Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-02-28
The Preroeatives of House.

The privilege of originating reve-
nue. measures is one of the sacred pre-
negatives of the house of representa-
tives which that body is justified in
maintaining against all encroachment,
even tho its concern seems to be more
with form than with substance. The
constitutional provision that call bills
for raising revenue shall originate in
the house of representatives: but the
senate may propose or concur with
the amendments as on other bills" was,
of course modelled on the English con-
.stitution. The long struggle for the
control of the purse as check upon
arbitrary royal power made the right
of the representatives of the people to
initiate all measures of taxation seem
peculiarly important to liberty. Much
depended on the power to propose
taxes i'm the time of the Stnarts, and
after the revolution the tradition of the
popular grant was naturally strong.
Tho the senate was to be a.n elective
body, and not like the houst. of lords,
the reflection Of distinct class with it's
own interests to the house as more
directly dependent on the people was
CGIlIlueu lIlc Quly VI say liiSS liot So
much how as when new taxes should
be imposed for that is practically
what the houses prerogative amounts
to.
Senator Hansbrough's original prop
osition respecting the wheat drawback
was nothing more than a declaration
of opinion AS passed by the senate.
however, 1t was a piece of egislation
declaring that the drawba TX provis-
ions of the Dingley law should not be
construed to affect the wheat schedule.
This is palpably revenue legislation
1t is an attempt on senate initiative to
remodel one feature of the tariff law,
and the house properly refuses to coun-
tenance any such thing. Yet the house
has time and time again felt COM
PEELED to assent to much more import
ant changes in the tariff dictated from
the senate chamber.
Under cover of it's rights to amend the
senate has sometimes left little hut the
enact!ng clause of house tariff bills.
This was conspicuously the case with
the Wilson BILL which in spirit and
purpose was largely transformed in the
senate. 1t may be doubted il the maxi
ers of the constitution expected that in
the gllise of amendment practically
new bills would be passed. Their idea.
as some house house leaders have held.
may have been that the senate would
merely review and revise in detail, but
certainly they conferred the power to
make over bills in language so broad
as to deprive the house of any prepon-
derance in shaping revenue laws. The
compactness of the senate and the pre-
rnium its rules put upon obstructive
tactics have in fact given to that body
the positive weight of authority even
in tariff legislation. The policy of
action once determined, the preroga-
tive Of the house becomes merely an
empty form. It's only real efficacy is
the power which it confers, on the
house to block innovation and smother
agitation.
If the house does not want to open
up a tariff question, the senate is help
less. In the case of the wheat draw
back, the house, whether entirely sat
isfied with the department ruling or
not, seems content to let It stand and
quietly give the extended drawback
plan a trial. That is within its prov
ince. IT the house would show an equal
firmness in insisting on the preserva-
ton of the great outlines of it's tariff
bills, instead of being content merely
with saving an enacting clause, it's
prestige as the effective representative
of popular feeling would be enhanced.
But, once started on a course of leg1s-
alton, it's organization appears to be
such that final decisions pass to
others.