The Savannah morning news., 1901-01-20

lection to any certificate, all speeches
| shall be limited to five minutes and no
man could make more than one at any
session. The law doesn't contemplate that
all senators and representatives shal.
make speeches on such occasions for II
says the debate must be closed in two
hours. II it should happen that dis
pute should continue for more than two
days, there could be no recess until it
was settled.
Another safeguard thrown around the
canvassing OF the votes is that all OBJ
jections shall be made in writing and
signed by at least one member of the
House of Representative and one Sena-
tor. There is not a bit of senatorial
courtesy In this law. Judging from the
preciseness and minuteness of its terms,
the aut hors have but little faith in the
Justice md equity TO be found In a body
composed of the law-givers of the ma
ton. They have provided for dealing
with every contingency that has ever
arisen or that seemed to them possible
of arising. They went as far as they
could to eliminate discretion and reduced
the law-making bodies to a mere machine
Before the vote of the electors are can
vassed, the question whether the inaugu-
ration ceremony is 90 be conducted by the
Senate exclusively or in conjunction with
the House will probably displace all in
terest that may attach to the perfunctory
counting of the votes. 1t IS certainty
that the Senate will not yield to the con-
tention of the House that it shall be a
Joint affair until that body comes to an
unpleasant realization that 1t is depend
ent upon the House for the money Where-
with to surround the ceremony with the
proper amount of pomp and display
There are many things in the constitu-
ton and also in the statutes that seem
to indicate that from the foundation OF
the government the Senate was intended
to be a superior sort of a body, vested
with the right of precedence and first
consideration on all occasions of cere-
mony. This election law in itself gives
evidence that less than fifteen years ago
the House was inclined to concede that
the other half of the national legislative
body ranked 1t in all matters except the
passage of bills and resolutions. That
statute says that the President of the SEN
ate shall preside over the joint session
and that for the time being he shall oc-
cupy the chair of the Speaker of the
House. 1t also says that the senators
shall sit on the right side of the hall and
that the representatives shall occupy that
part which is not needed by the members
of the so-called Upper House. The con-
stitution says that the House of Repre-
sentatives may impeach the President,
out the senate COIuuClS LH6 lIldl. In lllS
instance, however the chief justice of the
Supreme Court is the presiding officer But
when a senator has comfortably settled
himself to a contemplation of the glorious
position he holds, there is a dark spot on
the picture he paints for himself. That
blot is the constitutional direction that
all bills for the levying of taxes and the
appropriation of money shall originate in
the House of representatives.. Then ne
-f1ae hot h.
despised representative even for his sal
airy. He can't get cent for his services
unless the House chooses to give it. If
he wants to buy himself a penknife, q
scrap of paper, or even so Insignificant
thing as pen at the expense of the gov
eminent, he must have the consent of the
House. So now when senators have gone
so far in their plans as to make the inau-
guration, a senatorial function exclusively,
they collide with the fact that all their
resolving and palavering amounts to moth
ing unless the hitherto humble and but
little respected House of Representatives
provides the funds.
There is no reason If Speaker Henderson
and Representative Da.zell stick to their
contention that 1t must be a joint affair,
why they shouldn't bring the Senate to
terms. They have the upper hand and as
the Senate contingent fund is about ex-
them giving the senator's several very I'M
comfortable hours in tine very near future
Four years ago when the senate built
platform in front of it's own chamber
instead of using the historic east portico,
there was much criticism, and had the
House had sufficient notice of its purpose.
there is no doubt but that storm would
have been raised about it. This year the
representatives have been forehanded. and
the issue will probably be fought to
conclusion.
Speaker Henderson is exceedingly ieal-
Gus of the dignity of the House. He knows
the body over which he presides has lost
prestige and influence since the Read
rules have been in vogue, and it is taken
for granted that this opposition to the
plans of the Senate, is but an effort on
his part to force the senators to again
acknowledge that the House of Repre-
sentatives must be considered in all mat
tiers whether of legislation or of cere-
mony. The Senate has never gone so far
as to arrest any member of the House
of Representatives who has defied the
rules prescribed by it on occasions of
ceremony, else the fight would have come
, to an acute stage ere this. 1t had an op-
portunity to test the validity of its con-
tentions to be the sole representative of
/ the legislative power of this government
| on March 4. of presidential years. when
! Representative Amos Cummings kicked
its barriers away from the entrance to
the rotunda of the Capitol.
That was eight years ago, at the last
inauguration of Grover Cleveland. The
Senate claimed that as the terms of the
members of the House of Representatives