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Show " JOS. G. CANNON'S POINTER SPEECH r Humorously Typical of The Speakers Character WITTILY TELLS OF RULINCS WELL BALANCED LOGIC FORCEFULLY FORCE-FULLY AND COURTEOUSLY PRESENTED. Mr. Speaker, In my legislative llfo 1 have always tried to bo candid and direct. I believe In a government by the people acting through majorities. That Is tho way wo got hero ns Individual Indi-vidual representatives, and I betiovo that tho majority or tho Houso of Representatives, responsible only to the people of tho United States, could not avoid tho responsibility it they would nnd I dnro say thoy would not If they could nnd must bo tho solo Judge, with plenary power, ns to what rules they will adopt and ns to IT what legislation they will enacL " "And I want to say horo now that substantially tho rules proposed by cn that resolution aro un Indorsement of '"' nearly nil that Is good In tho rulos 'rs that havo ovolutcd slnco tho adoption a ot tho Constitution, and, therefore, I )m am not going to criticise tho rules S- whoro they do or whero they do not ny sin because merely tho majority of no tho House proposes to ndopt them. Ifo Sometimes majorities and minorities ;u- tear passion to tatters and appeal rig and I do not say it offensively ro sometimes from tho standpoint of do-M, do-M, mngoguery and claptrap to peoplo as that would not know n rulo or n codo on of rules If thoy would meet In tho ot middle of a street. n I havo had a good deal to do with in. rules during my legislative life. I ro-Vi ro-Vi ported, as a membor of the Committee ks on Rules In tho Fifty-first Congress, r what was then known by an almost t)l unanimous press and by a violent ml-y ml-y norlty as tho "Infamous Reed rules." jr I examined again this morning to seo ao how that codo was considered. It wns m thrown open to amondmont, with two day's general dobato, nnd, in ndditlon, ono day under tho flvo-mlnuto rule, nnd with tho most porfect freedom ot amendment, nnd tho previous question ordered at 5 o'clock on tho third day S upon tho rulo nnd nil ponding amend-o' amend-o' ments. .Applauso on tho Republican sldo., And at that tlmo tho Republl. ' cans had a majority of 5. You now c8 havo.a majority of 03. 1 submit to you ur that, as you uro now flopping your wings together on that sldo and havo complete harmony and , solidarity, that perchance you might, from tho ' standpoint ot propriety, give tho ml-' ml-' norlty n chnnco to offer amendments to tho rules for consideration. But, after all, you aro tho best Judges. You havo full power. I .say that you aro tho beat Judges, bocauso you aro responsible, an majorities are always responsible, and, therefore, If lu you nro mlstakon In Judgmont, nnd It leads to bad consequences, tho respon-slbillty respon-slbillty will prove uucomfortablo to id yu- ;r. I say again that, substantially, 1 ngroo that this Is a valuable codo of rules as proposed by your resolution. 10 I rocolloct very well that at tho closo b- of tho Flfty-flrst Congress thero was n. no leader upon that sldor thoro wiva in no momber of tho minority, that would it- observe the usual courtesies and pf. ir- for a Tcsolutlon thanking Spoakor rt Contlnuod on Pago S. I0S. C. CANNON'S POINTER SPEECH (Continued from Page 1) Heed for his courtesy and fairness. 1 offered the resolution, and had to "movo tho previous question upon It, and on a roll call, without any exception, excep-tion, every member of tho minority voted "no," It was a great revolution. And yet in tho two Congresses that "were presided over so ably by th5 Into Speaker Crisp, you absolutely took all tho reforms, counting a quorum, quor-um, and othors, and ndoptcd them, and you proposed to do It today. ,Ap-plauso ,Ap-plauso on tho Republican side., Well, for 1G years tho Republican majority fcnvo lived and enacted legislation under un-der theso rules, and In that time f and measure my words proved, by tho legislation that has been written upon up-on tho statute books that It is wiser legislation, better legislation, and moro far-reaching and important legislation leg-islation than una over written upon tho statuto books in all the history of tho American Congress for over 120 years. So much for that. But you say you havo como In and that you aro hero. That Is truo. In my tirao of nearly 40 years of servlco I served in tho minority 14 years. So .you havo come In 7 times boforo coming com-ing In now. I trust that your legislation legisla-tion will bo such and that your legislative legis-lative action will bo such that you may not go out on account of the conditions con-ditions to which tho country will como . under your jurisdiction and action. That remains to be seen. Now, It Is wonderful how, as tho pendulum swings back and forth, men chango in their opinions and in their votos. Tho gentleman from Toxas .Mr. Henry,, In my absenco from tho floor, I having his remarks now bo-'foro bo-'foro mo, refoned evidently to the lato Spcakor of tho House, nnd 1 Just Kot In tlmo to hear tho applause that followed his remarks. Gentlemen, tho lato Speaker of tho House has no apology to offor