The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-05-29

| ACTUALLY uldue HIS COlSllluSHIS uellSNe
that a certain public building bill in
which they were interested was pass
ed because the committee on rules
feared their congressman. The Speak
er insinuates that this particular rep
resentatives was not even annoying
only mildly amusing.
He tells of New York publisher,
who, "childlike in his frankness,
comes direct to the Speakers room
with a proposition to turn the whole
newspaper press of the country over
to support any ambition the Speaker
may have if he will secure just one de-
sired piece of legislation and the threat
hat he will turn this terrible engine
of publicity against the Speaker if he
refuses"
The Speaker says that this piece of
egotism was greater than the egotism
of the one who appeared to the Mas
ter and offered the Kingdoms of the
world for an acknowledgement of his
power"
Quoting Reed again Speaker Cannon
declares that the house rules are a
mere systemization of labor" There
is no rule or combination of rules" he
asserts, chat can stifle the will of
the majority"
The rules he continues, "have
been developed through many years to
the end that the minority shall be pro-
tected in every right, but that loud
determined and beligerent' minority
shall not be able to overturn the will
of the majority"
He then shows how easy it was for
even five members to block the will
of the majority prior to the advent of
| Reed( and quotes Roger Q. Mills to
prove that before the 50th congress the
| majority had no rights that the minor
ity or even "a minority" however
small felt bound to respect.
I And yet the rules have not, he con-
tends been greatly changed. The
changes introduced to prevent "dila-
tory motions to enable the Speaker to
count quorum and making 100 a quo
rum in committee of the whole, be-
sides a daily order of business under
special rule. Except for these
changes and a few adopted at the pres
ent session, the rules of the house are
as they have been since 1880"
Critics of the committee on rules
complain that this committee controls
legislation" he contends. They mean
to complain that the committee does
not promote the legislation they par
ticularly desire. The commiette on
rules has no power either to promote
or prevent legislation. 1t can only rec
ommend a rule by which the majority
of the house can take up a bill, con-
slider it and vote upon it. It can in no
way interfere with the action of the
house under the rules where the great
body of legislation must lie"
Mr.. Cannon shows how the Demo-
Gratis when they came into power after
Mr.. Reed, virtually adopted the rules
suggested by him, and he cites an in
stance of comparatively recent date
when John Sharp Williams, floor lead
err of the minority, invoked the rule,
which, by common consent. the Demo-
Gratis consider most obnoxious, in or
der to expedite legislation in which
Mr.. Williams constituents We're vital
ly interested.
The Speaker quotes letters and cites
instances to show that the members,
being human have found the Speaker
a convient scapegoat and have excus-
ed their failures by declaring they
could get neither his ear nor his eye.
And this leads to a discussion of the
Speakers power of recognition, a pow
err he says, that has been exercised
for generations by every presiding Of
ficer of every deliberate body in the
world. ecclesiastical and lay. He
makes the point that the Speaker is
no more of tsar whan he exercises
this power than is a member, whose
simple Il object" prevents "unani-
nous consent" to the consideration of
a bill.
THE present rules of the House."
the Speaker concludes, do not retart
business; they expedite business. The
Fifty-ninth Congress enacted more i'm
portant legislation than any dozen
that preceded it. There
vas a real sentiment for that legisla.
ion, not a manufactured sentiment, |
md it was not difficult to have it en-
Icted. That congress was in session
90 days and it passed IA public and
249 private acts. and the debates fill
d 14,490 pages of the Congressional
.ecord.
Whoopinq Cough.