224 KANSAS UNIVERSITY QUARTERLY. 



bill is certain to be less carefully criticised than would be the case if 

 the negative as well as the positive effect of the measure were sure to 

 be examined. As bills are now presented, each appears to stand 

 upon its own merits without consideration of its bearing upon any 

 other which may have been passed or has yet to.be presented. Under 

 such conditions the responsibility of a committee to the House is 

 limited to the general advisability of the measure in question, and 

 cannot be extended tn the question of effect upon other financial 

 measures. 



There is another still greater evil connected with the committee 

 system, that, contrary to the spirit of the constitution, the people 

 cannot promptly secure from Congress any desired financial legisla- 

 tion. According to the theory of the constitution a member of the 

 House of Representatives is directly responsible to the voters of his 

 district. He is to be held strictly accountable for his position on 

 every question before Congress. But with our committee system 

 such a strict responsibility is impossible. A member has practically 

 no power to influence legislation unless he is upon some important 

 committee. Fifteen members of the House determine what bills 

 shall be introduced toward meeting the expenses of the government, 

 and all that the other members have to do on these questions is to 

 "vote with the party." In the majority i)f cases it is the chairman 

 of the fifteen who has the deciding voice in the preparation of bills. 

 One man, who has in his hands almost absolute control of all appro- 

 priation bills, or of all revenue bills, is responsible, not to the whole 

 nation every part of which is deejily interested in such legislation, 

 but to a single district of a single state.* 



This is an extreme statement, and there are many ways in wliich, 

 after all, the power of party or the force of public opinion will com- 

 pel any chairman to bring in such bills as will meet the popular 

 demand. The real power over legislation is exerted by the person 

 appointing committees and chairman, that is, by the Speaker of the 

 House, but neither he nor his appointee can be held personally 

 responsible to the people at large. Neither Speaker nor chairman 

 could compel the House to pass measures utterly distasteful to it, 

 but the power exercised by each in his respective position is so great 



*In this connection it is intPvesiinR to note thut the irre.sponsil)ilitv of a coiuinittef- 

 chaimian has been referred to in Conuress it.self. In a speech against the Wilson tariff 

 bill, on February I. 189-1. Mr. Reed, of Maine, said: " In this debate, which has extemlel 

 over many weeks, one remarkable result has already been reached— a result of the ili-ep- 

 est importance to the country. That result is that tiiebill is odious to both sides of the 

 house. It meets with favor nowhere and commnnds the respect o( neither party. On 

 this side we believe that while it pretends to be for protection it does not afford it. and on 

 the other side they believe that while it looks toward free trade it df)es not accomplish 

 it. * * * Whatever speches have been made in defense of the bill on the other side 

 whether by gentlemen who were responsible only to their own constituencies, or by the 

 gentleman from West Virginia, who ouL'ht to have been steadied by his sense of respon- 

 sibility to the whole country.'" etc.— Speech reported in Kansas City Star Feb. 1. 1894. 



