THE ROLL CALL
The Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES The Sequel of Cannonism An Interpretation of the Bi-Partisan Or ganization That Now Rules in the House (From Bulletin 2 of The National Voters' League) THE...
...This amendment did not disturb any of the original "safeguards...
...The Unanimous Consent Calendar, which always preceded this order of business, came before the House on only the first and third Mondays of each month...
...The method of appointment makes little difference...
...But there was coupled with the one-man naming of committees a complete lack of control over these committees by the House itself...
...Control of Committees DURING the Cannon regime, if a mere major-ity of a committee chose to pigeon-hole a bill, all the other members of the House were powerless to compel action...
...Otherwise the machine thus assembled could not have been manipulated at will by the organizer...
...The result is a combination of undisturbable forces which make up the "organization...
...Inspect a recent House Calendar and you will discover, in the department devoted to "Calendar of Motions to Discharge Committees," that 63 motions have been filed...
...Such motions shall have precedence over motions to suspend the rules and shall require for adoption an affirmative vote of a majority of the membership of the House...
...But the authors of the resolution held that a larger vote should be necessary to get a bill out of a committee than to secure its final passage...
...and, 2. To give to a majority of the House control over its standing committees...
...even an overwhelming majority of the House had no power to bring the measure out into the open...
...Back in those dark parliamentary days the insurgents fought for two fundamental changes in the system...
...So long as the House, as a whole cannot exercise control of its committees, a few leaders will...
...4. These handicaps were of small consequence compared to the final safeguard put into the rule...
...That means that not even a miracle could clear the way for the use of the discharge calendar during any...
...It added another, providing that the Calendar of Motions to Discharge Committees could not be reached until after both the Unanimous Consent Calendar, and Motions to Suspend the Rules, had been exhausted...
...It will be remembered that as first adopted the rule placed this vitally important calendar behind only one other order of business on the two Mondays of each month when it could be readied...
...Each committee had complete obstructive power...
...The House was not then given, nor has it since been given, any power over the Rules Committee...
...twenty-one on the day following...
...John Dalzell of Pennsylvania, one of Speaker Cannon's leading lieutenants, was then the Republican head of the Committee on Rules...
...session of the present Congress...
...When the Speaker, in the exercise of his arbitrary privilege as the organizer of the House, had packed the crucial committees, these committees were supreme...
...Some of them were: 1. The Calendar of Motions to Discharge Committees could be reached but twice a month...
...Bear that fundamental fact in mind as we proceed with an interpretation of what happened then, and since, in respect to this "reform...
...The rule provides that no member shall have pending on this calendar more than two motions...
...This later change gave precedence to still another filibustering device—motions to suspend the rules...
...These were— 1. To take away from the Speaker the appointment of committees...
...The rules gave to the House no adequate authority over its subordinate bodies...
...On the face of the record, only ten of these motions appear to have been filed in good faith...
...and two on the next day— December 3d...
...No opportunity was given to amend the rule thus presented...
...After thus "choking" the calendar, this activity suddenly ceased and not a motion to discharge a committee has been filed since the first three days of the regular session...
...Another significant fact is that all these motions to discharge committees were made by Republicans—regular organization Republicans...
...The crux of Cannonism was the Speaker's poWer to appoint committees...
...A further significant fact is that for the most part these motions were filed in pairs—24 regular Republicans filing 48 motions...
...In that period, then, the power to appoint committees, coupled with the impotency of the majority in reference to committees and the rules, was the power to control the politics, perquisites and legislation of the House...
...It required, then as now, only a majority of those present to pass a bill...
...Choking the Calendar THIS last Rules Committee amendment, which was adopted by a vote of 157 to 103, made the possibility of reaching the discharge calendar so remote that nothing short of a miracle could have brought about its use...
...All such motions shall be entered in the Journal and printed on the calendar under an appropriate heading...
...Still Another Safeguard ON February 3, 1912, Robert L. Henry of Texas, Democratic chairman of the Committee on Rules, presented a committee amendment to this rule...
...Next, as is invariably true of such situations, the bi-partisan leaders assumed the role of reformers and themselves initiated the new rule which ivas to end the pigeon-holing of bills and to make standing committees serve the wishes and interests of the House as a whole...
