New-York tribune., 1911-02-28
ANARCHY IN THE SENATE.

The condition Of public business In
the United States Senate is serious re-
Election on the legislative efficiency OF
that body. Many of the regular apprc-
priation bills are still to be considered
and other measures Of vital Importance
are awaiting action. 1t is clearly un-
derstood that an extra session of Con
gress must be held If the Senate fails TO
vote on the House bill carrying into ell
feet the reciprocity agreement with Can
ada. Yet day after day has been spent
in leisurely and for the most part lncon-
seouential debate. whose only result has
been TO make the jam OF legislation
tighter and to prevent the passage or
bills for which the majority would vote
If it could ever get an opportunity 10
do so.
The Senate was designed by the
trainers Of the Constitution TO serve as a
check on legislation which might he de-
manded hastily or unwisely by the CO.
ordinate chamber more directly repre-
senting the people 1t is undoubtedly
desirable to have such a check, but the
fra mers Of the Constitution could never
have intended that minority in the
Senate should have the power 10 act as
similar check on the majority. Yet tnat
is the situation which has arisen in the
upper house. where a handful of Sen
ators arrOgate 10 themselves the privi-
lege of deciding what bills shall or shall
| a u
govern. because il lacks the means as
well as the determination to enforce its
will 1t admits its helpleSsness To do
business except with the assent of the
minority.
The Senate rules are To blame for
building I'D the present system of mi
nority veto When there We're only forty
sr fifty Senators. and the public business
to he transacted was not more than one
quarter as great as it is to-day. the old
scheme of nOn-restraint worked reasona-
bly, well Freedom Of debate was rarely
abused and filihustering to prevent a
vote was frowned upon as unbecoming
and diSorderly. But with the increase of
| the Senate's membership to more than
ninety and the vast extension of the
! legislative calendar the mere sense of
/ comfy has become frail reliance
against the obstruction of business by
Senators who feel that they have some
thing at stake in obstructing it. FilihuS-
tering stamped out in the House of Rep
resentativeS. is now an established prac-
| tice i'm the Senate and at every short
seSSiOn-which is mt least fifty days too
short 10 do carefully and intelligently
the work assigned To 1.-THE control of
! business is largely in the hands of those
/ who want to defeat measures which
would easily pass if they should ever
come TO a rollcall.
| Legislation in the Senate is now a
and the minOrity-a system unjust to
! those whom the majority represents.
| The obvious remedy for this unwhOle-
some situation is a change in the rules
which would give the majority actual in
stead of nominal parliamentary control.
| The Senate has not been inclined to
adopt the previous question. because
nearly every Senator can fOreSee cOntin-
gencies in which he would like to use
his individual veto TO obstruct the will Of
a majority. But it looks as if the pre-
viOus question would soon be the Sen
ate's sole recourse to protect itself
against the legislative anarchy of which
this sessions proceedings have furnished
so impressive an example.