The times., 1898-12-15

days. To anyone who was an observer
then in the House-a House fresh from
the people. House not yet controlled
and disciplined, House not yet having
| lost regard for the value of freedom of
| debate and the Importance of individual
! action and the value of individual rights
| to every such person 1t was clear that
| the House would have been rather slow
to tie itself fast. and blIndly, to the de-
funct body of rules of the preceding Con-
| gress.
However, without imputing to any
body any disposition to mislead the
House. there was adopted temporarily
the old code of rules: and that old code
of rules. adopted temporarily, continues
the code of rules OF this House.
We have already heard the gentleman
from Iowa (Mr. HENDERSON, say it was
| no part of his fault that no code of rules
has been reported to US. l do not say
it is Il fault; perhaps It is virtue; per-
haps an individual Elected a member of
this House to represent his own con-
sttuency cannot be trusted: perhaps II
would be 4 misfortune if he were given
freedom to represent it upon the floor;
perhaps 1t is progress new way of gov
erning free people; perhaps 1t is tending
| to anchor more securely the foundations
of the Constitution; perhaps it is tending
the people-to vest power in one ard de-
prive the many of it.
Perhaps II is all wrong to give to the
membership of the House an opportunity
to determine what rules ought to govern
US. and perhaps it is entirely right to al
low the presiding officer of the House not
only TO determine what the rules shall
be. but to determine whether there shall
be any consideration. or form of con-
sideration. by the House of what they
shall be. However. 1t is certainly true
that the Speaker. either as matter of
deliberation and judgment, or as a mat
ter of happened so" in the regular course
of events. has so directed and determined
things that the House has not to this
hour had an opportunity of saying or con-
sidering what its rules shall be, and per-
haps to the hour of adjournment will not
have that opportunity. (Appiause on the
Democratic side.)
When Mr.. De Almond had taken h's
seat the Speaker in the chair said:
The gentleman from Missouri has per-
mitted himself to make statements in Ie-
gard to the relations between the Speak
er and the other members Of the Commit
tee on Rules that 1 am happy to state are
not justified by the facts. The House
must not feel itself to have been treated
to an unusual discourse upon the lack
of liberty given to the citizen. 1t so hap
pens in this world that there are many
citizens.
1t so happens that in the House Of Rep
resentatives there are many members,
and that while in theory every man can
occupy all the time in discourse, in actual
practice he has to occupy it in subordi
nation to the rights of every other mem
Der. to the rights of the body Itself and
to the prosecution of public bus ness.
In actual practice also the House\may
have noticed that however much despot-
ism is exercised by the rule. there is no
subject in the heavens above or in the
earth beneath that has not been dis
cussed. even in this present Congress.
Uaughter)
Now. If the gentleman from Missouri
will turn to the annals of Congress
away back in 1916. during the period Of
liberty such as he thinks he desires, he
will find that John Randolph, who GER
tainly was heard enough to become IA
nous for century. was complaining
about the despotism of the rules at that
period and was also complaining that
even the arch inquisitor himself would
have been satisfied with the wickedness
of them. So you see that human nature
Is the same in all time. daughter and
applause on the Republican side)