The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-12-03
Closure in the Senate.


Closure in the Senate.
The ST. Louis Globe Democrat cor
reefs an error in eX-President Harr-
sons recently issued book. This COun-
try of Ours" and also makes valu-
able contribution to parliamentary his
tory when it points out the inaccuracy
Of the assertion that closure has never
obtained in the senate. Rule 8, adopted
by the senate in 1889, said that, while
question is before the senate no mo-
tion shall be received unless for an
amendment. for the previous question,
or for postponing the main question,
on to commit it. or to adjourn" Rule
set forth that The previous ques-
ton being moved and seconded, the
question from the chair shall be. Shall
the main question be now put?' and if
the nays prevail the main question
shall not then be put" This was the
previous question, or, practically, clos
ure. Rule s remained in force in the
senate until February II, 1S2S, or nearly
thirty-nine years.
According to our St. Louis contem-
porary, another of the original rules
of the senate virtually amounted to
one form of closure. 1t provided that
when the yeas and nays shall be
called for by one-ffth of the senator's
present, each senator called upon shall,
unless for especial reasons he is eX-
cused by the senate, declare openly,
without debate, his assent to the ques-
ton." This rule was in operation from
April 16, 1879, to March %, 1868. That"
says the Globe Democrat, lis to say
the senate was not always at the mercy
of a corporars guard of obstructives
In the beginning it had highly ef-
fectve method of heading off filibus-
tering and bringing on vote. Con-
trary to what the eX-president's book
intmates, debate in that body did not
always run on without limit In fact
along until within about dozen years
of General Harrison's entrance into the
senate that body had a rule which
would enable it to do business. The
majority of the senate was not always
at the mercy of the minority. Messrs.
Sherman and Morrill, We're members of
the senate at a time when the boast of
Senator Jones, of Nevada made at the
beginning of the movement in 1898 for
the repeal of the purchase clause of
the silver law of 1890, that he would tie
up that body, could not have been
made good"
This information is historically in
teresting but it was not needed to make
out case for closure, although indeed
1t helps to that end. The mere fact
that the growth in the public business
brought for transaction before the SEN
ate requires some means of limiting
debate and insuring action amply JUS
titles the present feeling in favor Of a
revision Of the senate rules. The SEN
ate cannot for long ignore the public
opinion which calls upon it with in
creasing emphasis to devise means of
facilitating its work. To do so would
be to imperil its very existence.
In an editorial elsewhere we show
how Germany resented o financial in
suit from Haiti. William L. Curtis
thus describes another recent exploit
in German diplomacy: The bashful
young emperor of Germany has made
such modest demands upon the Chinese
government in tn" way Of indemnity
for the murder Of two German mis-
sionaries at Kaio Chou THAI the other
European powers are likely to take a
hand i'm the scufIle He not only in
ssts that the Chinese authorities who
should have protected the missionaries
shall be degraded and punished. and
the buildings that We're destroyed re-
placed and $725,00O in silver money paid
in cash to the mission society, which
are the usual cOmpenSations required
for such outrages, but he also demands
that his own sufferngs and wear and
tear of mind be soOthed by a Cession
of the Kaio Chou bay and the mon
opoly of railroad traffic i'm the Shang
Tung province, which is the largest
and most populous in China, and in
addition to this he rubs 1t In by in
sisting that the Chinese government
pay the expense Of sending the Ger
man fleet TO Kaio Chou to seize and
occupy that city. In other words, he
expects them to give him the best har-
Dor on the coast and repay all the
money it has cost him to capture il
from them" And yet Americans are
called "jingoes!'