Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1910-05-02
CANNON on HOUSE RULES
Objections Due to Desire of Minority
to Dictate.
SPEAKS AT GRANT CELEBRATION
He Likens Attack Upon Taft Admin
istratiOn TO Abuse Heaped
Upon Grant During
First Term,

WASHINGTON. May 1.-"when we have
have to change the rules of the house to
permit the minority to dictate legislation
in behalf Of special interests we will be
confronted with the necessity of changing
our constitution and all our conceptions of
a peoples government where the majority
shall legislate and accept responsibility for
the legislation"
Speaker Joseph C. Cannon Of the house of
representatives made the foregoing declara-
| tion tonight in addressing the Mddlesex
club on the occasion Of a celebration of the
| eighty ninth anniversary of the birth of
| General Grant.
Speaker Cannon after delivering a eulogy
upon the life of the great American gen
eral and former president. announced that
he had been asked to say a word about the
rules of the house after the ocean of
words that have been hurled at the rules
| in the last two years"
Thomas b. Reed once said" the speaker
| declared, that the noise made by a small
but loud minority in the wrong is too Of
ten taken for the voice Of the people and
| the voice of Cod That remark applies
to the discussion of the rules"
The speaker stated that the rules were
| the development of twelve years. that they
| were substantially as they had been for a
| generation; that a campaign against the
rules made twenty years ago brought out
the denunciation made within the last two
years, md that on the former occasion It
was the loud minority" trying to dictate
legislation
Minority Tries to Dictate.
The democrats were in the minority in
the ffty-first congress" he said, but they
tried to dictate legislation. Speaker Reed
and the majority who were responsible for
legislation refused to be dictated to. Reed
counted a quorum of those who were pres
ent for mischief but declared they were
not present for business. That action of
Reed was denounced as 'czarism.' The
discussion became International, but the
supreme court sustained Reed and so did
the democratic party when it came into
power 1t adopted what it had denounced
as the Reed rules.
why this fuss and fury The old cause
the effort of the minority to rule. On the
eve of the last presidential election the
democratic leaders sought TO dictate legs-
lation. The majority would not accept die
tation. The minority began a filibustel
which continued to the end of the session
frankly stating on the floor that the mi
lnOrlly WOulu resist ana elnDdTIdSS III every
way possible all legislation unless certain
measures demanded by the minority should
be brought forward,
History repeated itself. The democratic
platform denounced the czarsm of thu
speaker, just as the democratic platform
did in 1890. The minority had demanded
legislation for special interests; not for tn,
general interest. There other specia
interests demanding that the speaker ust
: arbitrary power in their behalf. When h,
refused to violate the rules and traditions
Of the house he was denounced as a car
Criticism of Grant Cited.
In discussing the CRITICISM of Genera
Grant during his administration as presi
dent, Speaker Cannon found a parallel II
the attacks on the present administrator
and inferred that this administration woult
overcome all attacks as triumphantly a
did Grant.
I'm his memoirs" the speaker reminisced
Grant tells of an incident in his campaign
in Texas, where one night the camp wa
disturbed by an unearthly noise that hat
a panicky effect on the soldiers and caused
some uneasiness among the officers.
/ squad was detailed to make reconnais
arce. They stealthily moved in the direc
zion from which the sounds came and a
= the men rounded butte they dlscovere
two coyotes on little hilocks engaged /
a serenade.
4 THE noise made by the liberal and demo
? cratic press against Grant was a fittn
, parallel to that episode in his early life
I It did not brighten him nor the rank an
file who marched to the polls with tn
same determination they had four year
before and 100000 more of them dropped re
publican ballots into the boxes"