to tho majority, to tho minority, to tho country for tho manner In which ho administered that groat offlco under tho rulos'of tho ' . Houso for olght years. .Applauso on tho Republican side., Hut tho gentlo man from North Carolina referred to a saying of Speaker Heed that In 15 yenrs no Speaker had boon overruled, and, In his opinion, would not bo. Thoro was further groat applauso. Dut A tho former Speaker of tho Houso in JP tho last Congross, after a two days' contest, was overruled by a majority. Majorities nro all powerful. For tho tlmo being thoy may disregard the fixed law of tho land. For tho tlrao being thoy may run over and split ; upon and tromplo upon tho rules of 4 tho Houso. Thoy havo full and plon- ary power, Including tho power to re-movo re-movo a Speakor. I could rlso lu my ylaoo, Mr. Speaker, now, under the, highest constitutional privilege nand i inovo, sir, to romovo you, and you would becompelled to ontertala tho ft motion, and you would bo removed, provided tho majority said so. .Laughter,, .Laugh-ter,, Dut, in any event, It would forco consideration. Now, one further matter. Ono ear ago and a little over tho gentleman from Nebraska ,Mr. Norrls, aroso In his place, as ho stated, to a constitutionally constitu-tionally privileged question. Ho had to-bo recognized. For what? Ho proposed pro-posed to, change the rules. It wan debated. de-bated. The chair ruled that tho rules could not bo amended in that way and cited all tho precedents that had over been made by speakers of all parties that had preceded htm. Tho gentleman from Nebraska appealed, ap-pealed, and then there was a majority major-ity that overruled tho speaker. Hon'? By a solid Democratic minority, plus enough voting with them on tho He-publican He-publican sldo to constitute a majority; and there was a now majority, and tho Speaker's decision was overruled. At the late session of Congress the gentleman from Illinois .Mr. Fuller, ai-oao to a question of constitutional privilege and' proposed to amend tho rules, offering his resolution. It was dobated. Tho gentleman from Missouri tho present Speaker, and tho gentleman gentle-man from Alabama .Mr Underwood,, and other gentlemen debated " tho point of order, and held Inside of 12 short months that that motion was not In order. And when tho chair sustained sus-tained the point of order, saying that ono decision made by a majority of tho Houso would not in his opinion constitute such a precedent as to ov-crrulo ov-crrulo all former doclslons, an appeal was had, and tho gentleman from from Texas .Mr. Henry,, who arraigned arraign-ed tho ex-speaker today by Inference, nnd the gentleman from Alabama, tho leader of tho majority now, but of tho minority then, and tho gentleman who Is tho present Speaker of the House, fell over themselves to sustain tho chair on precisely the same question that thoy had voted to ovcrrulo the chair upon before .Applauso on tho Republican side., I submit to tho criticizing gentlemen from North Carolina Car-olina no, 1 am told that it was tho gentleman from Texas, and I will apologlzo to North Carolina Soveral Members It was tho gentleman gen-tleman from North Carolina. Mr. Cannon I did not hear him, and I hnvo had to depend on tho notes. I submit to him that tho criticism criti-cism that tho former speaker was overruled ov-erruled Is fully answered by tho statement that ho voted along wltn bis party colleagues to sustain Urn speaker. .Applauso on tho Republican siao., And now It Is said that wo havo a Unanimous Consent Calendar. I am glad that wo have. Along with that Is the saying, In tho language- of the distinguished dis-tinguished gentloman from Kansas .Mr. Murdock, and tho universal representation rep-resentation of tho uplift magazines, that It Is no longor necessary to crawl upon your kneos, hat In hand, to ask the speaker for recognition for unanimous unani-mous consent. No, no. "Tho Speaker Is a member of the House. I om a mombcr of tho Houso, and I nover folt loss like dying dy-ing thai 1 do now. .Laughter and applause., ap-plause., When tho Unanimous Consont Calendar is called, If my judgment prompts rao to object to the consideration consid-eration of a bill, no doubt the man Inhargo of that bill will, figuratively, como on his hands and. knees, with hat In hand, even tho gentleman from Kansas .Mr. Murdock,, trying to convince con-vince his co-member on tho floor that tho consideration of the bill ought not to bo Objected to. 1 said 1 was glad there was n Unanimous Un-animous Consent Calendar. You will not pass so many bills by unanimous consent; but 1 congratulato you, Mr. Speaker, as I- congratulated myself when tho Unanimous Consent Calendar Calen-dar was created, becauso before that tlmo I mado nn nbsoluto rule, ns ono member of tho House, not to submit any bill under a request for unanimous consent that 1 would habo objected to from tho floor; becauso tho Speaker Is a member of tho House, and when ho refuses to submit a matter for unanimous unani-mous consent ho docs not retuso as Speaker, but as a member for tho Speaker always can object as u member. mem-ber. Tho old practice