regard the senate as something
outside Of and above the govern
ment of the United States; with es-
pecial privileges to preserve, and a
power Of veto above that Of the
| house or the president or the voters
| Of the whole country. The opposi-
ton will be persistent and unyield-
| ing. We wish all success to the re-
formers, whose first purpose it is to
| make the senate a deliberative body,
and to restore it to it's proper place
in the system of government of the
United States. They have big un-
dertaking ahead of them, but this
reform, like all others that look to-
ward the abolition of privilege and
| Of the control of the many by the
| few, is sure to triumph in the end.