Evening star., 1924-01-02

Seventeen proposals for changing
the rules of the House, primarily de-
signed to save time and then to bet
ter work and meet the convenience OF
every one concerned. have been laid
before the rules committee by Rep
resentative Robert Luce of Massa-
chusetts, who expects to be heard in
argument for these changes immedi-
ately after Congress reassembles.
e Representative Luce is one of the
best authorities in Congress and In
the United States on parliame ntary
procedure and the rules that govern
Legislative bodies. He was MEM
ber of the general court of Massa-
chusetts for nine years; of the gov
ernors council as lieutenant COVER
nor: of a constitutional convention,
and now is chairman of the commit
tee on the library He is the author
of a series of authoritative volumes
on Legislative procedur
Proposals for Changing Rules.
His proposals for changing the rules
of the House are divided by Repre-
sentative Luce into two groups. The
first, which he thinks the more i'm
that look to lessening the waste of
TIME for which the House is famous.
Ancient processes, long outgrown,
discarded by most of the other i'm
portant legislative bodies of the
world. doing nobody any good what
ever, protecting no rights that need
protection, conducting in no whit to
the betterment Of legislation. persist
In the House because inertia has pre-
vented getting rid of them
Taken altogether, he says, they use
lessly prolong the sessions of each
term of Congress by three or four.
might have been accomplished in
that time, Supposing that no more
work were to be done. their abandon
ment would take away all need for
staying i'll Washington into or
through the hot months, when life
here is almost unbearable; would let
members by that much escape the eX-
>cessively high cost of living here.
would give them that much time to
pass either among their constituents
or in getting elsewhere that rest and
recreation they. now must so con-
siderably forego, the lack of which
may fairly be held responsible for the
increase in the death rate among
members and the impairment of the
working powers of those who survive.
Sees No Argument Needed.
Some of these changes would seem
TO need no argument whatever. For
instance, the first one merely provides
that the daily reading of the journal
shall be dispensed with unless asked
for by some member. This is occa-
sionally done now by the Speaker,
who announces that the reading will
be dispensed with. without objec-
tion. and nobody ever objects. which
proves that there is no occasion for
the reading. But ordinarily the clerk
rattles off through three or four min
utes, words to which nobody listens.
A little thing, and yet three minutes
n day for the 400 days on which the
House may be expected {" I IN the
course of two years. means LOO min
utes, or nearly four working days.
More important is the oral reading
of bills. This was the practice in
olden times because so many members
of the house of commons, then were
illiterate and could not read bills. In
the parliament, where it began, it was
long ago discarded, and IN the best
of our state legislatures nobody now
thinks of anything but reliance on the
printed copy What continuance OF
the outgrown procedure means In the
House may be gathered from the
fact that the enactments OF the iast
Congress comprised about l.loo'nog
words, every one OF Whlch was Tedu
orally by one of the House reaaiis
clerks.
Twenty Working Days Consumed.
At the usual rate of speed this
took something more than a hundred
hours or about twenty working
days and if. YOU add on the reading
Of the bills that failed of enactment
and the double reading of others. 1T
is safe to say that this practice alone
needlessly prolonged the sittings of
that. Congress by a month. So Mr.
Luce proposes that bills be read by
the numbers of sections or para
graphs, unless the House should in
any particular case vote otherwise
This would rarely happen, for nobody
profits by this oral reading in fun.
Almost never can any member be OBJ
served as listening to the reading
Printed copies are at hand and any
body who is interested prefers to fol-
low the matter by the use of eyes
rather than ears.
More controversial is the next pro-
posal, for 1t attacks the hour-rule.
This rule was once a famous bone of
contention. Senator Benton of Mis-
souri, bitterly assailed it when adopted
by the House eighty years or more ago.
Benton was himself a tireless speaker
and thought limitation of speeches to
an hour meant the downfall of the
republic Vet we survived. Since
then the House has in actual practice
gone much further, even to the point
that Mr.. Luce wants established by
change in the rule, for nowadays al
most nobody in the course of actual
debate holds the floor for himself more
than the thirty minutes with which