the United States, that official is ex-officio the President of the Senate. Senators, however, elect a president pro tempore and also all of the other officers. The legislative rights, privileges and duties of a member of the Senate are described under the head of the members of the House of Representatives. These in both cases are very similar, but in addition the members of the Senate have the exclusive prerogative of acting upon treaties with foreign nations. Matters relating to the foreign affairs of the United States do not come before the House of Representatives except so far as it may be necessary to pass appropriations to carry on proposed measures. All agreements with foreign nations which have the nature of formal treaties must be presented to the Senate for ratification. Unless two-thirds of the Senators present on the occasion of a vote on a treaty or convention vote in favor of the proposition, it is lost and the treaty, although it may have been solemnly concluded by the representatives of the two nations and approved by the President, cannot be ratified and becomes null and void. This power constitutes the rather unusual condition of a practical veto power granted to the legislative body over a branch of public negotiations which is otherwise entrusted to the President and his advisors. The Senate also has a rule of holding secret or executive sessions, which is not paralleled by anything in the practice of the other house. Such sessions are supposed to be for the transaction of business relative to treaties and nominations, but are used as well for conferences between the Senators on matters in regard to which publicity is deemed inadvisable.

In addition to the general prerogatives named, the members of the Senate hold the confirming power with reference to a large number of the Federal officers. Nominations made by the President must be confirmed by the Senate before an appointment can be made, and it has frequently happened in the history of the United States, that a Presidential nomination has been negatived by, or has been withdrawn in the face of the opposition of, the confirming power. The members of the Senate also sit as judges in cases of impeachment, and when so sitting are under special oath or affirmation. The votes of two-thirds of the members present are required

for a conviction upon an impeachment. Owing to the continuous character of the organization of the Senate, it has its own peculiar code of rules and traditions, differing in many respects from those of the House of Representatives. The chief of these is the principle of Senatorial courtesy, under which business can only be transacted by consent of the minority, no method of closure such as is maintained by the lower house, being in effect in the Senate. Senatorial courtesy refers also to the matter of nominations or patronage under a system in which the President and members of his political party in the Senate are frequently curiously entangled. A considerable number of the Presidential appointments refer to local places and constitute especially the Federal patronage with which it has been the tradition to reward political adherents. Each Senator of the same political party as the President expects to be consulted with regard to the persons from his State whom the President shall offer to the Senate for confirmation. In case the President names a person obnoxious to a Senator, the latter will, probably, through the operation of Senatorial courtesy, be able to secure unfavorable action on the nomination, if the place is in the Senator's own State, and he is supported by his colleague, while an obnoxious nomination in a State not represented in the Senate by persons of the same political party as the Administration may also frequently be defeated. That is to say, that, except for excellent reasons, the other Senators will not stand with the President in ignoring the claims of a fellowpartisan on the patronage in his own State, and will give the Senator a hearing and as favorable consideration as possible on other matters relating to his political prosperity; this arrangement being, of course, mutual, and extending also to Senatorial members of the opposition when strong personal reasons exist. Senatorial courtesy is also exemplified in the matter of getting business before the Senate, the day's proceedings being arranged by agreement instead of by the presiding officer, as in the House, and Senators are careful not to interfere with each other's business or plans and measures except upon unusual occasion. The most notable aspect of Senatorial courtesy, however, is that which enables a small minority to prevent final action upon a measure by continuing the debate and refusing to ac

cede to a compromise for the purpose of getting to a vote on the matter. This personal prerogative of the individual has been carried so far that a member has been able, especially during the closing hours of a session, to engage continuously in speaking upon a question, until the hour of adjournment arrived, thereby preventing a vote upon the measure to which he was opposed and in regard to which he was aware that he was in the minority. While this absence of what is technically known as a closure, that is, a provision for ending a debate and taking a vote at the will of a majority, has been held to obstruct the transaction of public business, there is no question that it is of the greatest value in securing mature consideration of measures, while the severe closure rules in effect in the House have more than once been used to force the passage of ill-digested laws, on which the Senate has exercised the valuable function of amendment or disapproval.

