CHAPTER V. PARTY POLICY IN CONGRESS
While President Cleveland was successfully asserting his
executive authority, the House of Representatives, too, was
trying to assert its authority; but its choice of means was such
that it was badly beaten and was reduced to a state of humble
subordination from which it has never emerged. Its traditional
procedure was arranged on the theory that Congress ought to
propose as well as to enact legislation, and to receive
recommendations from all quarters without preference or
discrimination. Although the Constitution makes it the right and
duty of the President to "recommend to their consideration such
measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient," measures
proposed by the Administration stand on the same footing under
the rules as those proposed by the humblest citizen of the United
States. In both cases, they are allowed to reach Congress only in
the form of a bill or resolution introduced by a member of
Congress, and they go on the files without any distinction as to
rank and position except such as pertains to them from the time
and order in which they are introduced. Under the rules, all
measures are distributed among numerous committees, each having
charge of a particular class, with power to report favorably or
adversely. Each committee is constituted as a section of the
whole House, with a distribution of party representation
corresponding to that which exists in the House.
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