You multiply eightfold the very evils of
which you complain." James H. Blount of Georgia sought to
mitigate the evils of the situation by giving a number of other
committees the same privilege as the appropriation committees,
but this proposal at once raised a storm, for appropriation
committees had leave to report at any time, and to extend the
privilege would prevent expeditious handling of appropriation
bills. Mr. Blount's motion was, therefore, voted down without a
division.
While in the debate, the pretense of facilitating routine
business was ordinarily kept up; occasional intimations of actual
ulterior purpose leaked out, as when John B. Storm of
Pennsylvania remarked that it was a valuable feature of the rules
that they did hamper action and "that the country which is least
governed is the best governed, is a maxim in strict accord with
the idea of true civil liberty." William McKinley was also of the
opinion that barriers were needed "against the wild projects and
visionary schemes which will find advocates in this House." Some
years later, when the subject was again up for discussion, Thomas
B. Reed went to the heart of the situation when he declared that
the rules had been devised not to facilitate action but to
obstruct it, for "the whole system of business here for years has
been to seek methods of shirking, not of meeting, the questions
which the people present for the consideration of their
representatives.
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