The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1925-05-09
SENATE RULES
AREDEFENDED
BY CHIEFTAIN
Moses Hits Back at Dawes
in Address Delivered
in New York -
ACT AS SAFEGUARDS
Declares Unlimited Debate
Prevents Hasty Legis.
lation by Blocs

SyideuSe, ~. l., NAY S.-OeudCc
rules permitting unlimited debate
are the country's strongest safe
guards against has'y legislation by
coalition of the blocs that have
sprung up in American political life,
Senator Moses, Republican, New
Hampshire, declared here last night
in an address defending those rules
against the assaults Of Vice Presi-
dent Dawes.
Calling attention that the coali-
tions differed from day to day as
new legislation to cure the ills ex-
listing in different sections are ad-
vanced the president pro tempore
of the senate said the majorities thus
momentarily welded together, 4,are
bound to be as reckless as they are
ephemeral."
Senator Moses said it was axioma-
tic that the majority had the right
to rule. but he declared that major-
tiles differed from day to day.
"The majority in the senate he
said, "is no longer partisan or even
political. In point of fact, except
through artificial means, strict par
ty division is rarely to be had now
days at either end of the capitol,
and the engrossing question nowadays
are those of economic import affect
ing the material interests of section
al groups of states"
Detailing his own experiences in
the senate, Senator Moses said he
could not feel that the rules worked
more than a fancied hardship. He
added that he could not believe that
even more seasoned legislators than
himself could freely contemplate, a
movement to change them.
1T is to be Observed he said,
that with few exceptions the de-
mand for q change in the rules of
the senate arises from those whose
contact with the senate is either
brief or non-existent. Many man
has come into the senate with de-
termination to tame it, and almost
without exception these men them
selves have been tanned by the sem
ate and have come to realize the
true value of the senate rules"
Senator Moses declared that limi-
tation Of debate already exists in
the senate through unanimous con-
sent arrangements frequently resort
ed to after full and free discussion,
He also called attention to the rule
which enables sixteen senators to
force a vote without debate on the
question of limiting debate on any
subject to one hour for each senator.
Only a majority vote is necessary to
enforce such limitation, he said.
A remedy for everything complain
ed of in senate rules, Senator Moses
went on, is offered in the Norris con-
atitutional amendment which would
do away with short sessions Of con-
eress and prevent legislation by
"lame ducks" by moving up the
meeting time of newly elected con.
gress from the March after the elec :
ton to January.
81 have not Observed he said,
"that any of those now so busily en-
gagged in defaming the senate have
shown any willingness to endorse
Senator Norris proposal. It may be
that they are as ignorant of it as
they are of the actual effect of the
rules of the senate.
"Yet, in this impatient age it is
surely not too much to ask that there
may still remain in this country
some forum in which freedom of
expression in length, if not in depth.
may still be found. If in the ideas Of
the founding fathers, as president
Harding liked to refer to them, there
still remains merit in their concep-
tion of Republic with representa-
tive institutions, surely it is worth
while to retain one place where that
conception may be sustained.
"But if we have discarded the
principles of that earlier era and are
to live henceforward under hybrid
institutions, resulting from the skill
Of the Luther Burbank of politics in
engrafting scipns of democracy upon
the stem Of the Republic, then we
might as we'll give ear to the clamor
which has recently bn st up"