voted as a Representative from the State of Georgia, and the vote became a tie, 148 to 148. The Speaker has the right of a Representative and may vote The Speaker's at any time, but, having voted once, he may

Vote.

Filibustering.

not, of course, vote again. He may break a tie and carry a motion, or make a tie and defeat a motion. Consequently, the Silver Bill was not laid on the table, since it requires a majority to carry a motion. The friends of the bill were striving to keep it in its place as the first matter of business before the House, and they now wished to push it to a vote. To prevent a vote the opponents of the bill began to filibuster. Filibustering is the process of resorting to parliamentary tactics for the purpose of delaying, or obstructing, or preventing, the business before the House. The process consists in moving to adjourn, moving to "adjourn till eight o'clock," moving to "take a recess," or that "when the House adjourns it adjourn" to a certain hour, calling for the yeas and nays, and making other dilatory motions which are in order by the rules of the House. A dilatory motion identical with one just disposed of may not be made until some business has intervened; but it will be seen that the motions need be only slightly varied, while a speech (and windy obstructionists are fertile in speeches) has been interpreted as intervening business. It is well understood that motions of this kind can be made without limit, and no bill can possibly pass as long as these motions are kept up. If the minority be large enough these filibustering tactics will always succeed in forcing adjournment or a compromise.

Filibustering tactics against the Bland Bill were kept up until a late hour on the last day for the consideration of the bill, with the purpose of wearying the friends of the measure into a willingness to adjourn. The friends of the bill were determined to continue in session in order to prevent a lapse of the legislative day. A

tive Day.

The Calendar "the Ceme

lative Hopes."

legislative day lasts as long as the House remains in session, though it may be a week by the calendar; and The Legisla- thus the contest becomes one of physical endurance. To adjourn without voting on the bill would have been disastrous to it; because, in that case, since only three days had been assigned for its consideration, it would have fallen back to its place on the calendar. To get at a bill which is on the calendar the House has either (1) to await the bill's turn tery of Legis- in its order, or (2) to advance it on the calendar by a special order,-to set a special time for its consideration. There was no hope of reaching the Silver Bill during that Congress by awaiting its order on the calendar. The calendar is like a great graveyard of ten thousand buried bills. Generally, only the favored ones are called out by the special order. To advance the Silver Bill again by special order would require its friends (as they had done before) to secure a majority of the Democratic members of the House to a petition asking the Committee on Rules to report the order in its favor. Pressing business may have been mapped out which made this impossible. Or hostile members who wished to make a record of favoring the bill, but who were really opposing it, would have refused to co-operate in this private party effort. The speech and vote of these members were on record in favor of the measure and these could be shown to their constituents, though their private influence, secured through pressure, patronage, or bribery, was against the measure. At this juncture in the conflict over the Silver Bill the Committee on Rules, or its majority, consisting of the Speaker and his two party colleagues on the committee, could have secured the passage

Cloture.

of the bill by reporting a cloture rule to prevent further filibustering. One of the important powers of the Committee on Rules is that it may, when it wishes, shut off filibustering by reporting a new rule

designed to bring the House to a vote. In 1890, a rule empowered the Speaker to refuse to put any motion which he considered dilatory. This promotes "one-man power," and the Speaker vested with such power might disregard the rights of the minority. While this rule is not a standing one it may be made a special one at any time and is apt to be introduced to rebuke and defeat palpable and offensive filibustering tactics. This is the process of cloture, a process by which the Speaker may defeat filibustering and suppress the minority. It is the process by which the House, setting aside parliamentary usage and delays, concentrates its authority in its presiding officer and instructs him to bring it to a decision. However, no member who wishes to discuss a measure in a bona fide and serious way is ever apt to be estopped by the forced application of the previous question under a special rule for cloture. A cloture rule is a rule or resolution which provides that after a certain limited time for debate all motions and business are out of order except the previous question and the vote on the pending bill, and the Speaker is instructed to recognize no member for the purpose of making a dilatory motion, and to declare all such motions out of order.

The previous question is the most common form of cloture. It is the chief parliamentary remedy against filibustering. If members are indulging in ob- The Previous structive debate merely to stave off or prevent Question. business the previous question may be moved, and if this carries, the House must then vote upon the question before it. No debate is allowed on the motion for the previous question. The motion for the previous question is a motion for the closure of debate. It cannot be applied in the Committee of the Whole, but it may be decided there to adopt it as a rule for application in the House. On the occasion of the struggle over the Silver Bill to which we have referred the Committee on

Rules refused to report a cloture rule and the Silver Bill was laid on the shelf by the filibustering tactics of its opponents.

When a bill or a proposition for a law is offered for enactment it is, if a public bill, handed to the Speaker, and How a Bill is if a private one, to the Clerk, and by him it is Passed. sent to one of the fifty or more committees which are appointed at the beginning of the Congress. In committee, from eleven to twenty-one men examine it, and, if necessary, give hearings to members and citizens who wish to present arguments or facts to guide the committee to its conclusions. The committee then reports, and if the bill requires money from the Treasury, or property of the United States, its name goes on a list called a calendar of the "Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union.” If the bill does not carry money its name goes on the House calendar.

Every morning, when the House does not otherwise The Morning order, there is a period of time called the mornHour. ing hour-which may be an hour or a daywhen bills which do not carry money can be called up and passed. It is harder to get at money bills and harder to pass them, especially if there be opposition.

"In the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, there is general debate, so hard to close, and five minutes' debate, so provocative of other five minutes. The Committee of the Whole is a very asylum of oratory, economy, and patriotism. There the workingman gets exuberant justice done him, especially during election year. There tyranny receives its most dreadful buffetings, and trusts and monopolies are properly and accurately characterized."''

Long sessions-continuous night sessions-are often held in order to force agreement from the House.

1 Hon. Thomas B. Reed, in The Youth's Companion, Dec. 4, 1890.

"What men will not yield to conviction they will yield to weariness. After sitting up all night principles do not seem so utterly supreme. Constitutional views of the patriot will give way under prolonged weariness of the flesh. What Congress would not vote in the evening it may be ready to vote by five the next morning, if kept in session. If you must have agreement it is just as necessary to lock up Congress as it is to lock up a jury. Men are such queer compounds that nothing but physical discomfort will reveal to set obstinacy that half the questions of principles are questions of temper and half the other half mere pride of opinion." 1

1

England.

In the English Commons, bills are generally carried through by the Government, and the party majority are brought into line for the support of all A" GovernGovernment bills. A Government bill in Eng- ment Bill" in land is one brought in by the responsible Ministry of the day; that is, a bill originated and supported by the Cabinet, or Government. Having behind it the responsibility of the Ministry it will have the support of the majority which keeps the Ministry in office. All important bills involving political issues are Government bills, and as the Ministry disposes of half the working time of the House it has facilities for pushing its bills. A Government bill is carefully weighed and discussed by the Cabinet before it is introduced. The Government must stand or fall with the bill; if it is rejected they resign. Such a bill is exposed to the hostile criticism of the opposition, who seek to discredit and defeat it. A private member-that is, a member of the House but not a member of the Ministry-may introduce a bill on his own account and urge its passage. But the Ministry is held responsible for what the House does. If they allow a private member to pass a bad bill, or prevent his passing a good one, they are blamed. Consequently the

Hon. Thomas B. Reed, in The Youth's Companion, Dec. 4, 1890.