The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1908-03-06
A Card From Hon. II. r. Broyles.
Jackson, Miss. Feb. 28, 19l

f a
1 write to ask you 10 permit me to
make a statement in your paper rela-
tive to the relations of the Appropria-
tions Committee, of which Mr.. Morri-
son IS chairman, and the Eleemosye-
ary Institutions Committee, of which
I am chairman.
! The situation was such that both
chairmen rendered their designations,
and under proper solicitations both
reconsidered their action and remain
ed on their committees.
The newspaper reporters have
never dealt fairly with the true issue
and principle involved as advocated
by me. and hence the reason of my
+ desire to be properly understood by
my people.
The history Of the whole matter is
as follows: There is a custom pre-
vailing at present in both houses Of
+ the Legislature to have all bills.ear-
/ rying appropriations, first to be re-
i ferred to respective committees TO
which their subjects relate. These
/ committees go intosdetails, make all
+ necessary Investigations and recon-
mend appropriations according to
/ their Judgment of the necessities in
/ the case. Then to refer the bills to
the Appropriations committee that has
the right, according to precedent, TO
concur in or set aside entirely the
first committees report. Thus you
see one committee has the right to
supervise the other; that 10 action of
the first committee is final; that all
such committees are subordinate,
mere adjunct to the Appropriation
committee; that they are committees
in name only; they have no power of
their own; they cannot even refer
such bills direct to the House, but to
their supervising committee. When
and how this condition of affairs began
no one seems to know, but We think
it began four years ago. know this:
when | found il to be true / was
thunder struck The twelve years !
was in the Senate and on these same
committees no such thing existed, or
| could have attacked.it then.
contentious are. these: that all
/ Legislators are on the same footing
and his recommendation should have
/ the same standing; that committees
each and all have the same rights
and prerogatives and should not be
subordinate to another; and that only
the Legislature as a body has the
. .TrrI,4 to fh,a
concentrations of any committee.
If these inviolate rights of legislators
and committees are set at variance,
it would tend to produce legislative
conditions that in my mind would not
be for the best.
! If the committees are not compe-
tent to pass on the subjects referred
to them, what is the use of having
the committee, and why should the
matter be referred to them at all. In
this attitude the Committee is a
travesty and anon entity, but if it has
the dignity of a committee after it
has gone into a proper investigation
and gained sufficient knowledge to
enable it to act inteIligently, why
should it be compelled to have
its work supervised and re-hashed
by committee that has made no in
vestigation and has no knowledge Of
the case in question; and if such
condition is to exist, all other COM
mittees are chained to a rock of inn
potence and simply relegates all the
appropriation legislative power to the
hands of one committee, and as you
well know, nine out of every ten com
mittee reports pass as reported, you
readily see that one committee domi-
mates more than half the legislation
/ of the State.
/ Then, Mr.. Editor, do you not readily
/ see that the Speaker can shape the
entire appropriation legislation of
Mississippi as he wishes it by placing
on that committee men who repre-
sent his views ami ideas, and who
will carry them out?
Looking at the matter in this light,
I made a fight to hberate these COM
mittees, to unite their hands, to give
to their reports and recommends
tions the same dignity as that of
others, and thereby to scatter the APP
preparation legislative power over as
broad a field as possible.
1t was for the above principle that
I was contending and fighting. This
PRIN CIPLE alone was. the matter of
contest, and there was to personal
element in it; there was no bitterness
or estrangement between the chair
men or their committees
| | resigned from the committee be-
cause. as / saw i0, my committee had
no power. no rights or prerogatives,
was travesty and non entity and was
capable only of labor that .had for
its reward impotence of the rankest
kind. But under strong solicitation |
reconsidered my action, believing
that | could fight more effectively as
the exponent of an aggrieved com
mittee than / could as an independent
legislator.
Respectfully,
III. F. BRoYLEs.