Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1904-01-21
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he should give Us any membership upon
the important committees OF the house.
l expect TO offer. and | hope that the
committee on rules will consider favor
ably. a resolution TO add one to each of
the sixteen great committees Of the house,
committees composed of seventeen mem
bers EACH and that this one added menu
Der be taken from the minority side.
AS 1t is now the committees are really
sandwich committees. the crackers being
meat 1.-THE Democrats) between--six out of
seventeen That is the way the case
stands on sixteen great committees in a
house where the Republican majority is
thirty
Now. have no disposition to find fault
unduly. and have no disposition to give
utterance too frequently or too forcibly
to fault where | do find it, but / regard
that as an outrage upon the minority.
regard 1t as treating US unjustly and un-
fairly. / regard II as taking unjust adj
vantage of the control of this house for
partisan purposes
A good many of these committees are
committees that have no political matters
to deal with. They have the business leg-
islation of the country to deal with Yet
they are made up in the most bitterly
partisan way Take the committee on
appropriation a committee that is found
upon this floor when bills come from it,
united In support of them. Since have
been member of the house l never yet
have known minority report from that
committee Yet out of seventeen mem
bers the minority of the house is repre-
sented by six only. though in total mem
bership it has within thirty of as many
members as the majority
Now, there is nothing but partisanship
in that There is nothing but injustice
and unfairness in it. It deprives us of
what we are entitled to It puts upon
members on the other side, if they do
their duty. more work than they ought to
have. II deprives the membership on this
side of proper opportunity to do work
upon the committees, and a large portion
Of the work of the house and the senate
comes from and is done in the commit
tees Such a course is not conducive to
good legislation 1t is not designed to
bring about good legislation. 1t will not
bring about good legislation. Whatever
others may do, I. for one, wish 1t dis
tinctly understood that l am utterly OPP
posed-my opposition. I understand. may
be fruitless-but I am utterly opposed to
such action. and while the opportunity
yet remains, while that much of the
privilege and right of a representative is
preserved to me. / will take occasion.
when it seems fitting. to express my opin-
ion about it Sixteen prominent commit
tee places are given to gentlemen upon
tlemen upon this side. Sixteen men over
there are upon these important commit
tees. to say nothing of the lesser COM
mittees. who ought not to be upon them.
It curries favor over there 1t tends to
weld together compactly and closely the
mass over there. It tends to make the
power of the speaker greater by enabling
him to decree what shall be done and
taking away the independence upon that
side which might interfere with the carry
ing out of his DEGREES. 1t ought to have
the effect of welding us more closely to-
gether. We ask nothing except what we
think we are entitled to. !, for one, ask
absolutely no favors for myself or for
any man upon this side but we have a
right to ask what is just and what is fair.
We have right to ask what our mem
bership entities US to. We have a right
to ask what the interests of the country
in good legislation entitle us to.