The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-06

From .1s Congressional oratory a Lost
 Art" by Champ Clark in December
 Century.
 YNTIL Henry Clay become speaker.
 any member of the House of Rep resentatives who could get the floor might talk ad libitum on any subject CT no subject, about something pending before the House or about something
 that had never been presented to the House. It was the meeting of extremes which put the first limit upon speeches Of all the famous public speakers Amer lea has produced, John Randolph of Ro- anoke was the most discursive and the least logical. He seems to have read everything that had been written, to have drawn copiously upon It for illustration.
 He was most sarcastic and his speeches spalkled like gems, but he jumped from one subject to another as dictionary goes from one word to another.
 Of American statesmen, John c. Cal. houn was the least discursive and the most logical. In my judgment he was the profoundest logician and metaphysi- clan since the days of St. Paul. His lr.ind worked with the precision of a nerfect machine. One day while >- a sneaker pro tempore was in the chair, Randolph started on one of his brilliant orations about everything in general and nothing in particular, addressing himself to no motion, proposition or bill IL ending before the Houss. Calhoun raised the point of order that before man might speak In the House there must be some motion or bill or definite proposition pending. The chairman over tuled the point of order and Randolph proceeded. How long he would have con- tinued nobody can say; but when MT. Speaker Clay resumed the chair, Calhoun again raised his point of orler and Clay rronptly sustained it. In 1841, when Henry Clay quarreled with John Tyler, he would force whig measures through the Senate, of which he was :ten mem Der, and send them over to the House. There they struck a snag for Henry A. Wise, afterward governor of Vir ginia, was on hand with the most mar ,c,ous vocabulary possessed by any of t,e multitudinous sons of Adam since ,he confusion of tongues at Babel. With the assistance of a handful of Tyleritee he talked all of Clay's bills to death. | This euraged Clay, who was one of the most imperious of men, anu was not merely a boss of the whigs. but czar. so for the sole purpose of gagging Henry A. Wise he went over 10 the House and tried to get 1t to adopt the same ule, which 1t refused to do. and to this Gay refuses to do. A great many people grow weary of the talk in the Senate, which. like Tennysons brock, goes on forever In their anger many have wished that the- Senate co llc be abol- ished or a time limit put uron debate. | Thomas B. Reed of Maine. masterful, great man. was always making sarcastic r. markes about the Senate. Probabl.
 rothing could have induced him to accept
 seat in that body. I myself once feli
 that 1t would be a good thing if it had
 time limit. but I have changed my
 mind about that, as have about many l things, for I have come to the conclusion
 That there ought to be some place In oul
 system of government where measures
 can be thoroughly discussed, and. while
 some of the senators undoubtedly waste
 lime and abuse the privilege of unlimited debate, 1t is better that a few should d. that than that great measures affecting the welfare of 90 millions of o,ople should
 not be so thoroughly ventilated that {
 wayfaring man. though a fool. can un derstand them. In justice to the Senate