Los Angeles herald., 1909-12-07
The American Congress
XV-Procedure i'm the House
Bv Frederic j. HaSkin

one of the new features of procedure
inserted in the rules of the house us
a result of the fight of last spring. 1t
was claimed that 1t would go a long
way toward overcoming what many
representatives. have considered the
unpleasant necessity of a personal in
tercession with Uncle Joe" to allow a
favorite bill to come up. Under the
old rule the speaker could tell the
member he would see him in some
warmer climate before heswould rec
ognize him for the purpose of calling
up that bill, sometimes placing few
forceful adjectives ahead of the bill.
If the speaker had no objections to it's
coming up, however, the member
could ask for unanimous consent once,
and if it was refused, he could ask
again at moro opportune time.
Under the calendar Wednesday"
rule a BILL which is favorably reported
by a committee of the house, may be
/ placed ON this calendar, and take It's
! turn in being called up from that cal
endar. 1t SO happens that If 1t is a
measure the speaker objects to, nod
of the head or a wink of the eye will
| produce an objector instantly. IL it
| appears to him a harmless measure 1t
| might stand some chance were there
not a few Robert Bruce Macons whose
| Sole opportunity lOI IliI llIl lIttAiilE III
| the real affairs of the house is to de-
clare, MIR. Speaker, | object" If any
one of these chronic ohjectors is pres
ent. the bill called up from the "unan-
| imous consent calendar" has about as
much chance of slipping past him as
an iclcle has of surviving melting
| pot And when objection Is once made
the bill's chance of passage under
unanimous consent is past and gone
/ fo7 f1,a rfJ1pG N DrONi1p. Under
the old method there was just as good
chance of its getting past the speaker
as there is now. And there was
slight chance that the Robert Bruce
Macons might be caught mapping. Now
they are always on notice when unan-
imous consent is to be asked, and their
efforts viii transform this rule from
| the bread of hoped-for relief into n
stone of unfulhled promise.
The speaker of the house has en-
! trenched himself absolutely in his
power of recognizing whom he viii. In
| 1880 the rules committee decided that
discretion in the matter of recognition
ought to be reposed in the speaker, and
! the very next year the then speaker
declined 10 entertain an appeal from
! his decision on a question of recogni-
/ tion, although the rules specifically
say that "he shall decide all questions
of order subject to an appear to tho
house by any member. All of the
! speakers since Randall have denied
/ the right of the house or its MEM
bers to question their decisions in
/ recognizing whom they will. In the
senate there can be no such procedure.
/ Recognition goes to the first man who
addresses the chair and the senate re-
served the right to determine who that
| individual is whenever II desired to
do so.
The committee of the whole house on
the state OF the Union is the step in
| the house procedure where the MEM
ber from Wayback comes into his
own. While there Is always partic-
MAR measure before this committee
when the house transforms itself Into
such a body by the speakers handing
The gavel over TO another whom he
designates as chairman yet everything
from Dan to Beersheba. from Alpha
to Omega. from postoffice at Podunk
to n half billion dollar appropriation
for deep waterways. may be discussed.
| In the beginning of n session or con-
gress, where there is little real work
TO be done, this committee becomes
the greatest scene OF taking 10 Iof
! Runconobe" the world has ever wit
messed. Indeed that very expressive
nhrase itself originated in that COM
mittee. 1t happened that member
from Buncombe county, North Caro-
lima, was speaking in this committee
when he was chided for his prolonged
stump speech. lie replied that he did
not give a continental for the house.
but was talking for Buneombe.
In this committee Is produced the
grandilouuent section of that widely
circulated periodical, the Congress
siona1 Record And in 1t are delivered
most of the speeches that are franked
ont to the constituents back home.
Leave to extend ones remarks in the
Record is favorite request in the
house. although it is not recognized in
the senate. :.
To sum up the house procedure IT
NAV be said that the whole purpose of
the rules is to enable the majority to
drive legislation through under bit and
spur when that is desirable, and to let
II 60 through of its own accord when
there is no serious opposition. To use
another figure, the rules form bridge
whereby the majority may cross the
stream of opposition without getting
it's feet wet.
| Tomorrow-The American Congress-
| XVE-Evolution of House Rules.