Semi-weekly herald., 1915-11-25
TRYING TO "SHACKLE" THE
SENATE.

this is meant that u number OF peo-
pie are anxious to have a rule adopt
ed in the senate by which debate can
be stopped. AT the present time, and
from the beginning of the govern
ment, there has been no way to stop
man from debating in the senate
unless he shall be struck with club
or Drained with an ak,
1t is suggested that the president
is annoyed because his bill for the
purchase of ships was talked to death
during the last session of the senate.
1t is intimated that the president is
going to teach the senate" lesson
He is going to tell the senate that it
is not the whole thing.
Other presidents have had the same
proposition upon their minds, but
nothing ever resulted.
When President Wilson gets
through with the senate he will know
more than he does at the present
time.
The senate is jealous of its perog-
atives, and does not propose to have
anybody interfering.
The senate operates under brief
rules, and can do business rapidly
when the occasion requires, but the
idea of the president of the senate
having the power to tell a senator to
sit down-the suggestion is ridicu-
lous. No vice president or presiding
officer has ever had such power, and
he is not going to get it.
1t is part of the history of the sem
ate that many new members enter
with the determination to push the
adoption of "rule," limiting debate.
1t is also part of the history of the
senate that no senator, after q ser
vice of two years, has ever insisted
upon the enactment of such rule.
After a service of two years sena-
tor becomes part of the senate. To
the member the senate means an
identity, thing apart from all other
things. During the past forty years
the senate has many times been a
radical body. There have been many
greenbackers, populists and men of
supposedly advanced opinion, but
there have been no changes in the
senate rules.
Not many years ago the senate was
controlled by more radical element
than has ever controlled the house,
but on the proposition to limit de-
bate there never was anything do
ing.
1t is-one of the boasts of the senate
that debate cannot be limited, and that
senator from a sovereign state can
not be handicapped by the rules.
Readers may recall the lists of
radicals who have been in the senate
during the last thirty years. Take the
Tillmans, Peffers and the men from
Arkansas and all other states. They
have come and gone and the senate
rules remain undisturbed.
1t is also said to be the ambition
of the president to have the senate
stop and start on the first Monday in
December after the fashion of the
house. The senate now boasts that
it is the only continuing department
of the government. Presidents and
houses of representatives may come
and go, but the senate goes on for
ever. The senate brags about its con
tinuous existence ,outranking the su-
preme court, which was created by
the consent of the senate.
Democrats as well as Republicans
and Progressives are welded to the
of the senate. All such
men as Bacon of Georgia, and the sem
ltors from Virginia, are filled with
pride when they contemplate the his
'ory and traditions of the senate.
The senate refuses to take orders
rom anybody; it elects its own Off
,ers; it calls for the amount of money
'equired and gets it. No investigating
committee could look over the books
# the senate without experiencing al
ubmarine attack without warning.
The house Of representatives re-
poets the senate, and nearly all the
Members of the house are ambitious
o be in the senate.
The SONATA ic n ctronu resnousihIe |
apartment of the republic, and al
nough not always filled with the big
est men,, has in all the years had
few big ones.-Des Moines Sap
al. '