The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-06
FIGHT IN HOUSE
 IS NUT ENDED
So Declares Representative
 Murdock, the Insurgent.
MUST AMEND THE RULES
Representative Carver of Texas Sees Success Ahead for Democrats in the House-Adyiscs Care
 In Revision of Tariff.
Fly RODERICk CLIFFORD.


 Washington, March 5.--(Special.) )-"The | fight 10 perfect the rules of the House 1 is not ended, and will not cease until the rules are so amended that the majority are able to enact such legislation as it sees fit," remarked Representative Mur- | dock of Kansas to party of members who were discussing the insurgents. l Continuing the Kansas statesman said: ''The unanimous consent calendar has proved fairly successful in that nearly all the bills placed on that calendar get hearing, and the member no longer ap- pea!s to the speaker in the latter's room | for recognition. Under the old rule a member had to humiliate himself by ap- peaing to the speaker for recognition, and if the speaker was opposed to the bill it received no consideration. NOW we ought to adopt rule by which a committee could be discharged from the consideration of bill or res- olution, if no report was made within, say, ten days. l would have the rule apply to the committee on rules the same as other committees. If such a rule was in force the committee on rules would long ere this have been discharged from consideration of the several resolu- tions directing the appointment of a spe- cial committee to investigate the causes of the high prices of foodstuffs and other necessities of life, and the House would have acted one way or the other. When resolution of inquiry would be intro duced it could not be pigeon-holed as now.
 Another amendment I would favor would be the requirement of "A hours mo- tice of important amendments offered during debate to bills of national char acter. Often a measure of large i'm portance, which has been carefully con- sidered in committee, has had its whole purpose changed by the adoption of an amendment which receives practically no consideration by the great majority of the House-and amendment, which If printed for information of the members "A hours in advance, would never be adopted Let me tell you that should the next House be democratic the fight for changing the rules as insisted on by the insurgents, will continue. The demo crats will not go back to the old meth ods''
 In the opinion of Representative John N Garner of Texas, assistant whip or the minority side of the House, the coun-
 
 large majority. He says conditions are similar to what they were 20 years ago. when the democrats swept everything be- fore them, and as history repeats itself, he looks for the same results this time The tariff was the issue as 1t is now, he said The republicans have revised the tariff upward instead of downward, and ihe first chance the voters had at the tariff they didn't do thing to the re- publicans.
 If we control the next House." said the Texas member, ''it would not be wise in my judgment to attempt to pass through the House a complete revision of the tariff, for the reason that 1t would not be considered by republican Sem ate and to open up the entire question might have a depressing effect on busi- ness. But we would put 1t up to the republican Senate by passing separate bills amendatory of the several scned- ules of the Payne-Aldrich bill. By this means, perhaps, some relief might De given the people from the inequalities or the Payne-Aldrich tariff.
 ''It Is remarkable, when you think Of it. that after the passage of the tariff act by the filth Congress the democrats carried the country on that issue in the following election. In the 51st Congress we lost the country, including the presi- dency, on the tariff issue, and in the next congressional eleCtlOIl, naVlHS pdSScu tHe McKinley bill, we carried the country, and two years later elected the President It was the silver question rather than the tariff that caused the democratic de- feat in 1896
 .The only reason in my judgment, why the democrats did not regain control of the House after the passage of the Ding ley tariff was because that before the campaign rolled around Spanish war clouds had gathered, thus obscuring the tariff as an issue. But now this Is all changed The tariff is an issue, and there is no war scare. You can take 1t from me that the next House will be demo- cratic"
 When Congress met in December the watch word was economy in public ex- penditures The President had passed the word along the line and the result was a big cut in the estimates submitted by the executive department. The prospects for a record in reduction of money appro- priated were excellent. The leaders of the House were saying that they would give the country an exhibition of what could be done when it became necessary to use the pruning knife on expenditures.
 Ll.. a~N~~