The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-01
A DIFFERENTIATED VETO.

There is an evolutionary process as
constantly and persistently working in
differentiating governments as in other
spheres of growth. Despotisms cannot
resist the forces, and written consti-
tutions are found to be ductile. 1t
may be doubted if the laws of the
Modes and Persians were as unchange-
able as tradition has it, because our
own venerated constitution, yielding
to none Of the annual assaults Of the
members and thinkers, save once to in
corporate Jefferson's safeguards Of the
individual, and again to make fast the
humiliation of slavery, finds some
strange and unthcught of growths de-
velOped on and from it at the begin
ming of it's second century, accom-
panied with atrophy of parts designed
to give it vigOr and strength Of the
latter the most marked and significant
is the capture by The distrusted mass
of the machinery for selecting presi-
dents, thought to have been secured
from their rashness and folly by the
electoral college, and another is the de-
cadence Of that branch, the senate
which, by the exclusion of the mass
in the selection of it's members. was
expected to secure to the government
controlling legislative branch pos
sessing conservatism, eminent wisdom
and the best ability of the states.
But most remarkable of all the diff
ferentiations is the growth of a second
veto power at the source of fiscal leg
islation as a needed counterpoise to the
veto lodged by the constitution with
the executive branch. While the full
development of this extra-constitution-
al veto has become only recently ap-
parent, its beginnings can be traced
back many years. 1t was not expected
that, when the speaker received the
power to form the committees. the re-
suit would be first a government NV
committees, and finally a government
by speaker with a veto power that
cannot be overridden by two-thirds of
the members, nor, as the present house
lately ascertained, by nine-tenths of
them.
Technically this new power of the
speaker, having neither legislative nor
statutory authority, is not a veto power
similar to that lodged with the presi-
dent. 1t is far wider in it's scope and
can be used to stif1e legislation at its
birth as well as to strangle it at anv
stage, for no measure can reach the
final roll call without its consent. IT
uses its power by two methods. either
through the action of the COMMITTEES on
rules, itself a differentiation of the
original committee designed merely TO
provide for the ordinary process of
business, or through the DEVELOPMENT
of the other ancient rule of courtesy
that required a member to wait his
remarks until the presiding officer had
formally recognized him. First came
in a crowded house. the efforts TO
catch the eye of the speaker" finally
developing into the admitted authority
Of the speaker to recognize" whom he
pleased. The committee on rules of
which the speaker is eX-officio g. men,
Der with two others, decides what
measures shall be considered by the
house and how much or little time shall
be allowed for discussion. AS the
speaker appoints his colleagues, the
committee is practically a committee
of one, and that one the speaker. If
the committee refuses hearing to any
measure, as, for instance, the bill re-
ported by the committee on public
buildings, it is impossible to secure it
a hearing in the house, because the
speaker will refuse to recognize the
chairman of the committee if he rises
to move its consideration.
Thus the second century of the con-
stitution opens with a more extensive
veto power engrafted upon it than that
conferred upon the president, natural
growth and, probably a necessitous
one, having its beneficial uses with,
like all human creations, its liability to
abuse. But, If it is a thing unthought
of by the trainers, is it not, In prac-
tical effect, akin to the spirit that gave
the choice Of president to an electoral
college and of senators to legislatures,
in order to remove power as far from
the mass as possible? Developing IN