The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-04-08

stock n causing many other cheap
statesmen to quake for their reputa-
tions.
Congress has a rule by which NOM
hers who haven't the ability to dis
cuss public questions IN the floor. and
especially new members, can have
their speeches. printed in the Rec
ord without being delivered. These
speeches are always bracketed with
applause" prolonged applause"
and applause on the democratic
side" Possibly the speech was pre-
pared by n hired man or a clerk and
that il the member we're forced to
either prepare it or deliver it, he
would prove his anateurishness ut
both. 1t is such things that Sena-
tor Hepburn would give the public
as the reliable report Of congression-
al doings through the Congressional
Record.
shows the scandalous conduct Of
either body of congress Is carefully
expunged from the Record. In 1889.
Speaker T. Il. Reed was enforcing
for the first time in tho house, the
rule that a member was present" for
tho purpose of making a quorum II
he was within the hall Of the house.
Before that time a member by refus-
inEt to answer to his name. was count
cd absent and ii the parties wcrc
nearly cvcnly balanced. by the min
GRITTY party remaining silent. break
a quorum il A few of the majority
party were absent. Reeds rule was
that a member was present if
physically so, n il he were not,
could be arrested and brought into
h house unless excused according
to law. During a heated enforcement
of this rule. Representative Brccken-
ridge of Kentucky, a democrat. rush.
ed at the speaker and threatened to
pull him from the chair by physical
force: declared Reed was a car and
said other things of like nature. and
declared he would head a revolution
TO drive the republicans from the
house ever as Christ had driven the
money changers from the temple.
The record Of that day would have
made good reading a few years later
when the democrats am into
and adopted without a single change
h Reed rules. But not a word of
the bitter wrangle appears in the
Congressional Record.
Senator Hepburn says the modern
newspapers print only iests and sem
sations about congress, Any news
paper reade knows that is not true.
The actual proceedings OF congress
are depicted without color. but when
n member makes a. joke Of himself
the newspapers usually find it out
and he is measured at his true value.
II a member confesscs in debate that
he % not know whether a mammal
is Il fur or feather bearing animal, as
one recently did. the newspapers OK
pose his ignorance. If il were left
to the Congressional Record his
speech would appear on the printed
page as a learned discussion of a nat
ural history topic.
The present democratic house has
spent several hundred thousand dol
lars in Investigating" everything
that any member DESTROYS Of an en-
ira job could think of. II has been
money wasted in every instance. But
these Investigations have been thu,
means of building up party machines
throueh the patronage they have had,
Tho Congressional Record only car
ries the original resolutions which
are always long r~ccitals and where
asses based on false premises. yet elo-
nuentlN depicting the imaginary evils
to be overcome and patriotirally
portraying the relief that will be
brought To the people. How many
of those Investigations have resulted
in disclosing a single thing? The
reader can not recall one. for there
are none. Yet the people have paid
the bills and the Congressional Rec
ord has not furnished the public the
information; but the newspapers
have.
Senator Hepburn says that if the
people had to depend on the newspa-
pers for their education. the govern
ment could not long continue. But
if strikes us that that would be the
condition il they depended upon the
Congressional Record which he was
seeking to bring into competition with
the daily press at the public expense.