Chapter IX: Concerning Representatives

It is not all “skittles and beer” to be a Senator or a Representative at Washington. The continued pressure from a man’s constituents that he shall accomplish certain legislation for his district, and the iron-clad rules which prohibit his every movement, if in the House of Representatives, are enough to break an ordinary man’s health.

A new member goes to the House full of enthusiasm, hoping to accomplish great things for those who have trusted him; he finds that he is scarcely permitted to open his mouth the first term. But he does his best in committee, which is little enough; he runs his feet off to get places for some hundreds of people from his district who must be taken care of. Then he keeps trying to be a good party man, and to do some favor for the leaders, who, he hopes, will reward him by giving him an opportunity to accomplish much-needed legislation for his district, till in his second or third term he becomes desperate, breaks out in meeting, and knocks things about generally. If he proves to be really an orator and succeeds in catching the ear of the House, he may then begin to be more than a mere party voter. On the other hand, he may be so squelched that he subsides into “innocuous desuetude.”

In the meantime he has borne all forms of unjust and unkind criticism at home. His opponents of his own party and of the opposite party point, in scorn and malice, to how little has been done for the district, and tell in startling sentences how they would do it and how they _will_ do it when they are elected. Then a “nagger” comes to Washington, who is still worse. He _demands_ a position, tells the Representative how the latter owes his place to said nagger, and insists on being immediately made chief clerk of some department accessible only through the Civil Service, and needing four times the influence a new member can bring to bear. A man must learn to be serene under nagging, misrepresentation, and even positive lies, and rely upon time and his own best efforts to vindicate him.

There have been more caucuses held during the last term than usual. A caucus is a good thing, as it gives a man a chance to influence in a very slight degree the decisions of his party. (See Henry Loomis Nelson’s excellent article in the _Century_ for June, 1902.)

The House is at present (session 1902–1903) ruled by only a few leading Republicans: Speaker Henderson, Grosvenor, Payne, Dalzell, and about two or three others. How long will such a hierarchy, dominating nearly three hundred intelligent men, be permitted to exist? The House is run like a bank, of which the President and a few clerks do all the deciding. Any correspondent who has the ear of any of these few can tell you the fate of a measure before it comes to vote.

The chairmen of committees, and a few others who have been long in the House, are called into a committee room to decide on how much debate will be permitted, who will be heard, and whether or not the bill shall pass; and the rank and file, desiring to be good party men, obey orders, and the bill fails or goes through in exactly the form decided upon by the clique. This is most un-American. It is true, more business is thus accomplished; but the business does not represent the average public opinion of the House.

The Committee on Rules, or its majority, constitutes a stone wall against which men break their hearts and ruin their reputations. Let us have less done, but let what is done be an average result of public opinion.

The President can do but little to influence legislation. His clubs are personality and patronage. If as persistent as Mr. Roosevelt, he may eventually get an “Administration” measure (like Cuban reciprocity) through, despite opposition. Present Congressional methods make politicians out of men capable, under broader training, of becoming statesmen. But Mr. Roosevelt did not “arrive” by the good will of the machine, but in spite of it. If he attains a second term, it will be against the plans of the machine; but as in Lincoln’s second term, politicians may be forced to nominate him, or themselves go down before the storm of public indignation.

In the meantime legislators in the House will go on presenting little bills which they know they can never get passed, but printed copies of which can be sent to constituents to make them believe that their representatives are really doing something.

The present method has this benefit: it shuts off much of the lobbying which formerly disgraced the anterooms of Congress.

There is a small cloud in the horizon. Mr. Littlefield, of Maine, whom rumor claimed, at the opening of the last Congress, to represent Presidential opinion, has seen his trust bill turned down. However, Mr. Littlefield always delights his hearers, who realize that his fight against commercial monopolies is no make-believe.

The following extracts from a late speech of Hon. F. W. Cushman, of the State of Washington, on the question of reciprocity with Cuba, will throw much light on present legislative methods in the House of Representatives:

THE RULES OF THE HOUSE

We meet in this Chamber to-day a condition that challenges the
consideration of every patriotic man, and that is, the set of rules
under which this body operates, or perhaps it would be more nearly
correct to say, under which this body is operated. [Laughter.]

Mr. Chairman, I deem it my duty, knowing as I do that this measure
could not have been brought here in the shape in which it now is, save
and excepting for the remarkable conditions created in this House by
these rules—I say, sir, I deem it to be my duty to pause for a moment
or two on the threshold of this debate and place a few cold facts
about these rules into this Record and before the 70,000,000 of people
to whom we are responsible.

