THE RULES OF THE HOUSE
We meet in this Chamber to-day a condition that challenges the consideration of every patriotic man, and that is, the set of rules under which this body operates, or perhaps it would be more nearly correct to say, under which this body is operated. [Laughter.]
Mr. Chairman, I deem it my duty, knowing as I do that this measure could not have been brought here in the shape in which it now is, save and excepting for the remarkable conditions created in this House by these rules—I say, sir, I deem it to be my duty to pause for a moment or two on the threshold of this debate and place a few cold facts about these rules into this Record and before the 70,000,000 of people to whom we are responsible.
I approach this subject with a decided degree of deference. In the three years which I have been a member of this body I have endeavored to conduct myself with a modesty that I conceive to be becoming alike to the new member and to his constituency. I represent a Congressional district comprising the entire State of Washington, a Congressional district with half a million people in it, and with vast and varied interests demanding legislation for their benefit and protection in many of the channels of trade and branches of industry.
It is with humiliation unspeakable that I rise in my place on this floor and admit to my constituents at home that in this House I am utterly powerless to bring any bill or measure, no matter how worthy or meritorious it may be, to a vote unless I can first make terms with the Speaker.
It may be a matter of news to some of the good people within the confines of the American Republic to know that there is no way of getting an ordinary unprivileged measure considered and voted upon in this House unless it suits the Speaker. I am aware that there are several theoretical ways of getting a measure up; but they have no actual reality—no fruitage in fact. I make the statement on this floor now, that no member of this body who introduces a bill—not a private bill, but a public bill—can get it considered or brought forward for final determination unless it suits the Speaker. And if any one wants to deny that statement I am in a personal position and in a peculiarly happy frame of mind right now to give a little valuable testimony on that point! [Applause and laughter.]
Imagine, if you please, a measure—not a private measure, but a public measure—which has been considered at length by a great committee of this House and favorably reported with the recommendation that it do pass. That bill is then placed on the “Calendar.” The Calendar! That is a misnomer. It ought to be called a cemetery [laughter], for therein lie the whitening bones of legislative hopes. [Laughter.] When the bill is reported and placed on the Calendar, what does the member who introduced it and who is charged by his constituency to secure its passage do?
Does he consult himself about his desire to call it up? No. Does he consult the committee who considered the bill and recommended it for passage? No. Does he consult the will of the majority of this House? No. What does he do? I will tell you what he does. He either consents that that bill may die upon the Calendar, or he puts his manhood and his individuality in his pocket and goes trotting down that little pathway of personal humiliation that leads—where? To the Speaker’s room. Ay, the Speaker’s room. All the glories that clustered around the holy of holies in King Solomon’s temple looked like 30 cents [prolonged laughter and applause]—yes, looked like 29 cents—compared with that jobbing department of this government! [Applause and laughter.]
Then you are in the presence of real greatness. What then? Why, the Speaker looks over your bill, and then he tells you whether he thinks it ought to come up or not!
There is a condition which I commend to the patriotic consideration of the American people. Contemplate that for a method of procedure in the legislative body of a great and free republic.