John H. Reagan of Texas stated that "a conference committee, made
up of three members of the appropriations committee, acting in
conjunction with a similar conference committee on the part of
the Senate, does substantially our legislation upon this subject
of appropriations." In theory, the House was free to accept or
reject the conference committee's report. Practically the choice
lay between the bill as fixed by the conference committee or no
bill at all during that session. Mr. Reagan stated the case
exactly when he said that it meant "letting six men settle what
the terms are to be, beyond our power of control, unless we
consent to a called session of Congress."
To deal with this situation, the House had refused to adopt the
rules of the preceding Congress; and after electing John G.
Carlisle as Speaker and authorizing the appointment of a
committee on rules, it deferred the appointment of the usual
legislative committees until after a new set of rules had been
adopted. The action of the Speaker in constituting the Rules
Committee was scrupulously fair to the contending interests. It
consisted of himself, Samuel J. Randall of Pennsylvania, and
William R. Morrison of Illinois from the Democratic side of the
House; and of Thomas B. Reed of Maine and Frank Hiscock of New
York from the Republican side. On the 14th of December, the
committee made two reports: a majority report presented by Mr.
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