El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-05-03

humorous speech. such events in the
house are regarded as happy hits and
are Of frequent occurrence
No Time Limit In Senate.
In the house a member desiring to
make a speech often has to beg for a
single minute in which TO make It. In
the senate there is no limit to the time
a senator may talk, except that i'm
posed by his own powers Of endur-
ance- In the house a member may ask
leave TO extend his remarks to the Con-
gresSiOnal Record ana then may print
there a speech not a word OF which was
delivered on the floor. He may even
go so far as 10 place in his printed but
Undelivered speech interpretations sucn
as applause" prolonged applause,
and loud and continued APPLAUSE and
other little phrases wherever he
thinks they ought TO 90. 1t is true
that only a few deluded members car
~ the matter thus far. But in the
senate the practice of extending re-
marks in the Record is never resOrted
TO, and the cheap practice of inserting
such interpretations as those above is
unheard Of
senate Never Dies.
The senate differs from the house as
widely in its rules and in the way in
which IL is constituted as ii does in
the character of its proceedings. The
atOrs go out of office and like num-
Der comes in every two years so that
twO-thiTds Of the senate membership Is
always in office. The house dies every
two years and must be entirely reOr-
ganiZed at the beginning OF each
congress. There is q sort of rivalry
between the two bodies, each assert
ing itself to be the more powerful
and each occasionally pointing the fin
ger of Tidlcule at the other on account
of the difference in procedure.
The rules Of both the Senate and the
house positively prohibit any member
of either body to speak dlsrespectTully
of the other body, and yet senators fire.
uuently point out that the rule in the
house is little more than mob rule,
while memb ers of the house as often
declare that senatorial courtesy is car
ried to such lengths that one man may
tnwart the viii of more than 90
Yet each body is proud Of its dis
tingUishing features The house could
not be induced TO give up its right TO
cut off debate whenever 1t desires to
do so, and the senate has never found
prOvOcatiOn strong enough to induce IL
10 curtail the right of unlimited debate.
Legislation in the senate IS enacted
largely on the principle Of unanimous
consent. In practice the senate never
agrees TO set date for a vote in the
future except by UNANIMOUS consent
The Senatorial Ff1IBuster.
entitled to speak as long as he desires,
and that no motion can take away from
him the right to the floor until he is
ready to yield it. has produced the
unique senatorial fuibuster. A senator
in the minority at the END OF MS
speech may yield the floor, and as long
as another Of the opposition succeeds
in following him they are able TO pro-
Ject Uhe-debate and prevent vote. Sen
atOrs engaged in fiIbUsJer have long
down. Three or four strong lunged
senate on guard in the interest Of q
flllbuster can usually maintain debate
so long that il wears out the efforts Of
the majority to maintain a quorum, and
to bring the issue TO a vote, or 70 a
compromise.
According to tradition in the senate
there shall not be any hindrance on
debate has been used by individual SEN
atOrs for the purpose Of blocking legis-
latIOn to which they were opposed, es-
pecially toward the end of q congress
which expires biennially by limitation
on March 4. Thus former senator Car
ter, Of Montana, once defeated a river
and harbOr bill by talking it to death,
the late senator Clay. of Georgia. made
a lengthy and successful filibuster on
a statehood bill, the Democrats Of the
senate successfully fuibUstered against
the famous Force biT' and senator
of South Carolina, successful
" insisted upon an appropriation for
claim in favor of his state which bad
been repeatedly disallOwed.
Currency Bill Fuibuster.
In 1908 senator La Toilette, Of Wis
consin, and several other opponents Of
the Aldrich currency bill, started a fill
ibuster against the passage Of the con-
ference report on that measure Every
technicality was utilized for the pur-
pose Of consuming time. The question
Of no quorum" was repeatedly raised
and the session which began at noon on
May % sat for some 80 hours. This
brought about the resurrection Of an
ancient rule whereby members could
be compelled to vote or to give a rea-
son therefor. Under this rule the vice
president counted quorum in spite Of
the fact that a majority of the mem I
bers of the senate had not voted The
senate also determined upon that oc-
casion that the question of no quo /
rum could not be raised when a previ- I
Gus roll call had disclosed the presence |
Of quorum. If no business had inter 4
vened, and it was held that the debate /
did not constitute intervening business. /
Copyright 1911, by Frederic J. Has !
kin
Editors Note:-This is part Of a
chapter on The Senate. from the book
The American GOvernm emit by Fred ]
eric j. Haskin which now is offered TO
The readers Of The FL PasO Herald on
most advantageous terms See notice |
elsewhere on this page.l