Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-05-09

no economize on their own time.
and SO get greater efficiency
: in considering legislation.
leaders in the House are now
considering the desira bility Of chang
| ing the rule with respect to a
| quorum. The proposal has received
general approval on both sides of
| the House that instead of having
! 100 constitute quorum in the COM
| mittee of the whole House. the num-
Der should be cut to fifty.
| Attention is very often called to
the fact. and complaint made with
| of Representatives. that so much
time is taken up in ascertaining the
/ presence of quorum when the point
| is raised that quorum is not pres
ent.
This question has to he looked at
in double aspect-that Is to say,
with reference to the procedure in
the House itself and in the commit
! tee of the whole. which. is. of course,
not the House itself. but a commit
| tee agency Of the House. In the
, House itself there is no escape from
| the requirement of the Constitution
that "a majority shall constitute a
! quorum to do business" but in the
! committee Of the whole the determi-
| nation as to what the quorum shall
consist Of is within the discretion of
| the House, and has always been fixed
! by rule.
1t Is perhaps due to this fact that
such a very large part Of the busi-
ness is transacted In the committee
! OF the whole, where the quorum at
the present time consists Of 100 MEM
bers out of the total membership of
F.! ABS. The House quorum. on the other
| hand. is majority Of the 1875.
Economy Has Been Watchword.
Economy" has been the watch
word and slogan Of the present re-
publican House majority. Leaders
now urge that great saving in time
and expense can be achieved by
avoiding many roll calls. which con-
sumo much Of the time. and often
when important legislation affecting
the whole country is under consid-
Grafton.
The serious menace to efficient leg
islation through the power of any
member to force frequent roll calls
by raising the point Of no quorum was
recently emphasized by Representa-
tive 8. D. Fees of Ohio. chairman OF
the republican congressional cam
paign committee, who submitted fig
lures showing that one member had
caused hundreds of roll calls. forcing
| the House to lose in the aggregate
several weeks of legislative time at
cost of many thousand dollars. With
the prospect that the House MEM
bership will be increased to 504 men,
bers, thus automatically increasing
the size of the quorum. the leaders see
special need for early discussion OF
this proposed reform.
J The common sense view shared by
members on both sides OF the House
is that owing to the way the con-
/ eressional work has multiplied every
method possible Of saving time ought
Tn he considered, and this sentiment
has been expressed by several mem
hers of the rules committee. which
must pass upon any change In the
size of the quorum.
The point Of mo quorum" is some
times made because an important
niece of legislation is under consid-
Grafton which members believe should
have the fullest possible attention OF
the House. More often it Is made
so as to get an audience for some set
speech, generally Of political ma
Iture. But by far the most Of the
roll calls are caused for the purpose
of killing time, and as q retaliatory