A Plan to Restore to the House a Real Deliberative Character

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Excerpt from A Plan to Restore to the House a Real Deliberative Character: Speech of Hon. David J. Lewis, of Maryland, in the House of Representatives, Thursday, April 27, 1911 Another virtue is that the law of the survival of the fittest has an application to the Members without regard to whether they are new Members or old, there is a process of selection securing the talent most apposite to the measure. If it so hap pens that the new Member belonging to a particular section shows, let us fancy, particular knowledge about parcels post or a compensation bill, that he knows more of that subject, than the others and will be best able to handle it in a competent manner, he is selected as the reporter for that measure and submits the report of his section to the central eetion. If, again, it transpires that in the central section he displays the same superiority, he is selected as the common reporter for the central section, representative of the whole deliberative body. In that way, in utter disregard of the mere accidents of the distribution of committee appointments, the man most com petent, the person most representative of the views of the majority of the deliberative body, is selected to steer the meas ure before the House when it reaches that stage. A characteristic illustration of its operation may be seen in the instance of a very distinguished man, the late prime minister of France. As every Member belongs to some section and has an opportunity to participate in the consideration of every meas ure referred to it, it eventuated in his case, with regard to a notable measure, that he was considered the most competent master of the subject in his section. He was accordingly se lcotea by his section as the spokesman for it. In the central section again, the same fact developed. He was again the man selected to steer the measure through the turbulent House of Deputies of France. He was next heard of throughout the world as Briand, the prime minister of France, although belonging to an extremely minor party, with very radical feelings and opinions, and in a country that respects property as much as we do here. [loud applause. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.