Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-04-22
Points to Evil of Unlimited De-
bate in Characteristic Ad-
dress at Luncheon of Ass0.
ciated Press In New York
Says Senate Will Hearken to
Public Sentiment

New York. April 21.-Nice Presi-
dent Charles G. Dawes. addressing
the 10Th annual luncheon of The
Associated Press in the Waldorf
Astoria, today, continued his cam
paign for cloture in the United
States senate and called upon the
people, countless numbers of whom
heard him by radio, to impress upon
their individual senators the need
of this reform.
Introduced by Frank E. Noyes,
president Of The Associated Press as
a radiant personality" and d public
official who has ''cut out for himself
man. sized job, Mr.. Dawes drove
home his arguments with character
istic energy, shaking his fist vigor-
ously as he talked of the effects of
unlimited senatorial debate.
The audience of LOO persons,
publishers and their guests. applaud
ed enthusiastically when he assured
them that he had been elected by
the people, mot by the senate" and
that he believed it his duty to fur
Their the non-partisan, non-sectional
and patriotic movement for reform
in senate procedure.
The United States senate is re-
sponsive to public sentiment and not
to me-" said the vice president, but
ii l can be conduit in the trans
mission of public sentiment upon
those senators in their individual
constituencies l will be satisfied to
quit office"
Then, turning to Senator Arthur
Capper of Kansas, a publisher, who
was in the audience, MIR. Dawes as
serted: Let me tell you another
thing, Senator, you look out for a
man that has not got office on his
mind, cipher to keep in Office or to
get another one. Look out for him
when he comes to the matter of
bringing public sentiment to bear
on senators and their individual con-
stitutencies.
What the people want is SINGER
ity There is no greater calamity to
any man when he is ambitious than
to have the right of unlimited de-
bate. Why? Because through the
years as he speaks on every subject
at great length-wonderfu speeches,
sometimeS-the American people
are interpreting his character and
motives and they come to know
whether he is out for the accom-
plishment of public good, irrespec-
tive of it's personal effect upon him,
or whether he is first for keeping in
office or getting into another"
AS Vice President, elected, not by
the Senate, or by State, but by the
people of the United States to pre-
side over the Senate, l conceive my
self charged with the duty of calling
attention to methods of Senate
parliamentary procedure in their re-
lation to the national interest. The
fact that of practically all deliber-
alive and legislative assemblies of
the world, the United States Senate,
almost alone, chooses to conduct it's
business under rules which do not
provide properly effective cloture,
emphasizes this duty on my part.
The issue presented in the move
ment for reform in the present rules
of the Senate of the United States
is non partisan, non-sectional and
patriotic. An improvement in these
rules to expedite the conduct of
business is as impersonal and nom
partisan a question as was that OF
the adoption of the budget system
improving the conduct OF routine
governmental business.
AS emphasizing this non PARTISAN
ship. on the day after l had called
the attention of the Senate to the
need for change in the rules Gas a
Vice-President who happened to be
a republican,, that able and dis
tinguished Democrat, Senator Tn
crwood of Alabama, long an earnest
advocate of reform in the business
methods of the Senate, re- introduced
q resolution in the Senate providing
for better cloture.
The absence of cloture has been
denounced on the floor of the Senate
by Senator Kellogg, now Secretary
OF State under a Republican ad-
ministration. In the platforms of
the Democratic party, adopted in
1916 and 1920 was plank which
reads:
I'VE favor such alteration of the
rules of procedure of the Senate Of
the United States as will permit
the prompt transaction of the ma
tons legislative business"
1t is evident from all this that the
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