Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1913-12-16
President Wilson Said to Fav-
or Putting Muzzle on the
Obstructionists
DEBATE NOW UNLIMITED
Not a Party Matter. Senator
Root eads HRepublicans in
Favor Of Change

WASHINGTON, D. c., Dec. IA
Senator John w. Kern, democratic
leader of the senate, today authoriz-
ed the statement to be made in The
Ledger that one of the important re-
forms which will be undertaken at
this session of congress will be the
inauguration of cloture in the United
States senate.
This movement will be with the
moral support and influence of the
President and his administration to
help put it through. From the stand
point Of overriding ancient precents
1t will be one of the most notable
campaigns in the history of the
country, as ever since the government
was founded there has been an in
violable rule that debate in the Unit
unlimited.
President Wilson, however, has
seen enough of the workings of the
highest law-making body during his
brief incumbency in the presidency
to be convinced that a lack of clio.
ture, more than anything else, makes
senate progress slow, and has made
up his mind real service will be
performed for the people in establish.
ing moderate form of cloture. In
this view Senator Kern, leader of his
~o~t,, sc hoo
viii Cease to BE obstrueture
II am not prepared now to state
just how far we should go in putting
a limitation on debate" said Senator
Kern, "but whatever change in the
rules is made will not cut off any
senator from expressing his views on
any subject 1t will simply put in
the hands of substantial majority
the power to decide when further de-
bate on proposition would be USE
less and Improbable. The senate.
under the new rule, will not lose any
of its characteristics as a delibera.
tive body, but it will cease to be an
obstructive body"
Senator Kern himself has had
taste of the meaning of unlimited de-
bate in the senate recently when the
Kern resolution to hold night sessions
of the senate was under considera-
tion. The senate frittered away
whole week, beginning on Monday
and ending on Saturday, consuming
the entire morning hour of each
day, in discussing whether or not it
should meet nights There was no
way of cutting off the debates, and
the WI ie procedure looked to an in
nocer. bystander as being silly in
the extreme.
OF course the freedom of debate
will be exercised to the limit when
the clotur rule is up for consideration
and, because it is known that all the
"long-winded' senators will get into
action on it. the plan is to hold It
back until other pressing matters are
out of the way. Then, when the
committees are at work on the 9TH
er administration measures and the
senate has some idle time on its
hands, the cloture resolution will be
precipitated and the sticklers for pre-
cedents will open the oratorical flood
gates.
Senator Root of New York and Sen
ator Owen of Oklahoma-a strange
combination-will work together for
cloture. In speech which he made
in the senate recently on the subject.
Senator Owen called unlimited de-
bate "the power of the individual SEN
ator to blackmail the senate" and
undoubtedly it has been used often
by a senator to force through meas
ure to which the honest judgment of
the senate was opposed. Senator
Root has introduced a cloture amend.
ment to which he gave the title "a
resolution to secure more effective
control of the senate over it's pro-
cedue."
viii Not BE a Party Fight
The senate will not divide along
party lines. for even the power Of
the President. great as 1t is, will not
be sufficient to hold some of the dem
ocratic senators to the new plan Of
cutting of debate.
The champions of the movement
will point out that the United States
senate is the only law-making body
in the world that sill clings to the
old fetch Of unlimited debate. They
will declare that all Of the state leg.