Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1908-06-11
THE COST OF FILIBUSTERING

THE COST or FII.IBUSTERING.
Interest was lent to the closing days
of Congress by the filibustering Of
Senator InFolcttc of Wisconsin. and
many people unduestionably looked on
with complacence during the progress
of this timc-wasting and futile effort
to block the passage Of the currency
bill Among the people who actually
encouraged this useless expenditure of
time and money was William ]. Bryan,
who sent kilograms to various demo
in blocking the passage of the cur
rency measure with the evident pur-
pose OF putting the republicans in
position where he could charge them
with failure to deal with the currency
problem, just as he helped to foist tho
Philippines on the United states and
then raised the cry Of imperialism"
The Washington correspondent of
the New York Post calls attention 70
it refers to the cost of filibustorins to
the country. Several months ago Rep
resentative John Sharp Williams the
minority leader, began his obstructive
tactics in the House. He decided to
demand second" on every bill that
was proposed for passage, and to force
a roll call whenever an opportunity
offered. BY demanding "a second" Mr.
Williams was able to get forty min
| motions and orders. Senator La Fol-
lette began his flibuster against the
| currency bill on Friday, May 90. When
Senator Aldrich found what no was
pitted against, he decided there should
be no adjournment of the Senate until
vote had been taken on the currency
bill. Under the Senate rules a Senator
| can be prevented from speaking more
than twice on the same question on the
same legislative day. Accordingly. Mr..
Aldrich had planned to prolong the leg
islative day Of May 20 until the Wis
consin Senator had exhausted his right
to address the Senate.
| Some interesting figures showing the
amount of time wasted by the House In
roll calls have been complied by Rep
resentative Dawson of Iowa. Before
his election to the House, Mr.. Dawson
was clerk to the committee on appro-
priatiors OF the Senate. and one Of his
duties was to assist In the preparation
Of the statement OF expenditures which
Is presented to Congress on the clos.
ing day of the session. This training
seems to abide with the young rep
resentative from Iowa. for he has
framed some wonderful figures on the
time consumed by the useless and
wasteful flibuster."
Mr.. Dawson has figured out that tho
munster involved a calling of the roll
272 times. With this as a basis for his
calculations. Mr.. Dawson has evolved
!
make the farmers Of Iowa long for the
days when they tried to figure on,
what dollar would be worth ~ Mr.
bryan Tree coinage scheme should %
adopted Figure 1t out yourself. Here
the problem, unknown quantity and
all IN Mr.. Dawson's own words.
The average time consumed in ,o,
c"h is thirty minutes. so that q total n,
one hundred and thirty-sx hours of IN,
time or the House was wasted by this re-
markable performance. The averas,
length OF the daily sessions OF the Hons,
nve hours. On this basis more thu,
t"enty-seven legislative days were waste,
IN the monotonous call OF the roll
computed on tho basis of a working da,
or eight hours, seventeen days Of tho
entire membership Of this House wer,
'ost by this obstructive policy.
The full monstrosity of this nlibuste
Is not ap. rent, however. until We com
pute the time lost in ono continuous
stretch. Il did not waste seventeen work
Ing days Of eight hours each simply To-
one man. 1t wasted that much for eac,
or the 39l members OF this House or ,
total OF 6,G7 days. On the basis Of 81
, working days In year, this hlibuste
wasted twenty-one years. three months
and five days time.
II John Sharp williams. who was tn
architect and chief engineer OF this un
paralleled folly. had been compelled t,
bear alone the burden OF this ilibuster
instead of distributing It upon tn
shoulders of all his colleagues in tn
J House, II he had been required to suppl.
the time which he wasted for the othe
800 members Of this House, no Nigh
have been answering these roll calls oil
his fifty-fourth birthday. and II he ha'
; worked eight hours day and thre,
hundred and twelve days year, HI
would have been past seventy-fve year
of age when the final roll call was com
pleted,
When W. J. Bryan comes TO arraisn {
republican Congress for It's sins @
omission and commission, he will un
questionably not fail 10 refer TO tn
manner In which Congress spent much %
it's time in doing nothing, but the tim
wasted in flibustering. which he sough
to promote, win probably not be include
in the democratic leaders argument