The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1897-01-22
EL0QUENCE Is STIFLED
How the House Rules Hamper
New Members.
THEY GET NO CHANCE TO TALK.

Thus the Bright, Pushing Men Cannot Dis
tinguish Themselves-But In the Senate
the Members May Talk Until They Are
Exhausted.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 16. Especial. Ire
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, as they are at this
present moment, there is no chance what
ever for a man to make reputation. De-
bate is discouraged in the house. Only
few favored leaders, men of long service,
get the time to make speech in which
they can do themselves or their subject JUS
tice For example, the debate on the Pa
cifc railroad funding bill one of the most
important measures brought before con-
gress in many years and one of the best
upon which to make an address of popu-
lar character, was really discussed by only
a small number 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
participation in the discussion under what
Is known as the five minute rule.
The House Rules.
The five minute rule is 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
sentences of the solid part of his speech
when down comes the speaker gavel with
a bang the presiding officer calls out, 1.-The
time of the gentleman has expired" and
another budding ambition is crushed to
earth. Sometimes the speakers interior
ence with flights of eloquence is comical,
for now and then it catches a man at a
most inconvenient period and leaves him
hanging, as it were, between the heaven
and the earth of defamation At other
times it is pathetic, for once in awhile a
really able and promising speech is cut
short, and an opportunity to bring out a
strong man and add him to the list of
notables is ruined by enforcement of the
rule.
Of course it isn't the speakers fault. He
cannot help himself. The rules are made
to be enforced, and to enforce them is his
sworn duty. If he were to become lax and
show favoritism here or there, his disci-
pline would not endure day, and his repu
tation and peace of mind would disappear in
in q twin king. The trouble is in the system.
1t is the way the house is organized. Too
much time is consumed In droning along
with routine business. Trivial debate
about uninteresting things eats up day aft
or 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
mem Der Is lucky if be gets the floor at all
during his first session. If he gets it fol-
more than five minutes, he may consider
that he has drawn a big prize in the lot
terry. TIE net result is that all these
bright, ambitious, capable men drone
along all the winter through without op.
portunity to do anything, 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 VIVA,
1t has been cracked up to be.
How different things are in the senate
How mem bers of the house do envy theil
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 tall
till he is tired, be it one hour or foul
hours or two days or four days. Still better
he may give notice of the day and hour al
which he 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 a man to study, to work, tc
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 sena
tors make really admirable and striking
speeches, and that SO many members of tn,
house contrive to keep themselves befor,
the public eye.
The Senate Thermostat.
Away down in the subbasement of TIT
senate chamber, underneath the beautiful
terrace which extends along the west from
of the capitol, are the engine rooms. IL
90 into these engine rooms, with their bat
terry of huge boilers the large and small
engines, the complicated electric lighting
apparatus, the multitude Of wires running
in and out, the machinery used for venti
lating, warming and cooling the senat
chamber, one is tempted to think himsel
in the power department of great factor.
rather than in the bowels of the Unitet
States capitol. Here the new heating ant
ventilating apparatus of the senate cham
Der is located, and here is device, usefu
and curious, which has become 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