The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-02-13
MIR. CANNON EXPLODESI SHOWS HIS CONTEMPT FcR THE
 HOUSE. Speaker Breaks All Urevious Hecoros By Passing 320 Private
 sion Billsgin Quarter or
 an Hour.

| 6y E0SSiuB oSV 6EAN~S sion Bills in Quarter or an Hour.
 Washington, Feb. En.-Speaker -, :, today took the bit in his teeth anu asa- completely away with legislature phro,e dent in the House. Incidentaliy ne u'o~ an previous records in the dispatch oI private pension bills, Under his guioahoe go of these measures of relief were passsu ,.. by the House in fifteen minutes. Nosts the whole of this time was consunsu m Committee of the Whole. lhe Ihouso passed all the bills en bloc under uan, nous consent, which the Speaker hlinseh asked. About half of the bills were oIs- posed under the request for amenomen'. The Speaker plainly showed dispieasure by dragging the proceedings when op!sc- ton was made. >The objection was with drawn and the remaining bills were de- c1ared passed without even the formahties and without having the clerk read their numbers. s. When the Committee of the whole nao taken favorable action on S20 private pen sion bills, Speaker Cannon inaugurateo an entirely new procedure to expedite tneir passage by the House. The usual custom has been for the clerks to report each plll by number an title, the Speaker then put ting the kuestion for it's engrossment and third reading when the title was again re- ported by the clerk. The question on the passage of the bill was then put by the Speaker and the recult of the vote an- nounced, which Invariably was for the passage of the bill. Today Speaker Cam non followed this procedure with the first bill. He then suddenly stopped and ad- dressing the House made this explana- ton: ~,
 "A large number of bills have been re- ported from the Committee of the Whole House with a recommendation that they do pass without amendment.
 Gentlemen. you are aware that the Committee of the Whole House has had for some hours the said bills under con- sideration. Is there a desire on the part Of any member that any one of these bills that are recommended without amend ment should be considered separately?
 Pausing for a moment MT. Cannon con tinued: "The chair propounds that query with view to asking the House for unanimous consent that all of these respective bills be considered as read the third time and passed upon the reading of the number by the clerk
 After another pause the Speaker re- peated with great deliberation and em- phasis on each word: 'Is there objec- tion?" t.
 Another pause elapsed when She an- nouncement came amid applause: "The chair hears none."
 Over one hundred of the bills were disposed of in about i've minutes.
 The bills with amendments were then reached. when the chair put the same re- quest. MT. Finley, (S. O. objected with the statement that he did not consider this mode of procedure proper for legis- lative body.
 The objection is perfectly proper" re- piled Speaker Cannon. This method of procedure could only be done by unani- nous consent and the chair has been very careful to fully inform the House and 1t. Is quite within the power of any member ito object
 Then with note of disappointment in his voice, he concluded: objection is made. The clerk will report the first bill"
 The first bill contained an amendment and when the clerk announced that fact the speaker inquired facetitiously: Does the gentleman from South Carolina de- sire to hear the amendment read?"
 "Oh." replied MT. Finley.
 Well" continued the speaker, "the gentleman does not know what the na- ture of the amendment Is; neither does | the chair.'
 AAC lhSH Lno reaQlnK or the entire amendment and when this was done his announcement of third reading | and passage of this bill was noticeably slow. In the meantime, Chairman Lou denslagers of the pensions committee, and | several of MT. Finleys colleagues went to his seat to remonstrate with him for the objection.
 After a few minutes Mir Robertson Qnd), interrupted the proceedings and said he wished to repeat the previous re- quest for unanimous consent. The speak CT put the request again and no objection was made, whereupon the entire remain ing bills were declared passed without | even reading their numbers, and all pre- vious. records of pension legislation by the House of Representatives were com pletely eclipsed.
 Mir. Grosvenor (Ohio), made what he declared with some heat, was his last attempt to get a day set for the consid> eration of the bill to appoint a joint com | mittee to consider the ship subsidy His | request was that this measure be made
 a special order for February 20. After
 several objections had been made and
 withdrawn MT. Hardwick (Ga). objected
 because MT. Bartlett had objected when
 the request was made previously and was
 not in hiS seat at the time.
 A bill was passed authorizing the bridg-
 ing of the Quachita river at Quachfta
 City, La, by the Little Rock and Mon
 roe Railway Company.
 At 3:1O o'clock the House adjuorned un-
 til Monday.