...3. No motion filed on this calendar could be even considered until first seconded by a majority of those present, as many as were required to pass a bill...
...Immediately after the Unanimous Consent Calendar shall have been called on any Monday, it shah be in order to call up any such motion which shall have been entered at least seven days prior thereto...
...The Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES The Sequel of Cannonism An Interpretation of the Bi-Partisan Or ganization That Now Rules in the House (From Bulletin 2 of The National Voters' League) THE rank and file forget quickly...
...But the people must still remember that period when the House of Representatives was dominated by Speaker Cannon...
...That body, with all its arbitrary authority over changes in the rules, special rules, Congressional investigations, etc., was left "a law unto itself...
...The issue involved in this new ride was by far the most important, in a parliamentary sense, that has been before the House in a decade...
...Clark, a Democrat, in the debate said he was the author of the resolution...
...These are orders of business which are rarely if ever finished...
...5. A vital omission of the rule was its failure to include the various resolutions which go to the Committee on Rules...
...Let us consider the most important element first...
...Forty of these motions were filed December 1, 1913...
...If a second be ordered debate on such motion shall be limited to twenty minutes, one-half thereof in favor of the proposition and one-half in opposition thereto...
...2. The new calendar be used only after business on the Unanimous Consent Calendar had been finished...
...Note how it was subsequently "improved," from the politicians' point of view...
...It was never workable...
...But still the leaders seemed fearful that the tranquility of their organization might be disturbed by the exercise of control over some committee by the House itself...
...This rule provided that no bill could be withdrawn from a committee except by a vote of more than half of the whole House—at present 218 members—an almost impossible number...
...The usual parliamentary methods prevailed...
...The other motions pertain to comparatively unimportant bills not introduced by the members asking that they be withdrawn from the committees to which they have been referred...
...Some of the Jokers "THIS RULE, instead of being an adequate rem-edy, contained numerous "jokers...
...The bi-partisan combination back of this move was apparent: Mr...
...This committee, on June 17, 1910, reported a new rule which provided for "A Calendar of Motions to Discharge Committees...
...It is the purpose of this bulletin to show the situation in these respects as it exists today...
...Dalzell, a Republican, offered it to the House and moved its adoption...
...Accordingly, more "safeguarding" was done...
...Whenever such a motion shall prevail the bill so taken from the consideration of a committee shall thereupon be placed upon its appropriate calendar and upon call of the committee from which any bill has been so taken it may be called for consideration by any Member prior to any bill reported by said committee at a date subsequent to the discharge of said committee...
...Another basic element in the Cannon system was the Speaker's position at the head of the Committee on Rules, from which vantage ground he could dictate the regular and special rules under which the House operated...
...Such motions before being submitted to the House shall be seconded by a majority by tellers...
...Under the rule, motions, so filed have to be considered in order...
...Even a casual reading of this Dalzell-Clark rule makes perfectly patent the fact that it was unworkable...
...Such was the rule originally provided to give the House some measure of control over its committees...
...It was adopted, almost unanimously, without a roll call...
...Read this part again: "Such motions shall require for adoption an affirmative vote of a majority of the membership of the House...
...Recognition for such motions shall be in the order-in which they have been entered...
...They are aided in forgetfulness by the modern manipulations of public opinion...
...It is only fair to infer that this was a concerted move to create an immovable "log-jam" on this calendar...
...It reads as follows: "Any Member may present to the Clerk a motion in writing to discharge a committee from further consideration of any public bill or joint resolution which may have been referred to such committee...
...This afforded all sorts of opportunity to filibuster and thus prevented action under the rule...
...When public opinion and the persistent fighting of the little band of insurgents forced the leaders to give attention to this condition, some significant things happened: First, as is always the case when the organization is threatened with any fundamental change in the system, the leaders of both old parties ceased their sham battles and joined forces to save the day...
...Considering that the number actually present during business hours in the House then, as now, hardly averaged 50, with rarely more than a quorum, the meaning of this "safeguard" becomes plain...
...Each standing committee is, therefore, as supremely "a law unto itself" as it was during the best days of Cannonism...
...Champ Clark of Missouri, was the ranking Democratic member...
Vol. 6 • June 1914 • No. 24
