Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-22
ENDING OF FLAME DUCK"
SESSION STRONGLY URGED
Will Make Congress More Responsive to
People, Says Senator Barkley in
Radio Address.

but the trainers intended that the new
Congress should assemble reasonably
soon after their election.
AS the Constitution fixed a two-year
term for Representatives. four years for
the President and six years for Sena-
tors, and the 4th Of March was fixed
as the beginning of their terms, which
was later ratified by law, and as the
first Monday in December is the con-
stitutional date for the assembling of
Congress, and as no mere statutory en-
actment of Congress can cure the defects
to which this system has given rise,
only an amendment to the Constitu-
ton can bring this system into harmony
with the manifest intention of the con-
stitutional fathers and with the mani
fest needs of q modern parliamentary
government.
Hopes 1t Is Adopted.
The Senate has Overwhelmingly voted
on several occasions in recent years to
submit such an amendment to the
States, and the proposal is to be voted
on in the House of Representatives be-
fore the adjournment of the present
Congress. I sincerely hope that it may
be adopted there and sent on to the
States for their ratification.
There are so many reasons why this
change should be made that it would
be impossible to give them all in detail
in the time at my disposal. I have fla
vored this amendment ever since l
have been a member of Congress, and
even before that. When I came to the
House of Representatives, in 1918, one
of the first measures introduced there
was a resolution submitting such an
amendment as that now under discus
sion. But no such amendment proposed
by either the Senate or any member of
the House could ever secure the priv
ilege of being voted on in the House
until in the last Congress the House
voted on a similar Senate resolution,
although it should be said in justice
that the Judiciary Committee of the
House in previous years had reported
such a resolution with favorable rec
ommendation.
One of the chief reasons for the
change which am suggesting is that a
newly elected Congress does not assem-
BILE to bring into effect the mandate of
the people until IS months after it is
elected. 1t is uncomfortable that the
trainers of the Constitution were moved
by any such absurd notion when they
set in motion the machinery of the new
Government. While 1t is true that they
withheld from the people the right to
the direct election of United States
Senators, in order, no doubt, that the
Senate might be somewhat removed
from direct contact with or RESPONSE
bility to the people, they provided not
only that members of the House should
be chosen directly by them, but that
they should be chosen often, in order
that they might be held to account fire.
quently for their stewardship to the
people. To ascribe to them the inten-
ton of Withholding from these Repre-
sentatiyes the opportunity to enter upon
the discharge of their duties for Is
months after they are chosen is to
dim the luster and dull the wisdom
which crowned their efforts in forming
the most wonderful Constitution ever
framed by the brain of men.
Finds System UnrespOnsive.
Such a system makes ours the most
Immediately unresponsive legislative
body in any civilized nation in the
world. 1t makes it necessary for men,
bers of Congress to become candidates
for reelection before they have taken
their seats or begun their duties or made
any kind of legislative record as re-
suit of their previous election. No such
condition exists in any other parliament
tary government
In Great Britain If Mr.. Ramsay Mac
morrow, and the King should be unable
to designate prime minister who could
organize a government from the opposi-
ton an election would be held for men,
bers of the House of Comomns. and the
newly elected members would assemble
within a few weeks as the direct rep
resentatives Of the people who had
chosen them and carrying a mandate to
enact their will into law.
During the past Summer I was In
Germany, and 1 happened to be there
| Just two weeks before the German cleo
| ton following the dissolution of the
| Reichstag by President Won linden
| burg On September IS more than
! $4,000 900 German citizens voted for
! members of the Reichstag, ard they
were required to assemble in Berlin In
! November following their election In
September as members Of the German
/ Parliament. Only about six weeks
elapsed between their election and the
assumption of their duties.
Procedure in France.
In France members of the Senate are
elected for nine years, and members OF
the Chamber of Deputies for four years
and both bodies must remain in session
not less than five months in each year
II is their custom to meet the first Wed
nesday in January of each year. Under
this system both chambers are called
into session Immediately after their
election, and even when they are in
vacation one-half of the members OF
both houses may demand Of the gov
RESORTS.