MINORITY RULE MUST GO
Douglas, Senator Paul H.
The United States Senate: Minority Rule Must Co By Senator Paul H. Douglas IN THE FOUR MONTHS that have passed since the new Congress convened, the bright promise seen in the early hours of...
...What we needed in the Senate was .1 rule u| procedure that would enable us lo move forward' in all seasons,^ calm and stormy...
...I WANT TO ADMIT that in the past, a host of forces have often eased the harsh results of minority rule...
...Herein lies our challenge and our opportunity...
...But consider: 33 Senators represent only seventeen states...
...By the Marshall Plan we are building up the economic life of the peoples of Europe and helping to overcome the hunger, poverty and despair in which Communism thrives from within...
...Despite rejoicing in some quarters over the adoption of the Wherry Resolution, there is not a section of the land, South or North, that is not imperiled by it...
...Yet we are not allowed to sit at the table we have provisioned...
...Wherever we are and in whatever station we find ourselves, we must continue to fight for a program that will square with those wants and needs...
...And whether they like it or not, even those men who recently established a dictatorship of eight percent must inevitably bow to the current or be sucked under by it, carrying to doom those who placed their trust in them...
...We foot the bills for the work of government...
...irresistibly, in another...
...And even in these cases, tho Constitution does not require a twothirds vote of all Senators elected— as1 does the Wherry Resolution—it only requires a two-thirds vote of Senators present and voting...
...The United States Senate: Minority Rule Must Co By Senator Paul H. Douglas IN THE FOUR MONTHS that have passed since the new Congress convened, the bright promise seen in the early hours of November 3rd has become clouded...
...Much remains to be done, but the spirit of America is determined...
...I want to ask if our melancholy is warranted, and if it is, what forces stand in the way of our program, and what we can do to meet them, v So far as international affairs are concerned America and world peace are threatened by Communist aggression...
...Everyone who voted on the Wherry amendment knew that he was voting Yes or No on the kind of legislation he would permit the Senate to consider in the future...
...Some of the small states in New England and the Northwest, for instance, have aligned themselves with big industrial states to offset the voting strength, say, of two small southern states...
...Whether they live in the South or North, in the East or West, men still want and need the things they thought they were going to ge't when they cast a liberal vote on November 2nd...
...And so, they drove through the Wherry Resolution to create a condition where now a minority of a minorily rides the Semite...
...0 4 I AM PROUD that the Americans for Democratic Action have from the first seen the danger of the Communist police state and have vigorously opposed it...
...Let us redouble our efforts in this good work...
...n ¦ Paul Douglas has been a Chicago University professor...
...Among the Senators who voted for that reso'lution,- 17 of the states ttjfy represented have 15 percent of the national population, but they cast only 10 percent of the national vote, and pay only 10 percent of the national income tux...
...Its sponsors were Southern Democrats, Midwestern Republicans, and—• what was generally overlooked— Senators from both parties jn the Mountain states...
...By pushing for reforms by democratic methods, we have taken talking points away from the Communists, who masquerade at times in sheep's clothing...
...Or ¦yet again, some of the small states of the Northeast and Northwest, such as Vermont, New Hampshire, Utah and Wyoming, are now represented in the Senate by some men who bear the national interest in mind, and who speak for it as well as they speak for their local interests...
...We needed a rule lo relieve the majority from their eternal beggary, and from humiliating dependence on horse-trading and deal] .ind crippling compromises...
...If Communism were to win in the world, no man's life would be safe...
...To put it bluntly, the Senate operated under a system of government by and with the consent of the minority...
...strike hard at the substantive side of legislation...
...This was the condition before the adoption of the/ Wherry Amendment...
...And in no case is two-third* of the entire membership required...
...We seek peace, but we do not propose to appease aggressors by yielding freedom...
...IF THE ABOVE is a true portrait of where we now find ourselves, if this is a true description of the causes that have clouded the bright promise of November 3rd, what do we do next...
...But the conservatives of both parlies were not satisfied...
...Thus, on the basis of the 1940 census, the 25 smallest states in the land with u total of but 25.2 million people controlled 50 seats in the Senate...
...They wanted to extond the rights and powers of the minority still further—to prevent legislation from even being considered, let alone voted on...
...He displaced Curly Brooks as Illinois' junior senator last fall...
...for the expulsion of a member...
...It is this same alliance of 17 states ',hat is now in a position to rule tho rest of us...
