The National tribune., 1909-03-18
SPEAKER CANNON AND THE
RIFLES

The din raised over Speaker Cannon
and the rules engrossed much of the
Eattention Of the people during the re-
cent campaign. The Denver Democratic
Convention turned some of its artillery
from the spacious hot air about the
trusts to fire a broadsde at Speaker
Cannon and the rules. 1t is easy to see
how all this came about All over the
country are gentlemen with much moro
boiling eloquence than horse sense. and
who impress their constituents with the
idea of a plentitude of wisdom. This
does not assay very richly when it is
subjected to the test of the assembled
wisdom of the Nation in the Capitol
| Returning to their constituents, these
men have to explain away the poor
showing they made by blaming it upon
Speaker Cannon and the tyrannical
rules of the House. Therefore, we have
had much windy suspiration of forced
breath" as to what was going to be done
in the next Congress to Mr.. Cannon and
his rules. We now have had show
down on this, and it petered out COM
ically. Mr.. Cannon was a candidate
for reelection as Speaker, and received
all but II Republican votes, receiving
204 votes to 166 for Champ Clark, the
Democratic candidate, and the remain
der scattering. The 2 Republicans who
refused to vote for Cannon were Cary
Cooper and Knop; Lenroot. of Wis
consin; Davis. Hubbard and Hin
shaw, of Iowa; Lindpergh, of Mime
sofa; Morse, of Wisconsin; Murdoch, of
Kansas; Nelson, of Wisconsin, and
PointdeXter, of Washington. The next
test of strength was in adopting the
rules of the previous House. This was
promptly brought to the front by a
motion by Representative Dalzell, who
moved the previous question upon it.
The regulars gained the first fall by
ordering the previous question upon the
adoption of the old rules by a vote of
194 to 1S3. III this they had the assist
ance of seven Demonstration, Cold
fogle, Reardon and F'ornes, of New
York; Broussard and Estopinal, of LOU
isiana, and O'Ccnnell, of Massachusetts.
On this vote the insurgents mustered 80
men. Then came the tug of war upon
the adoption of the old rules. Messrs.
Moon, Goldfogle and Fornes reversed
themselves and voted against the mo-
ton, thereby defeating it. Then Champ
Clark, the leader of the Democracy,
offered the Underwood resolution adopt
ed by the Democratic caucus, and which
provided for the appointment by the
House of a Committee on Rules to con-
sist Of Is members, and also that the
fight on the rules should be postponed
until after the tariff bill was out Of the
way. There came at once a clash with
substitute for the caucus resolution, and
in the test of strength Fitzgerald won
out and had his substitute adopted.
This substitute, which is given else
where in full, takes the matter of unani-
nous consent out of the hands of
the Speaker, and provides that Wednes-
day of each week shall be a calendar
day, devoted wholly to bills on the cal
endar. No member shall move to take
a recess on the day preceding the cal
endar Wednesday. except in the last two
weeks of a session. The resolution was
adopted providing for Committee on
Rules consisting of Is members, five
regular Republicans. four insurgents
and six Democrats. who were named in
the resolution and who should investi- |
gate the rules and report at the OPEN
ing of the regular session in December. |
The personnel of this committee was as |
Dalzell, of Pennsylvania; Smith. of |
Iowa; Mann, of Illinois; Currier of New |
Gaines. of West Virginia; |
of Massachusetts,; Nelson, of |
Norris, of Nebraska; Hayes, |
Of California; Clark, of Missouri; Un-
derwood. of Alabama; Hitchcock, of
Nebraska; Hay, of Virginia, and Burle-
son, of Texas. 1t was proposed that this
committee sit during the extra session
Ind in the Summer recess, and take
testimony on the rules and the changes
proposed.
SO the promised resolution simmered
lown to this mild conclusion.