El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-01-18
ELOQUENCE IS STIFLED
How the House Rules Hamper
New Members.
THEY GET NO CHANCE TO TALK.
Thus the Bright, Pushing Men Cannot Dis
tinguish ThemseIves-But In the Senate
the Members May Talk Until They Are
Exhausted.

Exhausted.
| WASHINGTON, Jan. 16.-[Special RE
cent occurrences in congress have served to
bring out more strikingly than ever the es-
sential difference between the senate and
the house of representatives and to add to
the discomfort of members of the latter
body. Their great complaint is that under
the rules of the house, they are at the
present moment, there is no chance what
ever for a man to make reputation. De-
| bate is discouraged in the house. Only a
| few favored leaders, men of long service
| get the time to make a speech in which they
| can do themselves or their subject Justice
| For example, the debate on the Pacific rail
road funding BILL one of the most imDor-
| tant measures brought before congress in
many years and one of the best upon which
to make an address of a popular character
was really discussed by only small num-
| Der of men, and few of these had time
| enough at their disposal to enable them to
| acquit themselves with credit. The great
mass of representatives had to be content
with a catch as catch can sort of participa-
| ton in the discussion under what is known
| as the five minute rule
The House Rules.
The five minute rule is a most-discour-
aging thing. The new member of congress
| who is put down on the list for five min
| utes thinks he can make his reputation in
that time. He sets out with an explana-
ton of why he has appeared in this debate.
He states his propositions. He indicates
the spirit in which he has approached a
study of the question. Finally he begins
his real argument. But in nine cases out
of ten he has uttered no more than few
seDtenCes of the solid part of his speech
when down comes the speakers gavel with
a bang the presiding officer calls out, "The
4.
another budding ambition is crushed to
earth. Sometimes the speakers interfer-
ence with flights of eloquenoe is comical,
for now and then it catches man at
most inconvenient period and leaves him
hanging, it were, between the heaven
and the earth of defamation. At other
times tits pathetic, for once in awhile
really able and promising speech is cut
short, and an opportunity to bring out
strong man and add him to the list of
notables is ruined by enforcement of the
rule.
OF course it isn't the speaker S fault. He
cannot help himself. The rules are. made
to be enforced, and to enforce them is his
sworn duty. If he We're to become lax and
show favOritism here there, his disci-
pline would not endure day, and his repu-
tation and peace of mind would disappear
in a twinkling. The trouble is in the sys-
tenn. 1t is the way the house is organized.
Too much time is consumed in droning
along with routine business. Trivial de-
bate about embarrassing things eats up
day after day. Matters which should have
been attended to in the committee rooms
are made to waste the time of all the house.
There is room for reform. The methods
of the house should be changed.
No Opportunity.
Each congress brings to Washington
something like hundred new members of
the house. They are bright, pushing men,
who have forced themselves to the front,
riding over competition, from all the states
of the Union. They are naturally anxious
to distinguish themselves. They are eager
to do something to justify the confidence
which their constituents have reposed in
them. They expect to find an opportunity
to do so. But what are the facts? A new
member is lucky if he gets the floor at all
during his first session. If he gets it for
more than five minutes, he may consider
that he has drawn big prize in the lot
terry. The net result is that all these
bright, ambitious, capable men drone |
along all the winter through without Op-
portunity to 90 any thing, becoming lazy |
and Indifferent, having all the life and |
spirit squeezed out of them, and in the
spring many of them come to the conclu
sion that service in congress is not what it |
has been cracked up to be. |
How different things are in the senate! |
How members of the house do envy their |
brethren at the other end of the capitol |
In the senate one may talk when he pleases |
and practically upon any subject that |
catches his fancy. Moreover, he may talk |
till lie is tired, be it one hour or four hours |
two days or four days. Still better, he |
may give notice of the day and hour ut |
which be will address the senate. He may
prepare himself fully. He may make ready |
to deliver the greatest speech of his life. |
He may invite his friends and may send |
out advance copies of his speech to the |
newspapers In the senate there is every
inducement to man to study, to work, to |
prepare himself, for the making of a great |
effort In the house there is every tempta-
ton to become lazy, Indifferent, hopeless. |
The wonder is, considering the difference |
between the two systems. that so few SEN |
ators make really admirable ard striking |
speeches and that so many mem bers of |
the house contrive to keep themselves be- |
fore the public eye.
The Senate Thermostat.
Away down in the subbascment of the |
senate chamber underneath the beautiful |
terrace which extends along tho west front |
of the capitol, are the engine rooms. To |
go into these engine rooms, with their |
battery of huge boilers, tie large and |
small engines, the complicated lighting |
apparatus, the multitude of wires running |
lating, warming and cooling the senate |
chamber, ore is tempted to think himself |
in the power department of great factory |
rather than in the bowels of the United |
States capitol Here the new heating and |
ventilating apparatus of the senate cham |
Der is located, ard here is device, useful |
and curious which has become Il standing |
joke in the house of lords.
1t is called the thermostat. Connected |
as it is with the senate chamber by electric |
wires, the engineer in charge can ascertain |
what the temperature is in any part of tho !
chamber at any moment by pressing a but |
ton and watching the indicator marks, A |
certain senator is fond Of telling his friends !
that this th6rmOstat shows NEST amazing |
conditions. - was down there one day" |
he says, with a veracious look upon his !!
face, land the temperature in the vicinity !
of John Sherman s chair was degrees be- :
low zero Just IL few feet away, where Sen
ator Mills sat preparing to deliver his
speech Cuba, the indicator marked 112
in the shade. - WALTER WEILMAA.