Arizona republican., 1902-12-18
PHOENIX. ARIZONA. DEC. IS, 1902
Fillbustering in the Senate.

Filibustering in the Senate.
 If there is prolonged debate in the senate over the statehood bill, as now seems certain. we shall hear a great deal about the evils of filibustering. Political writers and speakers will tell us that what is needed in the senate more than anything else is "a rule which will permit the senate to trans act business" Nearly every new sen ator goes to Washington full of the be- lief that he will win renOwn by accom- plishing a great reform in senate pro- csdure. he will see to it that rules arc adopted which will "enable the ma iority to rule" In later years, some of the vice presidents-while yet new to ohice-have felt that it was then duty to lead reformatory movement against endless debate. and if We re- member correctly. MT. Roosevelt short ly after taking office as vice-presidenT intimated that the senate dry-bones were to be shaken up. But new sena- tors. and new vice-presidents, all fail to lead the senate out of the old luts. That body refuses to amend its rules. and unlimited debate remains the privl- Ieee of each senator. Each statesman may harangue his fellows as often anc as long as he pleases, and none durst make him afraid
 The discussion of the evils of unlirn- St iS called when the debate degenerates into a mere struggle to consume time goes on from year to year, but 1t is interesting and amusing to note from time to time the changed attitudes of the senate's critics. For instance, great metropolitan journal, or one or the leading magazines, or grave "senator from his place" will tell us this year that "flibustering is abso- lutely abominable, and that it is an outrage to permit a lot of politicai pirates to take the United States sen ate by the throat and prevent it from transacting the business for which the people are waiting" And the next
 
 shoe on the other foot. and desiring to prevent the enactment of some bill which they consider vicious, will give thanks that we still have one deliber- ative body wherein debate may be had wherein there is leisure for the ex- animation of all questions presented, and wherein there is an opportunity for true statesmen although in the m: nority, to uphold and protect tine cor stitution, and to preserve unsullied the honor of the senate" etc, etc. More over we are assured, there is a lot of misapprehension about the true funC- tions of a legislative body, anyway. It has been ascertained, we are told, that the country does not need new laws so much as it needs protection from unwise legislation.
 Within the last ten or twelve years there have been numerous proofs or the fact that everything depends upon the point of view when one is asked to consider the iniquities of filibusj jering. When Senator Quay was leading T compact minority against the "force bilI'' and interposing every possible means to prolong the debate, and weal out the majority, the republican news papers and speakers who favored the Lodge bill denounced the Pennsylvania senator in a vocabulary that was rich with passwords. As his plan of cam paign developed and it was seen that he always had in reserve a number of senators who were primed with speech es warranted to be longer than any thing previously delivered, the ian guage used in abusing MT. Quay would have made a pirate blush.
 Later when the free-trade Wilson bill was before the senate and Senator Quay's former democratic allies were clamoring for the passage of the meas ure, the great PennsyIvanian went calmly ahead, delivering daily seg- ments of his famous tariff speech, the end whereof no mortal man could pre- dict. The democrats grew frantic, and were certain that filibusIering had been carried to a point beyond all endur- ance. On the other hand. republican papers which in the force bill campaign had painted MT. Quay as a traitor to his country and party, now patted him on the back as the greatest republican and statesman in the land. and the wicked democrats were denounced for trying to rush legislation of such inn pOrtance. Undisturbed by either fury or fiattery, MT. Quay "held her nozzle agin the bank" until he and MT. Cor