Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1897-06-18
THE SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
HoLolNo THE HOUSE DOWN.


house of representatives is held in sub
lection by its speaker is singular man
Hesitation under the present form of gov
ernment of the United States. For
mally, it is claimed that this occurs
because the house wants it to be. As it
is explained, the speaker is an innocent
and facile person, who has no particular
will of his own, but is bent upon exc
cutting the will of others. This is the eN-
tremest of wrong when rightly under
stood. No one really supposes the house
enjoys being converted into cipher in
legislation at Washington, or submits to
such a disposition being made OF itself
except under duress. 1t is resigned to
its fate as was the victim in the ira
dltional anecdote "because it had to be-"
and when the speaker proclams in its
own face that he is only acting out its
will, he comes very near to tormenting
it with its subsection. The process by
which the speaker holds the house is
this: There are 3G0 men in that body
whose places on committees are depend
ent upon his will. They all know that
If they offend the speaker they do it at
the risk of being deprived of places such
as they desire. He has given them to
understand that he does not wish the
house to do business, and if they under
take to thwart him in this purpose they
do it at their peril. The strain put upon
their f0rbearance in this way is too much
for some men in both parties, but the
majority of them go with the speaker
rather than incur his displeasure and
the consequent loss of the committee
places that they desire. Mr. Reed con-
quered the leader of the democrats him
self in this way at the beginning of the
session. though probably less by the
offer of place than by the assertion of
the power of strong mind over weak
one, but this weakness of Mr.. Bailey, as
evidenced in another direction, has COM
PEELED him to renounce in considerable
degree his fealty to the speaker since.
1t has been curious problem for the
student of our form of government to
study how long 1t can continue with this
strain upon it that nullifes the opera
tion of one branch of its legislative de-
partment, and that the popular branch
of congress. Here are 800 members of
the house Of representatives, called to
Washington by the president of the
United States IN special session. They
convene soon after the middle CT March.
They find three appropriation bills await
ing their action. TO these they are al
lowed to give something less than three
hours of time. though there are S70,000,-
600 appropriated in them. Then there
is tariff bill reported, which they are
graciously allotted about fortnight for
nominal consideration. though the great
bulk of the bill is not even read before
they are compelled to vote on it, Be
yond that, though they have been nearly
two months and half in session, they
have been permitted to do nothing. The
speaker openly dcfies rule of the house
which says that he shall appoint com
mttees, by refusing to appoint any com.
mttees but the committee on rules and
the committee of ways and means
There can be no business transacted I'M
der the rules. except such as comes
through the second of these committees.
and no business at all, aside from this,
except such as the speaker, acting
through the agency of the committee on
rules, allows. He has issued what is
practcallya ukase to the effect that no
business except that relating to the tariff
shall he done. That business, in the
narrow limits within which it was cir
cumscribed, was completed long ago.
The edict has gone forth that this state
of affairs shall be continued to the end,
and if it Is successfully carried out, the
800 representatives of the people will be
kept Idle for at least three, and probably
for four or five, months of the year
1t is hard to say which is the more
astonishing, the audacity of this attempt
to prevent 800 representatives of the
people from dischargng the duties which
the constitution and laws assign them,
or the submission of the majority of
those representatives to being deprived
of their right to represent the people in
legislation. A similar. though an i'm.
measurably less aggravated, case was
once seen in Massachusetts. After the
great fire of 1872 in Boston. special
session of the state legislature was
called to aid Boston. The point was
then raised whether the legislature
could do anything else after it came to-
gether. 1t was quickly answered. "We
are the legislature of Massachusetts, g
it was said. land we are in session. Who
shall undertake to limit our power to
legislator The national house of rep.
resentatives, in place of this, meekly
bows its head and agrees that its speak.
Ill