Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-02-21

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own again. 1t is returnin:
To those good old days U
4 Tom Reed and Uncle Jo
Cannon. when he was at hi
best. when 1t put the brakes on tn,
Senate and said: Thus far and NJ
farther -
The House is rapidly regaining tn
confidence of the people. while tn,
Senate is just as rapidly losing the
confidence of the people.
The House. kept close to the PEG
pie by reelection every two years. is
nor only responsible to the voters
hut responsive To the voters. anC
passing well considered and matured
legislation. while the Senate is le@iS
latinc for the most part under a
system pretty close To unanimous
consent. out Of senatorial courtesy
to any one memh.r.
The House. intruSted 10y the Con.
stitutiun itself with authority to in.
iriate taxation lawS-the greatest
grant of power in the Gift of a self
governing people. since the power
to tax is the power to destroy''-is
conscientiously safeguarding the in
terestS of the people
The House is going further-it is
protecting the people from burden.
some taxation by assuming greater
responsibility for appropria tons, pre-
venting waste and extravaganza in
expenditures by careful scrutiny.
Leadership Is Developed.
The House is being strengthened
by the policy and practice of the
House leadership in building up the
individual responsibility of commit
tee chairnlen and giving them prac-
teal training in handling measures
on the floor. The individual men,
hers OF the House are approaching
their work with greater sense Of
responsibility as they realize that
the people have an increasing conf
GenCe in them.
The House has never. it is safe TO
say, functioned as thoroughly or with
as great precision and regularity and
IS Systematically as it is doing at
the present session of Congress. This
is confirmed by William Tyler Page.
clerk of the House. speaking from a
years of personal experience in the
Capitol as a close student of legisla-
ton and research into the history
of the American Congress.
The record of the House in the
present Congress is Unprecedented
and record after record has been
broken for rapidly. thoroughnesS and
Importance of action.
Without a minutes delay the House
took up for consideration on the very
first day of the session the taX-re-
duction bill. This is usually bitter
partisan measure fought over tooth
and nail for party advantage. But
this year the House ways and means
committee presented its report on the
opening day on a bipartisan or non
partisan measure, with the conSOli-
dated support of both the Republican
Majority and the Democratic minority.
This represented four months of the
most careful committee consideration.
The House proceeded at once to dis
cuss it thoroughly, consider it for
amendments. and passed ii within
two weekS-hcfove the Christmas holt
days.
No Calls for Quorum.
During that period of consideration
the attendance of House members on
the floor was extraordinarily large
and there was not one call for d
uuorum-which was unprecedented.
Never before in the history of the
Congress did the House on the first
day it met, after completing its or
canization. settle right down to legiS-
lative business.
AGAIN. the Mouse promptly duppteu
rules governing its procedure with
out the usual partisan strife. the
most important change being the sub
Stitution of a rule To instruct com
mitteeS instead of the rule in the
SiXtv-eighth Congress for the dis
charge of committees, which had been
PASSED by a coalition of Democrats
and insurgents.
Then. promptly following the pas
SAGE of the tax-reduction bill by the
Unprecedented vote of 800 to % on a
tax measure, the House took up the
inst of the great Government APP
preparation bills. that for the Treas
lIru and Post Office Departments,
carrying sS72 100000. This was de-
lated for 10 hours. carefully con-
sidered for amendment and whipped
into final shape for passage before
al iournment for the Christmas hoIi-
DAYS.
That was an unique record. the
liuuSe having been in session from
December I to December -.
Great Speed on Bills.
Vpon reassembling the House start
ed in again and achieved another
record that is likely To stand for MANY
Years Two years ago the last of
The appropriation bills was passed in
The House on May %. This year
congress is going to adjourn some
time between May 10 and June 5.
The House has now passed out of
il big appropriation bills. while two
years ago 1t had passed only up
10 this date interior on January 81
and Post Office and Treasury on
February ~. This table shows the
striking progress:
Augmentation
LIZ rhi.