Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1904-02-19
A Mistake.

without his approval. Perhaps Sena-
tor Foraker is playing with IRE.
A Mistake.
The esteemed Pittsburg Dispatch is
harboring hallucination to the effect
that Representative Baker Of New
York proposes to put stop to extend
ing remarks in the Congressional Rec
ord" and praises him for so doing. 1t
Is wrong in both respects. Mr.. Ba-
ker proposes nothing Of the sort and
would deserve no praise II he did.
What he proposes is much humber and
more practicable-that II, to prevent
any one from extending remarks on-2
less he Baker is permitted to extend
his own remarks in the Record, a,
thing which he can accomplish II he
10 assiduous in his attendance upon the.
sittings Of the house and tenacious in
his purpose. 1t is only by unanimous
consent that remarks can be extend
ed in the Record. OF course Mr.. Baker
can object till he makes Mr.. Palmer Of
Pennsylvania and all other Republic
ans 80 sick that they will be ready to
cry quits. once made the experiment.
myself in behalf Of another and know
by experience that it can be made sue
cessful. One day in the Fifty.seventh
congress Mr.. Vandiver Of Missouri, an
intelligent, capable and courageous
representative, made redhot speech
on the Philippine problem. He was
much interrupted during Its delivery.
and about one-half of his hour was
consumed by Republicans in "jawing
back" at him. When his time expired
he had not uttered nearly all of his care
fully prepared speech. He asked leave
to extend his remarks in the Record"
whereupon young New York mem
Der promptly and sayagely objected. I
then and there served notice that no
Republican would be permitted to ex-
tend his remarks in the Record until
the same courtesy was extended to
Vandiver. The debate then proceeded
under the five minute rule, and divers
members proceeded to make sundry
campaign speeches for circulation at
home. Each one at the conclusion Of
his speech asked permission to extend
such request I objected unless Van
diver should have the same privilege.
To my request the New Yorker OBJ
jected. SO things went for two days,
and the situation was becoming un.
pleasant, II not disastrous, to many %.
piring orators. Consequently the Re.
publican members labored with the
objecting brother from New York and
persuaded him to leave the hall. Then,
when another Republican member con-
cluded speech and asked the usual
privilege and demanded the same for
Brother Vandiver, nobody objected,
and peace spread her white wings
over the scene. Yea, more, somebody
asked that all those whose speeches in
the Record had been curtailed by my
objections should have permission to
extend their remarks In the Record,
and nobody objected. but l got yaA-
diver his privilege, which was tbs
great desideratum.
can talk or write on this subject
freely, for do not extend my own
remarks In the Record to any consld-
cradle extent frequently not at all.
When ! first came to. congress l felt,
as the Dispatch now feels, that. ''the
extension Of remarks in the Record"
ought TO be prohibited, but experience
and observation have changed nay
opinion Tor two reasops--frst, because
SOME of the speeches never delivered
ct all, or delivered only In part and
printed in full in the Record, contain
most valuable information, which not
members only and the constituents Of
the yarticnlar member purpqrttny to
mako tho sDsech desIre. but tys cpuu.
~ at hrgs ~ ~eQ; second. bacause,
Wills It Undoubtedly costs 5ouething
to print thsss uuuttsfed ''rsuaasky' "a
the Record. II DOES not cost half as
much as 1t would to have time con-
sumed in their actual deliverance.
OF course much fun IL poked BY the
nswlDapsss ct TIE Csngrsssiensl Rec,
- q 9sstoN 8 II lS1ju11 S311A