Randall was more imperious in his mien. He was a party leader of
established renown which he had gained in the struggles over
force bills at the close of the reconstruction period. His
position on the tariff was that of a Pennsylvania protectionist,
and upon the tariff reform issue in 1883, he was defeated for the
Speakership. At that time, John G. Carlisle of Kentucky was
raised to that post, while Morrison again became chairman of the
Ways and Means Committee. But Randall, now appointed chairman of
the Appropriations Committee, had so great an influence that he
was able to turn about forty Democratic votes against the tariff
bill reported by the Ways and Means Committee, thus enabling the
Republicans to kill the bill by striking out the enacting clause.
Only this practical aim, then, was in view in the reports
presented by the committee on rules. The principal feature of the
majority report was a proposal to curtail the jurisdiction of the
Appropriations Committee by transferring to other committees five
of the eleven regular appropriation bills. What, from the
constitutional point of view, would appear to be the main
question--the recovery by the House of its freedom of action--was
hardly noticed in the report or in the debates which followed.
Heretofore, the rules had allotted certain periods to general
business; now, the majority report somewhat enlarged these
periods and stipulated that no committee should bring more than
one proposal before the House until all other committees had had
their turn.
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