Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1897-04-08
The Trouble With The Senate.

There is in the country at large gen
eral and growing feeling of contempt
for the National Senate. There is an
increasing conviction that it has LOST
much of its usefulness as branch OF
the lawmaking power of the govern
ment and become mainly hindranct
and an invincible obstacle to use
full legislation. 1t is encouraging &c
find that leading members OF the Senate
itself are becoming aware OF the preva
lence and intensity of this feeling OF
contempt and condemnation and thai
they are growing restive under it. One
of the older members of the body-the
senior Senator from Massachusetts,
has been moved to publis b in popu
lar magazine discussion OF the ques
ton whether the senate has really De
generated, in which he MAINTAINS tha'
in some important respects that pody If
better than it was In the days pe1ore
the Rebellion.
Senator Hoar easily shows that man
ners have not grown worse since tne
day when Charles Sumner was brutally
stricken down in the Senate chamber
for defending his right to free speech, OF
"when a Vice President was inaugural
ed in state of maudlin intoxication; OF
when Sumner likened Douglass to the
noisome, SQUAT and nameless animal
who switched his tongue and filled the
Senate with an offensive odor, although
if common rumor and current reports
of senatorial debates are to be credited
some of these offenses against decency
NAV be matched in these days of ''cold
tea and Ben Tillmans. But the aged
Senator goes on to point out more i'm
portant points in which he insists the
Senate has improved. He maintains
that the evil influence of the lobby has
decreased; that Senators mo longer
bring whisky soaked brains to meet the
high demands of the public service,
that the use of Executive patronage
for personal advancement has gone by
that Senators as class devote more
work to the discharge of their public
duties than formerly.
1t is fortunate for the country II these
COMMUNICATIONS are all deserved, But
after all this is said and conceded the
fact remains that the Senate is not effl-
GENTLY sometimes not even inefficient,
ly-doing its legitimate work as part OF
the legislative machinery of the coun-
-e.a1sy-dolays- sand -dafaats
legislation demanded by public welfare
but it has stripped itself of the power
to legislate. That it should fail some
times to respond to the popular demand
could be tolerated by thoughtful men,
for that was one incidental object of its
creation. But this is not the gravamen
of the charges against it. 1t fails to
respond to the will of its own majority.
By the observance of its own traditions
and absurd precedents it lies helplessly
and almost hopelessly at the mercy OF
any member who may wish to block
the wheels of legislation. On this point
Senator Hoar makes this admission:
Senators who have great measures IN
their charge are compelled to sit In vex-
ed and angry impatience while other
Senators pour out an eternal stream OF
inane and empty chatter, chatter, chat
ter about matters which have no pres
ent practical importance whatever.
And he is somewhat doubtful whether
he should use the plural-Senators in
this connection. The fact is, that any
one Senator is competent to do this and
until the Senate by the amendment OF
its rules resumes its authority to legis-
late it will continue to act under the
absolute sway of anv hair Drained and
insignificant faction of its own member
ship.
Senator Hoar thinks this domination
of the Senate by the minority is man
Hesitation of ''pestilent and prevalent
evil which he says is showing itself
elsewhere attempt by minorities
to prevent the constitutional action OF
maiorities.p But the fact is that mi
norities are forced to submit to ma
jorities all over the country, so far as
known, except in the National Senate.
1t is SO in the House of Representatives
it is so generally in both branches OF
State Legislatures; it is so in city and
borough councils, and it may be so in
the Senate whenever that body makes
ND its mind to cease bowling down be
fore the fetish of its own absurd tradi-
tions and ''courtesies" and resolves to
resume its inherent constitutional right
to rule its own action. A few years
ago Speaker of the House by his own
will and courage rescued the lower
branch of Congress from the 'pestilent
rule of the majority. Possibly Vice
President Hobart may perform the
same great service for the upper
branch. In that event he will win the
gratitude of the country and rescue the
Senate from growing popular contempt
and condemnation Wellsboro Agita-
tor. q