Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1901-01-08

correspondence anu, III tne exercise OF
ordinary courtesy. to answer 1t, and
then to visit department after depart
ment during the morning hours and
during the hours this House is in ses-
sion? OR is 1t because members are
obliged to look out for needy constitu-
ents who desire to be injected into Of
fee. and who, once injected. desire to
be promoted or to have their salaries
increased. and are not willing to rest
upon letter written to a head of a
department asking him to increase the
salary or promote the needy applicant,
but must insist upon a member making
personal visit to the head of the de-
partment and pressing the claims of
his constituents? (Applause.)
1t is not the size of the House that
prevents members from having an in
telligent understanding of the legisla-
ton pending before this body; it is the
size of the constituencies. Mediums of
commrnicatiOn-fast mails, telegraphs,
telephones etc, do what? They simply
concentrate in intensified volume these
applications and demands of every in
teliigent constituency upon the repre-
sentatives that sit here. What is the
remedy of the gentleman from Illinois
TO enable this House to more intelli-
gently legislate? Not, he says, that
men may make speeches, not that they
may take part in debate, but that they
may know what is going on in this
House, increase the burden that now
prevents this result.
They are already loaded up, every
member Of them. with a wealth Of con-
stituents, with demands that can not
be answered and leave them time to in
vestigate these questions. How many
men are there on this floor who even
read the bills pending before this body.
much less investigate them for the
purpose of ascertaining whether or not
they are wise or unwise?
Mr.. Gaines-I would like to ask the
gentleman a question.
The Speaker pro tempore (Mr. Hep
burn)-Does the gentleman from Maine
yield to the gentleman from Tennes-
see?
Mr.. Littlefield-Yes.
Mr.. Gaines-Is it not a fact that the
House meets every day at u o'clock,
so as to give US half a day to attend
to these clerical matters you are ask
ing about and then we work day and
night TO attend to them?
Mr.. Littlefield-Yes, that is the way I
understand it; in order to give the
members chance to go to the pension
depar tment, to see the secretary of the
treasury and the heads of other de-
partments, in order to perform the of
flee of a great errand boy, which could
be as well performed by a man draw
ing a salary of twelve or fifteen hun
dred dollars. When do the members
get the time to investigate these ques-
tons? Does any man know anything
about any question in detail except
the particular question pending before
his committee?
The gentleman says this business
will be performed by committees more
hereafter than before. Load up the
members of this House with increased
constituencies. multiply these demands
by the swift mails and by the tele-
graph and the telephone, so that they
can send in their requests and their
demands upon members, and the bust
ness of the House will still more be
performed by committees, because it
will be still more impossible for any
man who sits on this floor and under
have an intelligent apprehension of the
business pending before this House.
Does not every man on this floor know
that statement to be absolutely true?
Now. let us provide for that. Let us
eliminate that How? BY intensfying
the difficulty. increasing the size of the
constituency. diminishing the size of
the House. loading up the members
with this incidental business aside
from proper legislation, and you dimin-
ish it according to the theory of the
distinguished gentleman from Illinois.
when the fact is that by such a course
you inevitably aggravate instead of
palliating the evil. The gentleman says
that under the rules that now exist
let us get his exact anguage-rules-
THAT can not and ought not to exist
in a properly regulated body"
Referring now to the rules that gov
ern the House in it's deliberations. I
do not remember that the gentleman
arose in his place when the question of
the adoption of these rules was pend
ing, and protested against the adop-
ton of the rules that ought not to ex-
list in properly regulated body.
When it comes to the question of
dispatch. every member who sits on
the floor knows that under the
control of the Speaker and the
committee on rules there is no
limit in this body of 357. and
there would be no limit if ii was a body
of 500. to the dispatch that can be given
to business.
The report of the committee on rules
sustained by majority, limiting debate.
preventing amendments, goes through
this House so long as the majority,
whether it be Republican or Democratic.
stands together. and any measure under
these rules can be passed in unseemly
haste, with undue dispatch, and the fact
that there are 400 men sitting here has
nothing whatever to do with it. The gen.
tleman says these rules ought not to ex-
ist today. Does he propose to narrow
down this House in order that the rules
may be repealed, or does he propose to
allow the House to go on under existing
rules that ought not to exist and legislate
it has legislat ted?
A little farther on. he says that some
committees have been created in order to
give places to men who come here, and
because it is inconvenient to have a large
committee the House must not have its
size increased and members must be
loaded up with this outside incidental
work to which / have called your atten-
ton. The size of the hail, | submit, is
consideration that has no proper bearing
upon this question Whatever
The size of this great House. as the
live ii rvan