Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-25
PRESENT HOUSE RULES HIT
BY REPRESENTATIVE CRISP
Georgian Tells of Amendments Planned
i'm Address i'm National
Radio Forum.

such settlement would be distributed to
every crosS-road hamlet in the United
States. It would not be a gratuity, but
an equitable settlement by the Govern
ment of its own obligations before ma
turity, and, with the low rate of in
terest now prevailing. the Government
would save three or four hundred mil
lions of dollars by the transaction and
at the same time relieve the financial
distress of millions of our pecple-not
only the eX-service men. but the I'M
happy unemployed and their hungry
| families, the merchants, the banks, the
lawyers, the laboring people, for every
class of citizen would be indirectly
benefited by the release into the chan
nels of trade of this amount of money.
The Ways and Means Committee,
through the autocratic power of its
chairman, is not permitted even to
have a hearing on these bills. At last
Tuesdays session of the committee the
minority leader, Mr.. Garner, endeav-
ored to make a motion that the COM
mittee have hearings on these bills,
and the chairman, Mr.. HaWley, re-
! fused to entertain the motion, saying
4 the committee was not called for that
/ purpose. On the same day Mr.. Hawley
! stated on the floor of the House that
/ the committees could meet only on
4 llitAA ANSo 49, AtiGNllA2o way VI bPOii bAiN
/ call Of the chairman. Only IL of the
ID standing committees have regular
meeting Gays. Under the present rules
! Of the House, if nine-tenthS of the
members of SO of our A committees
desire a meeting to consider a bill
! pending before them, unless the chair
man agrees to call the committee to-
gether, the meeting cannot be held.
| This is 'bOSSiSm" run mad and exceeds
| 60 1pnnicF1N ~ chon q rI11n
that would correct this destruction of
representative government and place it
within the power of a majority OF any
| committee of the House to meet when
| ever they desired and as often as they
desired to consider any bill pending
before the committee. The rule will
| provide that when a recalcitrant chair
man will not call his committee to-
other at the request of three of its
members then a majority of the COM
mittee can file with the clerk of the
committee a written request for a
meeting at a specified day and hour
and the committee is thereby automat-
| ically called to meet ct that time. thus
| insuring the right of the committee to
| assemble whenever a majority desires
| to do so.
Dry Record Vote.
It is my conception of democracy
| that a majority of the duly elected Rep
resentatives should have the right to
vote on any public legislation penang
| before the BODY Whether they favor
or oppose the legislation. they should
be willing to express their views on It,.
The United States Constitution says
| that one-fifth of the congressman
present in the House can demand a
! yea and nay or record vote on any bill
acted upon. This is intended to let
! the voters know the views of the legts-
| lators Today the most discussed, the
most controversial question before the
/ American people is prohibition. 1 am
| constrained to think that the electorate
| is entitled to know the position of Con-
greSsmen on this vital issue. A record
| vote would settle all controversy as to
| how the House stands. / believe the
| knowledge would be helpful to the Ma
| ton. The amendment I shall offer
would permit a hundred members to
force a record vote in the House on
this question.
Most Important Part.
Under our present code of rules, any
public bill in which the people are
vitality interested can be smothered IN
| a committee and thus killed, and 1t Is
most frequently done: and by the same
! means the membership of the House
/ may be prevented from going on record
as to how they stand on the measure.
This system of gag rule plays directly
into the hands of the special interests
| and is a favorite method used in pre-
venting legislation opposed by them. ]
| believe that a man or woman elected
to the high Office of Congressman
should have the courage to vote on any
public legislation pending in Congress
and to let his constituents, who have a
voice on the legislation only through
their Representative, know how he
stands upon it. Under the present gag
system, this is circumvented. If a
member refuses to commit himself to
his constituents and writes non-com-
initial letters, under the present Sys-
TEN, his actual position remains I'M
known. One of my amendments to the
possible for the House to place on
record how each of its members stands
on pending legislation. The rule that
would accomplish this is, in my ludg-
ment, by far the most important
amendment TO the rules that I shall
propose. 1t will be known as a dis
charge rule. To those unfamiliar with
: legislative procedure may I say that
when a bill is presented to the House
for action, the House refers it to one
Of the committees for consideration
contemplating that the committee will
promptly consider it and report it back
: to the House with such recommended
tons as the committee deems proper
TOURS.
TRTnNn Clark's North Care