In addition to the compensation allowed Senators, $7500 and mileage at 10 cents a mile which is the same as that allowed members of the House, the smaller size of the Senate makes it possible for each Senator of the majority and many of the minority Senators, to have the chairmanship of a committee, with the accompanying perquisites of a Committee Room and clerk hire. Rooms are also provided for Senators not having committee chairmanships. The stationery and contingent fund of the Senate is also more liberal in the matter of personal perquisites than would be possible in the larger membership of the House.

With a single exception, the legislative functions of a Senator are not materially different from those of a Member of the House of Representatives. That exception is, however, an extremely important one and consists of the lack of the power to originate revenue bills. It is held that the exclusive jurisdiction conferred by the Constitution on the House of Representatives to criginate all bills for raising revenue extends also to the origin of appropriation bills, and it is a point on which the House of Representatives is tenacious that not only shall the Senate not begin legislation for the annual appropriations, but that it shall not put provisions in appropriation bills that are entirely novel propositions and that have not been ap

proved by the lower body. The Senate has, however, the right of amendment of bills for raising revenue and frequently substitutes its own measure for a House measure, but this under the color of an amendment which strikes out all after the enacting clause and substitutes the Senate bill. Thus in bills imposing a tariff on imports, while the bill is originally framed in the House, it is subject to so considerable amendment in the Senate that at least one tariff bill has returned to the lower House almost unrecognizable. The exclusive authority over the inception of appropriation bills seems to be something in the nature of an arrogated authority by the House of Representatives, but it is substantially maintained by the refusal of the House to agree to obnoxious amendments, and it is challenged by the Senate most frequently for the purpose of securing a vantage ground from which to secure concessions in conferences between the two Houses.

Besides the recommendatory function before-mentioned exercised by a Senator with relation to the Federal appointments in his State, he recommends persons to fill one of the two cadetships at West Point provided for each State, the appointments being made by the President, and nominates under the provisions of law candidates to keep two midshipmen continuously at the Naval Academy at Annapolis.

When charges presented against the President, a member of the judiciary or other public official subject to impeachment are formulated by the House of Representatives and presented to the Senate, the latter sits as a judicial body for the trial of the case, presided over by the Vice-President, except in cases of impeachment of the President, when, for obvious reasons, the Chief Justice of the United States presides. The case is prosecuted by a committee of the House and defended by private attorneys. On completion of the testimony and arguments, the decision is effected by vote of the Senators, and it is necessary that two-thirds of those present shall vote in support of the charges in order to secure an impeachment with consequent removal from office and disqualification for subsequent public employment.

COMMITTEES OF THE SENATE.

STANDING COMMITTEES.

Agriculture and Forestry; Appropriations; Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate; Canadian Relations; Census; Civil Service and Retrenchment; Claims; Coast and Insular Survey; Coast Defenses; Commerce; Corporations Organized in the District of Columbia; Cuban Relations; District of Columbia; Education and Labor; Engrossed Bills; Enrolled Bills; Examine the Several Branches of the Civil Service; Finance; Fisheries; Foreign Relations; Forest Reservations and the Protection of Game; Geological Survey; Immigration; Indian Affairs; Indian Depredations; Interoceanic Canals; Interstate Commerce; Irrigation; Judiciary; Library; Manufacturers; Military Affairs; Mines and Mining; Mississippi River and Its Tributaries; Naval Affairs; Organization, Conduct and Expenditures of the Executive Departments; Pacific Islands and Porto Rico; Pacific Railroads; Patents; Pensions; Philippines; Post Offices and Post Roads; Printing; Private Land Claims; Privileges and Elections; Public Buildings and Grounds; Public Health and National Quarantine; Public Lands; Railroads; Revision of the Laws of the United States; Revolutionary Claims; Rules; Territories; Transportation Routes to the Seaboard; University of the United States.

SELECT COMMITTEES.

Additional Accommodations for the Library of Congress; Disposition of Useless Papers in the Executive Departments; Examination and Disposition of Documents; Five Civilized Tribes of Indians; Industrial Expositions; Investigation of the Condition of the Potomac River Front at Washington; Investigate Trespassers upon Indian Lands; National Banks; Standards, Weights and Measures; Transportation and Sale of Meat Products; Ventilation and Acoustics; Woman Suffrage.