entailed upon tho Speakor the absoluto duty to oxamlno every bill submitted for unanimous consent, nnd ho did not submit n bill unless, in his judgment, it had that merit and that want of Importanco, It you choose .that entitled It to bo considered with safety In tho way In which wo consider unanimous-consent bills. I say you will not pass so many unanimous consent bills ns you did under the old practice, but I shall voto against any amendment, now or In tho future, to dlspenso with that calendar, becauso I know how It relieves re-lieves tho speaker to havo It. Ah, but, Mr. Speaker, you are not a member of the committee- on rules, and that is a great thing that has been established, becauso otherwise you would have been a czar. .Laughter on tho Republican side., Let mo tell you about the rules. Under tho uniform practice, up to tho last session of Congress, Con-gress, tho Speaker was .i member of a committee of five, of which ho wag chairman. Proposed amendments to the rules and proposed special orders were sent to that committee. Let mo toll you something. No repoit was ever made from any committee on rules until there had been a thorough canvass of the majority sldo of the Houso, and it was practically absolutely absolute-ly certain that it was tho will of the majority that ho temporary rulo or special order should bo made, and mado becauso the business could not bo properly dono under tho rules of tho Houso in the presence of 30,000 other bills and that lito proposed special spec-ial order should bo made, and made because tho business could not bo properly done under tho rules of the Houso In tho presence of 30,000 other bills and that tho proposed special order or-der would secure a majority voto. So how tho czar fades out! To the gentleman from Texas .Mr Henry). I have this to say: I am neither a prophet nor tho son of a prophet. Tho gentleman Is chairman of tho committee on rules, or w.. bo chairman of that committee, consist-ng consist-ng of 11 men. I venture tho prophecy hero that no report will como from that committee until a caucus of that sldo of tho oHuso havo Instructed the gentleman to make it, or there has been the equivalent of n caucus by canvosslug his sldo of tho Houso to assure him that ho has a majority. Czar Henry, aro you any more or less a czar than was tho Speaker? Ho has done pietty good work on theso rules with the exception of two things. There Is tho wano of auo amendment and the presence of another an-other that aro subjects of legitimate criticism. If you will read the amendments amend-ments touching tho discharge of committees, com-mittees, you will find that thoro Is no provision that enables tho gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Dorgef) constituting consti-tuting ono party andtho only member of It, or any other gontleman who has porchanco a wlld-oyod or sensible proposition, pro-position, to obtain a discharge of tho committee on rules. Tho 'gentleman drops a resolution Into the box to go to tho committee on rulo providing that thoy shall report a rule for tho consideration of his bill Every other committee In the House may bo discharged, dis-charged, but under this resolution to discharge tho commltteo on rules from consideration of a bill and bring It before tho Houso a motion will not bo In order, and no amendment can bo offered hero to amend this resolution. Why did you do It? My dear friend and colleague, tho honorable gentloman from Texns, why, oh, why did you do It? Was theio any danger of Interfering with your ciar-llko powor It you wero subject to tho samo rule that tho ways and means commltteo nnd tho appropriations appro-priations commltteo and ovcry other commltteo Is subjected? Nay, nny. Now thero Is ono vicious amendment amend-ment to theso proposed rules and that Is known ns tho Holman amendmont. It proposes to mako In order loglslu' Hon uiion an appropriation bill provided pro-vided It decreases tho appropriation by wit; of a salary to officers and various var-ious other provisions. 1 undertake to say as practiced by the Houso heretofore that a man might movo to amend nn nppropiln-tlon nppropiln-tlon for a million of dollars by sulking sulk-ing off ono dollnr-nnd then loading on enough Iniquitous legislation to do dragged through on nn appropriation bill to wreck a party. You tried it, and after jou tried It your, own peoplo amended It, and now you bring it back with a flapping of wings nnd n ci owing, and say that you aro going to woik out great economics. Gentlemen, Gentle-men, I should bo apprehensive of yovr power had I not In my lifetime- In Congress Con-gress and out of Congress heard pco pie thunder In tho Index. Wo will wnlt and see, and If, perchanco you Bhould bo clothed with power again In 11)12 (applauso on tho Democratic side) said "It perchance" (Innghter and ap plause on tho Republican sldo), you will modify or repeal tho provision. Now, 1 think that is about all 1 care to say. I thank you for trespassing trespass-ing or consuming more tlmo than por-haps por-haps I ought to have. 1 yield back to the gentleman from Illinois tho remainder re-mainder of my time. |
