The herald., 1898-12-15
Associated Press Special Wire

Associated Press special wire
WASHINGTON, Dec 1.-THE house to-
day, for the second time during this con
gress, refused to consider the Lodge lmml
grafton bill AT the last session an attempt
was made to take it from the speaker 8
table, but it was defeated Ay large major
ity Danforth of Ohio, chairman of the i'm
migration committee, thought the bill would
be stronger after the elections were over,
but today when he tried again to secure con
sideration the house declined, 100 to lO3, to
take it up, and the opponents OF the bill
applauded Justify.
An interesting but brief debate on the
rules was preciptatcd during the session
BY Grow of Pennsylvania, during which
De Almond made a speech en- the decadence
of the privilege of debate in the house and
held Speaker Reed responsible for the tact
that the house had had no opportunity to
adopt a new system of rules at this session.
The speaker replied with sarcastic speech
in which he referred to the complaints OF
John Randolph in the early days OF the
century to show that the same remon-
strances were made then that are being
heard today.
The pension appropriation bill was re
ported to the house and Barney, Repub-
lican, of Wisconsin gave notice that he
would call it up tomorrow.
The consideration of the bill to incor.
porate the International American bank,
which was special order for today, was
postponed until tomorrow.
Some miscellaneous pension matters were
disposed of, when Grow, Republican, OF
PENNSYLVANIA made a short historical ad.
dress by unanimous consent upon the origin
OF the committee of the whole on states of
the Union in which there was no limit upon
the latitude of debate. Grows remarks
caused Robinson, Democrat, of Indiana to
reproach the majority because no code OF
rules had been prepared for this congress.
He charged that Henderson, Republican, oil
iowa had promised, when the old rules were
temporarily adopted at the first session,
that code Of rules would be presented
within thirty days.
Henderson Indignantly denied the charge.
He pointed out that he had only expressed
his opinion that new code would be pre-
eented within thirty days.
81 urged on the committee" said he, en-
phatically, ''and | do not want this charge
thrown into my teeth now because the com.
mittee of which | am member did not
agree with me. 1t is cowardly thing to
do"
De Almond of Missouri got the floor and
proceeded to contrast the condition of al
fairs in the house at present with the days
of which Grow had spoken, when there was
full opportunity for discussion. He de-
clared that the speaker held the balance OF
power on the committee on rules and it was
he who, in fact, had determined that it was
better that no new code of rules should be
presented and adopted by this house. He
was exceedingly ironical in his references
to the decadence of the old privilege of full
debate. 1t had become the fashion, he
said, to bring in repressive rules to cut OFT
debate upon every important question, and
he asserted that the rules under which the
house was now operating, which could not
have been adopted permanently, had be
come permanent by the attitude of the
speaker.
The speaker. from the chair, replied to
this criticism as follow:
"The gentleman from Missouri has per-
mtted himself to make statements in regard
to the relations between the speaker and The
other members of the committee on rules
that I 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 happens in this world that there are
many citizens. 1t so happens that in the
house of representatives there are many
members, and while in theory every man
can occupy all the time in discourse, in ac-
tual practice he has to occupy it in subor
dnaton to the rights of every other mem
ber, to the right of the body itself, and to
the prosecution of public business In ac
tual practice also, the house may have no.
ticed that however much despotism is exer
cised by the rule, there is no object in the
heavens above nor in the earth beneath that
has not been discussed, even in the present
congress. Q4aughter.)
"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 certainly was
heard enough to become famous for CEN
tury, was complaining about the despotsm
OF the rules at that period and was also
complaining that even the arch-inquistor
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.)
The house then, at 2:O5 p. M, adjourned
rN nrrr cr,Hr a MT,