The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-01-24
be made when there was fuller at tendance.
 The senate then proceeded to execu- tive business, and afterwards adjourn ed.
In the House.


 day next, the Friday night session for the consideration of private pension bills to be held.
 MT. Henderson, rep, of Iowa, reported from the committee on rules, several minor changes and the modified form of the quorum-counting provision. The latter read as follows
 Whenever a quorum fails to vote on any question and a quorum is not pres ent, and objection is made for that cause unless the house shall adjourn there shall be call of the house, and the sergeant at arms shall forthwith proceed to bring in absent members, and the yeas and nays on the pending question shall at the same time be con sidered as ordered.
 The clerk shall call the roll, and each member as he answers to his name may vote on the pending question, and, af- ter the1roll call Is completed each mem- Der arrested shall be brought by the sergeant t-arms before the house, whereupon he shall be noted as present. discharged from arrest and given an opportunity to vote, and his vote shall be recorded If those voting on the question and those who are present and decline to vote shall together make majority of the house, the speaker shall declare that quorum is constituted, and the pending question shall be de cided as the majority of those voting shall appear. And thereupon further proceedings under the call shall be con- sidered as dispensed with.
 At any time after the roll call has been completed the speaker may enter tain a motion to adjourn if seconded by majority of those present, to be ascertained by actual count by the speaker, and if the house adjourns all proceedings under this section shall be vacated. But this section of the rule shall not apply to the sessions of Friday night until further order by the house.
 MT. Henderson explained the force of the changes, made by the committee in the clause above mentioned. It provid- ed, he said, for adjournment pending a call of the house, adjournment to have the effect of vacating all proceedings hereunder, and it did not apply to the Friday night sessions, when the attend ance, usually is not equal to that of a quorum.
 MT. Henderson stated that the merits of the question having been argued by him when the subject was under discus sion some days ago, he would not enter upon that field at this time, but would hear from those who oppose the view that majority of a present quorum can proceed to do business. He would only say that the proposition had been originally advanced in the Forty-sey- enth congress by the Hon. J. Randolph Tucker, some time chairman of the conn., mittee on judiciary and recognized by all as an able lawyer, and lated advo- cated inithe Fifty-seeond congress by Hon. Thomas B. Reed, also a member of the committee on the judiciary. It was desirable that the rule should be adopted now, when it could be consider ed without invoking any partisan feel ing either in its support or opposition.
 Mir. Dearmond, dem., of Missouri, ar- gued that the presence of a quorum having lbeen ascertained, he believed it to be perfectly competent for the house under the constitution, by q rule, to say in so many words that members who do not vote upon the pending question shall be counted with the prevailing side. It was fair, just, sensible and constitutional, said MT. Dearmond, thus to vote them.
 MT. Bailey, dem, of Texas, asserted that it was not competent for the house to pass rule whereby any measure could be declared to be legally passed unless it received the affirmative votes of at least majority of the quorum of the house. He fortified his position by copious quotations from leading texa writers and decisions of judicial tribu- nals upon this subject.
 The rule was advocated by Mr Pow CTS. rep, of Vermont, and opposed by MT. Williams, dem, of Mississippi. MT. Miles, den., of Maryland, offered an amendment providing that the result of a pending proposition shall be decid- ed hy the votes of majority of those members present.
 The debate was continued by Messrs. Grow, Gibson and Dalzell, all support ing the amendment, which was agreed to, after Mn Miles amendment had been rejected.
 MT. Miles, rep, of Massachusetts, pro- posed an amendment giving to members oldest in service the first right to draw for seats at the beginning of season, so that members upon whose assistance the speaker must rely for conducting the affairs of the house, Hike MT. Ding ley of Maine, whose voices are in in verse ration to their ability, should not be relegated to the Cherokee strip"
 The amendment was lost.
 MT. Crisp. dern.. of Georgia, moved to substitute for the code of rules the rules of the Fifty-third congress.
 Mir. Dilliver, rep, of Iowa, made a humorous speech, congra tulating the democrats upon their advance since the famous scene in the Fifty-first congress. in which they protested against the counting of a quorum by MT. Reed, as evidenced by their willingness to vote for the rule reported to-day
 Ex+Speaker Crisp made an earnest de- fense of the action of the democrats at that time against what they deemed a revolutionary proceeding on the part of Speaker Reed
 MT. Crisp said that these troubles oc- cured before the rules were adopted. While the house was without rules oth- CT than those of general parliamentary practice the speaker, without any au- thority, except his own arbitrary will, had proceeded to count a quorum It was against that that the democrats protested.
 The substitute of MT Crisp was re-