The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-07-27
BUT UNTIL COMMITTEES WERE
NAMED WE'RE AFRAID TO SAY so
Mr.. BENTON McMlLLlAN'S APTNESS
Reed Invented His Rules, He Said, ITO
Enable the House to do BusineSS"--He
Has Used Them to Prevent the
Transaction of Business

McMillin thus aptly described the rules
under which the National House of Rep
resentatives has been proceeding since
the 18th of March:
1.-THE rules of the Fifty-ffth Con-
gress, said Mr.. McMillin, "were adopt
ed. in the language of Speaker Reed, to
enable the House to do business
Now" continued Mr.. McMillin, ''the
Speaker uses practically the same rules
to prevent the House from doing bust
ness"
Mr.. McMillin might have truthfully
added that Speaker Reed constitutes the
rules of the House and what he decides
one day has no bearing whatever on the
same question he decides some other
day. That is, if the decision could be
used against him.
This has indeed been a most extraor-
binary session of ordi-
nary IN more ways than one In the first
place, Mr.. Reed, who was all gentle
ness when he was a candidate for the
Presidential nomination last year. has
been unable to conceal his keen disap-
pontment at his turn down by his party
and at witnessing the elevation to the
highest office of the land the man he
created leader of the House in the Fifty
first Congress. As the days of the extra
session slipped away Reed became more
and more autocratic and despotic until
the very members of his own party came
to look upon him with fear and trem-
bling.
just after his election as Speaker. the
House, as is customary, passed a resolu-
ton adopting for the time being rules
of the preceding Congress until the COM
mittee on Rules should report set of
rules for the Fifty-ffth Congress. With
the adoption of that resolution the House
was ready to transact business: but
strange as it may appear, with the ex-
ception of some minor measures, which
were passed by unanimous consent, the
business by the House was all con-
Quoted by the Committee on Rules,
which was Tom Reed. Among the
rules now in force is a provision in rule
10 which declares that ''the Speaker
shall appoint the following standing
committees" etc. This rule was manda-
tory, and never before in the history of
the House has it been nullified by pre-
siding officer. The custom has been for
the Speaker to announce the committees
within two or three weeks after the as
sembllng of Congress and the members
OF course, expected that Mr.. Reed would
follow this orderly precedent as in JEFF
ferson's Manuel. But they were sadly
mistaken. They forgot that Tom Reed
in the Fifty-frst Congress. acting under
his own Interpretation of parliamentary
law, ruthlessly tore down and scattered
to the winds the precedents of a hum
dred years. He has simply repeated his
rank offense-not to use harsher term.
During the first two or three months
of the session, while the House was con-
sidering the Dingley-Jones tariff hill
the members did not expect the commit
tees TO be announced, but they did ex-
pect-and they had a constitutional right
10 expect-that the Speaker would obey
the rules Of the House and appoint the
committees after the tariff bill had been
sent 10 the Senate. Acting on this as
SUMPTION the members introduced bills
Oh STATE ana national Importance and I'D
10 date about 1000 bills have been of
lered. AS tlme rolled on and the Speaker
gave no sign of his purpose to obey the
rules relating to committees, the members
grew restless, and when the House wouId
meet on Mondays and Thursdays oues-
IONS Of privilege and parliamentary in
committees, Were hurled at the Sneaker
right and left. John Wesley Gaines De-
Armand, of Missouri: Jerry SirnSon
James Hamilton Lewis, Evan Settle of
Kentucky; Terry, of Arkansas: Elem
ming, of Georgia; Handy, of Delaware
and others were most severe in their cri.
ticism and denunciations of the Speaker
for his fragrant violations of the rules
of the House. They threw the HARMON
into his tough hide on every occasion, and
he Wr1ggled and Squirmed like q cuttle
fish under the punishment he received
and which, it must be said, a punishment
he richly deserved. At times he pre-.
sented pitiful sight. Were he not a
verItable man on horseback, he would
have deserved sympathy. The criticisms
however, were not confined wholly to the
Democratic side of the House, for MANY
men on the Republican side were also
severe in their criticisms, which, however
were uttered only in private. They could
not afford to offend the autocrat, for they
knew it was within his power to strike
them down and ruin them at home
Hence they contented themselves with
nursing their wrath until after the com.
mittees are appointed, when they, too
may have the courage of their conyic.
tons.
The Speaker says he is the servant OF
the House, and only does the bidding OF
the majority. This sounds well to the
people in the country, but it only causes
smiles to the people here in Washington
where the autocrat is so well known. n
is true that the Speaker has in measure
the moral support of the House for VIC
lating it's rules. This was accomplished
by the adoption of a resolution, which
was tricked out of Mr.. James Hamilton
Lewis, giving it as the sense of the
House that the committees should moi
be appointed until the Speaker saw fit
and this was exactly what the Czal
wanted. 1t placed in his hand a clut
to hold over the heads of his own party