Omaha daily bee., 1902-04-23
HOT TALK.
Congressman Attacks the IrOncIad
Rules OF the House.

Congressman Attacks the IrOncIad
Rules OF the House.
Kansas City Star.
The speech of Mr.. Francis w. Cushman.
representative from Washington, delivered
In the course of the house debate on
the Cuban tariff bill, furnished the best
reading that congress has supplied at this
session. 1t was at once breezy, humorous,
caustic and daring. 1t has revealed Mr..
Cushman as a man of good temper, keen
wit and courageous spirit, and his utter
ances hereafter will be awaited with a GER
tain interest that has not attached to those
OF any member of congress for some time.
What Mr.. Cushman had to say on the
Cuban bill becomes secondary to his at
tack on the rules of the house and the
dictation Of the speaker. Some protests
have been made against the arbitrary sys-
tenn to which the members Of the lower
branch OF congress are obliged to submit,
and other victims of tyranny have had their
say but objections heretofore have been
made along conventional lines, and have
been answered by conventional arguments.
1t remained for Mr.. Cushman, who saw
the farcical, as we'll as the serious side Of
the gag rule" to present the whole subject
In a brief but convincing form.
The rules Of the house have made 1t al
most impossible for any member to secure
the consideration of a bill on its own mer-
its. The fundamental idea of popular leg
islation has been almost destroyed through
the arbitrary restrictions imposed on the
Representatives of the people. A degree OF
power wholly unwarranted by traditional
conceptions Of congressional processes has
been given the speaker and the committee
on rules. The system has been especially
tyrannical in its application to the pend
Ing bill. Democrats have been prevented
from making amendments to the measure.
Republicans who are not in sympathy with
the principle or the terms of the bill have
been coerced into submission with the al
tentative of seeing their own measures go
into oblivion in the committee room or die
on the calendar, which Cushman declares
ought to be called the cemetery.
The congressman from Washington stated
the case when he said that after a bill
had been reported, its author did not con-
suit his own desires. the demands of his
constituency, the will OF the committee re-
porting 1t or the majority of the house, but
that he either consented to let the measure
die, or he put his manhood and his individ-
uality in his pocket and went ~trotting down
the little pathway that led to the speakers
room, and that "all the glory that clus-
tered around the holy OF HOLES in King
Solomon's temple looked like thirty cents
yes, like twenty-nine cents-compared with
that jobbing department of the govern
mentl"
81 say to you, my friends" continued
Mr.. Cushman, that the system is rotten
at both ends. 1t is rotten at one end be-
cause II robs the individual member Of the
house of the power that the constitution
OF the United States and his credentials
as a member Of this floor entitle him to;
II is rotten at the other end because it
vests power in men who have no right to
It and oftimes places on them duties that
they have no capacity TO fulfill"
With merciless sarcasm he likened the
members OF the house to performing Lii
putians and described the practice OF pay
ing money to see such performances in a
theater as a sinful waste. when better per-
tormances could be seen free in the
house.
Force is added to this attack on an In
defensible system by - fact that Mr..
Cushman is a republican. and that he was
as deferential as the circumstance would
permit to the speaker personally and to
the members of the committee on rules.
II was the system that he attacked Just
such a speech was needed to clear the at
mosphere OF the chamber-an atmosphere
that had been clogged with resentment.
hopelessness and a certain species OF COW
ardiee. II required some such unusual line
OF attack TO fully expose the very serious
contrayersion OF the original design OF a
great legislative body. and also the almost
f~Srcical position OF many Of its members.
II is to be hoped that Mr.. Cushman will
prove TO be the ~rallying champion Of pop
ular rights in the house. He ought. at
least. 10 receive the profound gratitude OF
his colleagues.