Evening star., 1911-05-28
THE PRIVILEGE OF THE FLOOR

V7HAT is known as @the privilege of the
w floor" in Congress is the right to go
upon the floor of the Senate or House when
those bodies are in session.
Although the right to 60 upon the floor
of legislative body is not SO exclusive
privilege in some of the State Legislatures,
it is a great privilege and an exclusive one
in Congress. The doors are carefully guard
ed while Congress is in session; and it IS
sometimes exceedingly difficult to have ac-
cess to Senators or Representatives when
public business is being done.
Senators and Representatives have no
regular or rigid rule on the subject; but it is
known in Washington that the statesmen
feel that their constituents or others who
desire to see them privately should endeavor
to do so in their offices, their committee
rooms, or at their residences. While the
Senate and the House are in session, it is to be
presumed that all the statesmen present de-
sire to attend to public business; and it is
not regarded as exactly the right thing to
call them from public business to give ear
to the desires or schemes of individuals.
1t has often happened that self seeking
persons have sat in the gallery of the Senate
or House, and have seen their Congressman
in their seats, and, upon going to the doors
formed by the attendants that the objects
of their search were not in their places.
This has caused acrimony and querulous-
ness But, as a matter of fact, it takes from
five to ten minutes to go from the gallery to
one of the doors and get card carried into
the chamber by messenger During that
time the statesman sought may have gone
to his committee room, or to the building
called the "Ofice Annex"
To former members of the Senate and
House @the privilege of the floor" is given;
but they do not often avail themselves OF
that right. This, however, is in strong con-
trast to the customs of twenty years ago,
and longer, when it was not uncommon to
see former members moving about on the
floor of the House, when it was notoriously
known that they were lobbying for some
private claim or public graft.
Speaker Reed found this condition so OBJ
noxious that he issued orders that no ex-
members should be permitted to pass the
doorkeepers without written authority from
the Speaker So rigidly did Speaker Reed
cause that order to be observed, and SO care
fully did he look into the motives of every
ex-member who applied for pass, that the
lobbying custom was practically destroyed.
Subsequent Speakers have not found 1t
necessary to draw the lines SO rigidly, be-
cause Cne ABUSE Has dl11lOSL cLllIely CcdScu.
Etiquette In the Senate
THERE is an unwritten law, however, gov
erning the privilege of the floor of the
Senate, and it is the unwrjtten law of good
breeding, good manners, and commonsense.
Every ex-senator has the privilege of the
floor; but it is so seldom exercised that its
abuse has never occurred, nor is it ever likely
to Occur.
Former members of the Senate are never
seen there, unless it is well known that they
have proper business calling them to Wash
ington, such as appearing before the SUI
preme Court as attorneys for clients in
great cases; and even then it seldom hap
pens that an ex-senator thus engaged ever
enters upon the Senate floor. although in
going to and from the room of the Supreme
Court they are obliged to pass by its doors.
After James G.. Blaine ceased to be
Senator he avoided the Senate Chamber
forever. After resigning from that body
Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York never
entered the Senate Chamber, although he
was often in the Capitol on business before
the Supreme Court. There was an excep-