I approach this subject with a decided degree of deference. In the
three years which I have been a member of this body I have endeavored
to conduct myself with a modesty that I conceive to be becoming alike
to the new member and to his constituency. I represent a Congressional
district comprising the entire State of Washington, a Congressional
district with half a million people in it, and with vast and varied
interests demanding legislation for their benefit and protection in
many of the channels of trade and branches of industry.

It is with humiliation unspeakable that I rise in my place on this
floor and admit to my constituents at home that in this House I am
utterly powerless to bring any bill or measure, no matter how worthy
or meritorious it may be, to a vote unless I can first make terms with
the Speaker.

It may be a matter of news to some of the good people within the
confines of the American Republic to know that there is no way of
getting an ordinary unprivileged measure considered and voted upon in
this House unless it suits the Speaker. I am aware that there are
several _theoretical_ ways of getting a measure up; but they have no
actual reality—no fruitage in fact. I make the statement on this floor
now, that no member of this body who introduces a bill—not a private
bill, but a public bill—can get it considered or brought forward for
final determination unless it suits the Speaker. And if any one wants
to deny that statement I am in a personal position and in a peculiarly
happy frame of mind right now to give a little valuable testimony on
that point! [Applause and laughter.]

Imagine, if you please, a measure—not a private measure, but a public
measure—which has been considered at length by a great committee of
this House and favorably reported with the recommendation that it do
pass. That bill is then placed on the “Calendar.” The Calendar! That
is a misnomer. It ought to be called a cemetery [laughter], for
therein lie the whitening bones of legislative hopes. [Laughter.] When
the bill is reported and placed on the Calendar, what does the member
who introduced it and who is charged by his constituency to secure its
passage do?

Does he consult himself about his desire to call it up? No. Does he
consult the committee who considered the bill and recommended it for
passage? No. Does he consult the will of the majority of this House?
No. What does he do? I will tell you what he does. He either consents
that that bill may die upon the Calendar, or he puts his manhood and
his individuality in his pocket and goes trotting down that little
pathway of personal humiliation that leads—where? To the Speaker’s
room. Ay, the Speaker’s room. All the glories that clustered around
the holy of holies in King Solomon’s temple looked like 30 cents
[prolonged laughter and applause]—yes, looked like 29 cents—compared
with that jobbing department of this government! [Applause and
laughter.]

Then you are in the presence of real greatness. What then? Why, the
Speaker looks over _your_ bill, and then _he_ tells _you_ whether _he_
thinks it ought to come up or not!

There is a condition which I commend to the patriotic consideration of
the American people. Contemplate that for a method of procedure in the
legislative body of a great and free republic.

WHO IS THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE?

Who is the Speaker of this House who sets up his immaculate and
infallible judgment against the judgment of all comers? Is there
anything different or superior in the credentials that he carries from
the credentials that were issued to you and to me from 70,000,000 of
American people? When he entered this House at the beginning of the
Fifty-sixth and Fifty-seventh Congresses he was simply a
Congressman-elect, bearing credentials like every other man on this
floor. He has no greater power now than any other member, save the
additional power we ourselves bestowed upon him by electing him
Speaker and then adopting this set of rules. The question that now
arises to confront us is: Have we put a club in the hands of some one
else to beat us to death? Have we elevated one man on a pinnacle so
high that he can not now see those who elevated him? Is the Speaker of
this House a mere mortal man of common flesh and clay, or is he
supernatural and immortal? What miracle was wrought at his birth? Did
a star shoot from its orbit when he was born, or did he come into
existence in the good old-fashioned way that ushered the rest of us
into this vale of tears?

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

I make no onslaught on the individual. I have a high regard for the
Speaker of this House personally and for him politically; but we face
the fact that we have adopted a set of rules in this body that are an
absolute disgrace to the legislative body of any republic.

Throughout the entire three years of my service in this body I have
been up against the little machine that dominates the proceedings and
the deliberations of this House. During the entire three years prior
to this time I have always treated that machine with the deference due
to its age and its reputation. I trust you will excuse my frankness
when I tell you that from this time on I shall devote a little of my
time and a tithe of my energy to putting a few spokes in the wheel of
that machine that the designers of the vehicle never ordered.
[Laughter.]

I for one expect to live to see the day in this House not when the
Speaker shall tell the individual members of this House what he is
going to permit them to bring up, but when those individual members,
constituting a majority, will inform the Speaker what they are going
to bring up for themselves.