Arizona republican., 1903-12-19

a certain number of recognitions-that is. a certain number of occasions. pos sibly a dozen. during a session of and says Mir. Speaker" the chair will notice his presence, to the exclu- sion of others clamoring for recogni-
 ton. and will give him the floor. When therefore. Delegate Wilson, say, had convinced Speaker Cannon that the
 Tonto road bill is a good bill and ought to pass, and the speaker found that the delegate had not had more than his share of recognition, he said: All right. I'll recognize you at
 practicable, on such and such a day" and he directed his secretary to note accordingly.
 But the troubles of our delegate favorable start, to be sure, and had cleared his first hurdle, over which scores of his colleagues must fall, but he had to run a gauntlet in the house
 that made him nervous to think about. As already noted, the house does business or the unanimous con- sent" basis. On the appointed day Delegate Wilson rose. In accordance with his little private arrangement with the speaker and in his full. Ari-
 zona tones. he said: MT. Speaker!" Mr. Cannon fulfilled his part of the bargain. and announced, The gentle
 man from Arizona" and under hIs breath he added and may the
 Lord have mercy upon you-the house won't" Delegate Wilson then, in his
 most persuasive tones asked unanl-
 nous consent for the present consid- eration of the Tonto road bill. Be- fore he had an opportunity to tell the house anything about the merits of
 the bill, MT. OImstead of Pennsylvania piped up. "I object" and the speaker
 had to announce that the house re- fuse to consider the bill. and it went
 10 the calendar.
 Delegate Wilson has been rarely lucky. With careless haste the house
 threw the bill aside on Thursday in-
 different as to whether the interests of
 community were trampled upon, and something else. Ordinarily, it would
 have been weeks before MT. Wilson
 could have obtained again the consent
 of the speaker to another recognition for the same purpose, and, whether
 obtained soon or late. it was certain
 that the delegate might find his luck
 no better than before. He might have
 satisfied MT. Olmstead that the matter
 was all right, but among nearly four
 hundred members there might be-
 usually is-somebody else who is just
 contrary enough to make another ob-
 jection. The reason for these arbi-
 trary objections are as numerous as
 the emotions of humanity. More often
 than otherwise the moving reason is pique. Some member has failed to se- cure consideration fer a pet measure of his own, or he is cherishing a
 grudge against the member who has
 the floor and he gets even through
 sidetracking the bill by a single ob-
 jection. Thus, the element of personal
 popularity and wide acquaintance is Ian asset of immeasurable value in the house.
 Following this road bill as a typical case. the measure would not have been lost beyond hope. even had Mir. Wilson met with another objection in the house yesterday. although he might have abandoned efforts for the house bill Had he been defeated by objec- ton. he could have tried one of two methods remaining. One method is to enlist the active support of the com mittee which reported the bill. On certain days. at long intervals, each of the leading committees has the privilege of demanding consideration
 for its measures, and then the bill in
 question can be defeated only by an adverse vote. For illustration, the
 committee on territories might have sufficient regard for Delegate Wilson and interest in his bill to insist that
 the Tonto road measure be taken up
 and considered on suspension day" as one of the committees privileged measures. But it is extremely diff
 cult to get a committee to take such
 action in behalf of a purely local bill. It must be remembered that there are before the committee many bills of general importance i'll which all the members of the committee are inter csted and as the house can consider but few of them the tendency is to refuse to take up the private bills as commit tee measures. Again, however per
 sonal popularity may cut quite a fig
 ure.
 The other method, and the one most promising. had the bill failed in the house. would have been to get the bill through the senate, first. In the senate
 also business is done largely on the
 unanimous consent" plan, but "sena- torial courtesy interposes to save
 most measures from the fate which