The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-03-28
WHAT OF OUR CAESAR!

The bill providing for the division of
the Minot land district and the crea-
ton of land Office at Willston is be-
ing held up in the lower house of con-
gress because Speaker Cannon refuses
to recognize member whose constitu-
ency is interested in the measure, for
the purpose of pushing the reported
bill to action.
The grounds assigned by the car of
the lower house is that he does not
favor the creation of more Offices.
1t is a wonder that some of the
self-appointed purifiers of public pro-
cesses have not arisen to this emer-
gency and called attention to this
usurpation of power over the legisla-
ton of nearly eighty millions of people
by one man who is accountable to the
people of one of our congressional dis
tricts only.
There would not be much of fed
for Misrepresentation and this is prob
ably why the sensation mongers do not
seek this field.
Fifteen years ago when Speaker
Reed and his advisers undertook to
transform the house from a aggrega-
ton of wranglers and obstructionists
into deliberative and responsible
public body, it was considered by every
thinking person that great step for
ward in modern legislation had been
made.
1t will be remembered that prior t.
the election of Reed to that position
the house had degenerated into a IT.
responsible body that hindered or de.
feated legislation at will and by the
simple method of the members refus
ing to vote and thus breaking the con-
stitutional quorum. Reed held that it
was within the legal power of the
speaker to count members physically
present in order to make a quorum
whether they voted or not.
With the aid of the committee on
rules he refused to recognize members
who sought to introduce frivolous
legislation. But he never for a mo-
ment entertained the idea that by the
warping of the parliamentary prin-
ciples he had laid down that no man
should say whether or not legislation
which concerned only the people of a
state thousand miles from his own,
and of whose needs he knew absolutely
nothing, should be throttled.
This power of the speaker has been
gradually acquired, and with all the
pleas for accountability to the people
made by professional demagogues,
there is nowhere in the great machin-
cry of the government place where
this responsibility is less effective.
The trouble is not with the individ-
ual members, but with the body itself,
and both political parties have pur
sued the same courses when in power.
Beneath the surface of the oppos;.
ton to the Williston land office bill! Is
the fact that Cannon dislikes the SEN
ate, which has repeatedly refused to
be dictated to by him or Influenced by
his methods. The present bill had it's
origin in the upper branch of congress
and is therefore a proper matter to
be ahelved by the autocrat of the house.
This is merely one instance Of his
unreasonable and unfounded opposition
to legislation in which localities are
concerned, and when it is considered
that there are nearly four hundred
Legislative divisions in the country SO
affected, it seems little wonder that
there has not been public outcry.
s Moreover it seems wonderful that
some unknown genius with a nose