The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1903-11-20
CUSTOMS or q NGRRSS.

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s SEs' M & 81 - Tors. s ssssss- ss
When new congress meets there is q
lottery for the choice Of seats; says q
writer in Success. The newest and fresh
est member from q backwoods district
may be the lucky man to hare his name
drawn from the box BY the blindfolded
page and to have first choice OF all the
seats in the great hail.. The veteran Of
half q score Of corr fessea, q inSn Of
power and note, may be 4hs last sof thes
long line and forced to content himself
with q perch in theextreme rear This
is DEMOCRACY with 1 Vengeance, and Of
course 1t would never do for the aristo-
cratic upper ,brane h. There the senator
who gets good seat keeps,it as long as
he remainssa senatorsssSucha men asAl-
lison, Hale, Hoar, Cullom and others
have sat all the way from ten to rs
years at one desk = -. >.
When an old senator with an, advan-
tageously located seat drops out through
death or failure to secure reelection
some other senator from the rear ap-
plies for his seat and gets it, the rule
being first come, first served" New
senators are compelled to take the less
desirable desks in the rear of the cham
Der to await their turn for a chance at
the better ones. Thus in the senate
there is slow but steady movement
from the rear toward the front of the
chamber movement highly sugges-
tive of the senatorial system based upon
prerogative and precedence.
Even more striking is the method of
assigning senator's to places upon COM
mittees. Here again prerogative is
everything. If the chairman of a COM
mittee dies or leaves the senate the man
of the. majority political party who has
served longest upon that committee be-
comes his successor. The rule is invari-
able, though of course complications
occasionally arise. If the senior COM
mitteeman is chairman Of another inn
portant committee he may be compelled
to surrender one OF the other.
When new senators are to be placed
upon committees, or differences be-
tween old senators are to be adjusted,
the executive. committee comes into op-
Grafton. It is at this point that we en-
counter one of the striking features of
the senatorial system. Here we dis
cover how democratic the senate is
amidst all its artistocratic tendencies;
and, if it's democracy has tendency to
run into oligarchy, it is in that respect
not different from most democratic or
CARNATIONS. The executive committee
is body which has no official status.
1t is unknown in the records or archives
of the senate. Yet it is the real control
ling power, the lever which starts: or
stops and regulates the machinery Of
the upper branch: The executive COM
mittee, commonly and SUCCESSFULLY
known as the steering committee" is
appointed by a. caucus of the majority
senators; that is to say, under the pres
emit regime the republican senator's get
together in. secret caucus and: name
seven of their number to take charge Of
the business of the senate. Membership
in this committee is one of the great
prizes of senatorial service. 1t means
influence and power, for the steering
committee not only settles questions
of committee assignments, assignments
to committees or private rooms (for it is
an unwritten law that every senator,
whether chairman of a committee or
not, or whether member of the major
ity or of the minority party, shall have
a room to himself to use as an office)
and many other matters pertaining to
the comfort and convenience of senator's,
but it also exercises supervision over
that really important thing, "the or
der of business" 49,.
In the senate "the order Of business"
is vital. There is always crush of bills
and resolutions. AS sessions draw near
a close rivalry between measures de-
manding consideration becomes intense.
The rules provide how much time shall
be given to pension and other private
bills from the calendar. All these minor
matters are settled by rule or by long
established practice. Appropriation
bills, too, have right of way. But real
ly: important measures apart from the
supply bills must run their chances.
Only a few can be taken up, debated and
voted upon because of lack of time and
the lavish manner in which time is
wasted by the senate. Indeed, it is a
common practice of the men who have
their hands upon the levers of the ma
chine to encourage the waste of time
in debate during the early part of ses-
sions, so that there shall be a crush of
rival measures in the closing hours; for
1t is in these crushes that the men of in
fiuence and leadership find the best
chance to get their own way, to force
to the front those they do like, and also.
to command strength for their own pur-
poses by preying upon the ever-increas-
ing anxieties of the friends of imperiled
bills.