...Nevertheless, the fate of any legislation in the Senate has depended on how Senators representing 19 percent of the people aligned themselves...
...Marine officer, and husband of a Congresswoman...
...THIS THREAT is not just theoretical...
...Less than 19 percontjof our total population already held sway over the remaining 81 percent even in those matters which were decided on by a sjrnple majority of Senators voting...
...4 THE WHERRY RESOLUTION gives to 33 Senators the power to kill off any measure Jong before it is voted on...
...Just as under Roosevelt's leadership the United States beat back the police state of Fascism, so America today under Harry Truman is acting energetically to chock Communist aggression...
...When you reach this point in our arithmetic, you slap your head, as I did, to clear your eyes...
...But no matter how many times you do so, the fact remains as you first saw it: under the Whrery Resolution, eight percent of the population, as against a previous minorily of 19 percent, can dictate public policy to the remaining 92 percent...
...By the North Atlantic Pact we are banding together to resist the pressure of Communism from without...
...We may lose on one issue and win on another, but the losses are like winds on a river that blows surface waves in one direction, while the deeper current rolls on...
...They have this power because their filibustering tactics can' be stopped only if two-thirds of all elected Senators want it stopped...
...At first glance, the 33 Senators to whom the Wherry Resolution gives the power to kill off all legislation reads like a big number...
...In these regions dwell the majority of Americans...
...and for cases of impeaepment when the Senate sits as a court...
...I, admit- that the odd character of American national life--with its crossiurrent of interests lhat whirl withinand between the slates—may produce national combinations that can offset this dictatorship by a minority of a minority...
...Momentarily we of the North, Midwest and Pacific Coast feel its lash with particular severity...
...Who was behind the Wherry Reso« hit ion...
...In sofne liberal quarters, optimism has given way to feur, and unity of purpose has given way to an-undercurrent of frustration...
...As everyone knows, the basic Constitutional compromise which gives each state two votes in the Senate regardless of size, long ago pro• duced a condition where a minority of people in the country elected a majority of the Senators...
...m These are the only specific cases where the Constitution calls for a twothirds vote—clearly, the general principle of majority rule was intended to prevail in all other cases...
...We must prevent Communism from taking over the free peoples of the world and we are playing our part...
...This article it based on a speech delivered at ADA's recent national convention...
...Today the winds may blow us clear of the rocks, but tomorrow they may blow us against them and shatter us...
...Opposed to it were Midwcsteifi, Pacific Coast and Atlantic Seaboard Democrats, most of the New England Republicans, and some of the Atlantic Seaboard Republicans...
...Now, it is of great importance to note that the Constitution specifically lists the exceptions to the principle of majority rule which is to govern both houses of Congress...
...Or again, the balance of strength between the states, large and small, has been maintained by cloak-room horse-trading...
...while the 23 largest states, with a total of 106.5 million people, controlled hut forty-six seats...
...for passing a bill over the veto of a President...
...You slap it again and again...
...This same rule operates in the legislatures of the very states whose Senatorial representatives voted for a contrary principle of government...
...In other words, the motion was supported in the main along scctionul lines, and its adoption has fastened still mon* securely on America the curse of sectionalism that has plagued it since its earliest days...
...For, in the upper and lower houses of seven representative southern states, a simple majority in eleven out of fourteen of their legislative chambers can shut off debate by merely vtoing to move the previous question...
...The irresistible direction of this nation is toward a perfected democracy...
...I want to state the simple arithmetic of Senate power as it was wielded prior to the adoption of the Wherry Amendment...
...It states that a two-thirds vote is required only for the submission of a Constitutional amendment...
...Most people will agree that the Senate's action on the Wherry Resolution regarding filibusters lies behind a good deal of the somber mood I have noted...
...We are treated as poor relations, or interlopers, or meddlers, every time we, speak up...
...and the combined population of the seventeen smallest states is only eight precent of all the people in the country...
...Our social and economic problems cut across sections and are national in scope...
...these states could turn out to be the seventeen smallest ones...
...for approving a treaty by the Senate...
...This is partially due to the growing tenseness of the internation situation, but it is also due in part to the difficulties we are experiencing in the 81st Congres'S...
...But is it not the height of lolly to look for safeguards for our democracy in the chance of combinations the whirling winds pile together...
...It is inherent in the actual support Kiven to the Wherry Resolution...
...Though the cue stick in that contest was aimed at the procedural side of Senate business, the rebound of the billiard ball was meant to, and . did...
Vol. 32 • May 1949 • No. 19
