Show THE SPEAKERS RULE Legislation any question should jro quire the ass6nt of a majority of tie members 1 mem-bers of the legislative body If a majority I is not in favor of a proposed measure it I should not become a law The necessity for the Jaw must be established to the satisfaction satisfac-tion of a majority and those who introduce bills should not be permitted to avoid the responsibility showing the necessity for 4 the desired legislation A majority may pot know whether the proposed law is a good I measure or a bad one and may be unwilling to vote upon it cither way Yet bytue spcaTc i t sruo of counting every memberwho is r 1 I v present as votin itmight happen that a few moro voted forth bill than against it and the bill would pass by the action perhaps per-haps of a veryfew members General HAWLEYnow Senator from Connecticut Con-necticut in a speech 1 in theHouse ten years ago Said Wo of the Tninorityclaim a right by sitting silent to prevent leas than a majority of the members elected from passings bill The worst that canbd done by a factious minority if that be the term applied to it is tb tight until the actual majority of the members elected shall pass the MIL When they are present that friendly majority constitute a quorum of themselves them-selves they do hot equiro assistance of the minority they run the House themselves and pass their bills In case of what you call factious resistance wcdrivo them onlyto that We are causing no hardship whatever in taking the ground we do against this new rule and I think we do no serious wrong to the country at anytime any-time when we sit in our scats and decline toot to-ot If the majority desires to have a bill passed in opposition to our wishes then let the majority come acre and pass it over our heads At any rate I decline to be answerable to anybody any-body but my constituents if I bit in my scat and decline to vote I hold myself to them and to the constitution alone This is precisely thepresent situation except ex-cept that the speaker now has got the new rule against which Senator HAWLEY rightly protested and the minority can only protect its right absenting itself |