The Washington times., 1905-10-30
Reorganization" in England.

The whole country must have been
impressed these past ten years with
the decline in influence and power of
the individual members Of the House
of Representatives. The larger
branch of our Congress has been
steadily yielding its prerogatives to
the smaller. and the separate MEM
bers of the House have been just as
steadily yielding to their Speaker the
control Of those prerogatives which
have remained.
in their present situation the mem
bers of the House. having elected
their presiding officer, might almost
as well attend its sessions by proxy
and vote by mail The Speaker
forms his committees with an under
standing that amounts to a virtual
pledge of support to his program of
legislation; the committees report
their bills in a form that pleases
him; the bills are taken up in the
order he designates; and If, by any
miscarriage of plan, there is doubt
as to the fate of any measure, the
Speaker shuts of debate and throt-
ties revolt by bringing in a report
from the Committee on Rules which
his -partisans-being mostly
party men before they are anything
else-have to uphold
This Is doleful enough, but the
people who elect the Representatives
IN the mistaken idea they are send
ing a delegate to participate actively
in the making of legislation. may
find some comfort in the fact tka...
the only other country with a legis-
lature vested with similar powers
and privileges has fallen into the
same misfortune. According to Mr..
Asquith-certainly not a sensation
alist-the whole scheme of lawmak-
ing in the British parliament has
"decayed." He even goes so far as
to speak of the executive" and
stigmatize the organization of minis
tries and the control of parliament
through them as "the joint operation
OF the guillotine and the block."
In speech to his constituents sew
eral days ago he proposed as lone of
the primary duties of a. liberal gov
ernment' the restoration of "efi-
cheney and dignity to our legislature
at Westminster" To that end he
suggested four practical steps:
ID The summoning of parliament
In November to get through the pre-
liminary business of the address.
etc., before Christmas. CD the aboli-
ton Of the new hours of sitting and
the restoration of the old; (3) the
abolition of blocking motions; and
t4) the establishment of one or two
large permanent committees before
whom the whole of the estimates for
the year should go.
Roughly analyzed, the effect of
these changes is to- grant the minor
ity in parliament every opportunity !
to delay legislation and reimpose !
upon the ministry the limitations of |
leadership in lieu of the present au-
thority of control Parliament would |
thus become a deliberative body, as !
once IL was, and our House OF Rep
resentatives once was But it is |
worthy or note that our system of |
committees, which Mr.. Bryce regard |
ed with so much suspicion, is sug-
gested also. and that these commit |
tees are to be given the important
responsibility OF supervising the en-
pire's purse. II
This speech by Mr.. Asquith may
be a straw to show the winds direc-
ton. Perhaps. after all, the English |
speaking peoples are growing tired |
of organization" II they are, that
In It's turn is sign that they are
putting their old value on independent |
thought and Independent action, and
that some day, perhaps sooner than
we think, patriotism and statesman
ship may assume their proper rela-
ton to party.