Evening star., 1923-02-18
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

~ ONGRESS in endeavoring to
clean up its legislative slate
~ before packing 1t away for
approximately nine months
is considerably concerned over the
| important legislation that must be
left over until the new Congress
| and about contemplated legislation
which must be considered by the in
| coming Congress. Much of this
| vexation of spirit Is because 1t ts
well understood that the republican
control Of the House in the coming
Congress is by a very narrow mar
gin, which can easily be switched.
In the present Congress the re-
publican majority In the House Is
! 160, but It has been beaten time and
again by the democrats. supported by
some dissatisfied group. In the next
Congress the nominal republican ma
| jority Is seventeen. which on a divi-
sion can be overcome by a switch Of
eight or nine votes.
The block system, and especially
! the boastfully forecast purpose Of
| the radicals under Wisconsin leader
| ship to make trouble. Is a constant
| thorn In the side Of the republican
majority.
| Conflict Of interests between the
| republicans from eastern states and
| those from western states Is d grow
| ing menace.
Then, too, the majority, the party
| in power and held responsible. is
| extremely nervous with q presi
Dental campaign coming on-un-
| usually nervous.
| But what probably will be the
| strongest factor at work to break
republican strength in the new Con-
gress and to impede, If not thwart
the plans Of the republican leaders is
| the fact that while the democratic
! minority has a wealth Of seasoned
parliamentarians, the, republican ma
| jority will have not one really strong
J parliamentarian.
Value OF Parliamentary knowledge.
knowledge of the rules is of great
benefit to a member of Congress In
| rules are extremely complicated. and
| few members Of the House know any
| thing about their intricacies To
| give an example, there Is man
| now in the House, who had been floor
leader In his state senate before he
ran for Congress. He was elected
| in 1915, when for the first time in
ten years there had been a long
hiatus between sessions of Congress.
ing in plugging up on the rules of
the House. with a view to becoming
a worthwhile member and gain some
recognition. He had a fairly good
groundwork of parliamentary prac-
tice from his service in the state
| legislature. He hadn't been in Con-
| gress one month when he said: 'I
studying the rules of the House for
nine months 1 should have studied
the exceptions to the rules"
No matter how able member of
1.-THE House may be. or how adroit a
debater he may be. IL he is perform
ing and does not know the rules he
can be tripped up by members who
do know them, held out of order and
lose the floor before he realizes where
he is.
Right there Is where the republican
majority will miss Representative
James r. Mann, who was an out
standing parliamentarian for many
years. In fact, Mann was so good a
parliamentarian, So predominatingly
good, that the other republicans who
might have made good parliamenta-
rians left the leadership in partisan
debate to him. and had scant chance
to get the experience so essential to
success along that line. In fact
Mann was one of the best parliament
tarians that Congress has ever seen.
He had a marvellous mind for detail
and never forgot anything. He knew
the rules, and, even more important,
he knew the reason for the rules. II
any question came up for which there
was no precedent, he was grounded
80 thoroughly in parliamentary law
and knew what the rules ought to be