Detroit evening times., 1944-12-11

POLITICAL
BY George
RothweIl Brown
special {. THE DETROIT TINES

rpettet - I'VE uEthohI- AlALn
WASHINGTON. Dec. 9-A
w great deal will be heard in
the new Congress about the ''re-
forms" that should be instituted
in that branch of the govern
ment.
Some Of the suggestions will
be excellent, and no doubt they
will be adopted, with a view to
restoring the independence Of
the legislative, now so badly en-
croached upon by the executive.
But the real reform" which
Congress stands in need of so
acutely must originate in the
grass roots.
There are few weaknesses in
the congressional system that
could not be remedied by the
election of a better type of law
maker.
Among the weaknesses that
could be remedied by affirma-
tive congressional action may be
listed the following:
The House of Representatives,
with ABS members, is too large
for effective lawmaking. The in
dividual member should be re-
leased from all services to his
constituents not actually con-
nected with the business
of legislation, and the total
membership should be reduced
to 300.
TRUE debate should be re-
l. stored to the House, from
which it has long been absent.
The practice of having men,
bers leave their seats, take a
place in front of the rostrum.
and address the House in a set
speech of 5 or 10 minutes, is a
destructive innovation.
The practice of the one-min-
ute speech should be abandoned.
How many people realize that
much of what they read in the
Congressional Record gets there
under this system?
The member speaks hurriedly
for minute, races through, and
then the bulk of the speech,
which is never heard on the
floor, goes into the Congress
Sional Record under leave to
"revise and extend. This is a
serious abuse, which has had
devastating effect on Congress
Sional argument and discussion.
The powers Of the speaker of
the House should be restored.
He should have the appoint.
ment of at least committee
chairu1en, If not of all the COM
mitteeS, and particularly he
should be given a place himself
at the head of the rules COM
mittee, which speakers once
possessed.
WHEN speakers had these
w powers in the House they
were able to tell presidents
what the House would do in
certain cases.
Without these powers the
speaker has become a mere
messenger boy, taking orders at
the White House, and infom-
ing the House of what the presi-
dent demanded. The inevitable
result was the rubber stamp"
Congress.
There will be hue and cry at
the Senate next winter for the
abolition of cloture. This right
Of unlimited debate in the Sem
ate is what has preserved that
institution as the only open
forum left on this earth.
Cloture in the Senate should
be retained. 1t is one of the
last remaining safeguards OF
minority rights in the United
States.
THERE is nothing fundamen-
Il tally the matter with Con.
greSS tn a ( could not be
corrected tomorrow morning If
every senator and every repre-
sentative should go TO the Capt.
tol saying in his heart:
This day I will be a REAL
SENATOR and a REAL REP
RESENTATIVE."
How to get men of that stall
wart type? That is up to the
American people back in the
grass roots" II is their Con-
gress. Why permit the un-
representative bureaucrats, who
couldn't be elected dog-catcher
in their own home towns, to run
it through weakened States
mem"
Some so new members will
take their seats in the new
House. We shall soon see what
they are like. Some probably
will be pretty queer fish. One
Democrat elected to the 18th