April 17, 1911 (3)

Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. President, I call up the motion I entered this morning to reconsider the action of the Senate in referring the joint resolution on the subject of the election of Senators by the people to the Committee on Privileges and Elections.

The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Texas moves to reconsider the action by which House joint resolution 30 was referred to the Committee on Privileges and Elections .

Mr. GALLINGER. I ask the Senator from Texas if he has any objection to letting the motion go over until the next m · meeting of the Senate.

Mr. CULBERSON. After a full consideration of the matter I must insist upon action now on the motion . '

Mr. BORAH. Mr. President, as I stated this morning, I was absent, necessarily, at the time this matter arose in the first instance before tlle Senate, nna I desire to say now briefly what I should have mid then had I been present.

This joint resolution in the same form was before the Judiciary Committee during the last session of Congress, and was passed upon favorably by the committee and brought to the expired. Senate, and with some modi.Ilcation voted upon . Some three or four resolutions covering the same subject matter hn:rn been introduced during this extraordinary session :rnd have alre:i.dy gone to the Judiciary Committee, and I naturally assumed that the resolution coming here from the House would follow the course of the other resolutions and go to the Judiciary Committee

I think that this joint resolution ought to be referred to the Judiciary Committee for a number of very good reasons. The first and most important reason is that to my mind the joint resolution has fared much better before the Judiciary Committee than it has fared before other committees. I desire to be entirely frank in regard to the matter . I am exceedingly anxious that the joint resolution should come before the Senate at as early n day as is practicable or possible, as are all friends of the resolution; and we feel that it should take the course which it has heretofore taken with some degree of success of its being heard.

Of course I am not to be construed as personally criticizing the members of the Committee on Privileges and Elections, but it is nevertheless n. fact that that committee has had similar resolutions before it off and on for the last 20 years, and they have never reached the Senate so far as I have been able to determine as yet . I know the joint resolution will fare somewhat better if it is placed before the committee where it has already been passed upon fayorably.

But there is a second reason which is a very good reason to my mind. There are questions involved in the joint resolution which are of considerable moment from a legal standpoint, and if the joint resolution should go to the Committee on Privileges and Elections it would very likely at some time during the session be referred to the Judiciary Committee for action, bcca use there are questions involved in the resolution which the Judiciary Committee naturally have jurisdiction to consider, and it would undoubtedly be thought proper for that committee to take charge of the resolution . I do not know of anything that is of special importance in regard to the resolution that the Committee on Privileges and Elections would be peculiarly equipped to pass upon, but there are matters involved in the resolution upon which the Judiciary Committee, in the discharge of its proper functions and the exercise of its proper jurisdiction, ought to consider.

I hope, Mr . President, that this joint resolution will finally find its place before the committee where the other resolutions which have been introduced have gone, where this resolution in the same form at one time rested, and from which it came, the committee which really exercises a jurisdiction that ought to be exercised in this particular instance.

The VICE PRESIDENT . The question is on the motion of the Senator from Texas to reconsider the action of the Senate referring the joint resolution to the Committee on Privileges and Elections .

The motion to reconsider was agreed to .

l\fr. CULBERSON . I move that the joint resolution be referred to the Committee on the Judiciary .

l\Ir. GALLINGER. I ask that the title of the joint resolution

The VICE PRESIDENT. The title will be read .

The Secretary. A joint resolution (II . J . Res . 39) proposing an amendment to the Constitution providing that Senators shall be elected by the people of the several States.

Mr. GALLINGER . I object to a second reading of the joint resolution to-day.

The VICE PRESIDENT. The joint resolution goes over under the rule.

EXECUTIVE SESSION.

l\fr . CULLOM . I move that the Senate proceed to the consideration of executive business .

The motion was agreed to, and the Senate proceeded to the consideration of executive business . After fiyc minutes spent in executive session the doors were reopened, and (at 2 o'clock and 35 minutes p. m . ) the Senate adjourned until Thursday, April 20, 1911, at 12 o'clock meridian.

NOMINATIONS.

Executive nominations rcccivca by the Senate April 11, 1911.

UNITED STATES l\fA.RSHA.LS.

Herbert L . Faulkner, of Alaska, to be United States marshal for the district of Alaska, division No . 1, vice · Daniel A. Sutherland, removed. (Mr . Faulkner is now .serving under _ appointment by the court.)

Edward . S. Schmidt, of Indiana, to be United States marshal for the district of Indiana, vice Henry C. Pettit, whose term bas

UNITED STATES ATTORNEY.

Robert C. Lee, of Mississippi, to be United States attorney for the southern district of Mississippi. (A. r<'"""pointment, his term having expired January 19, 1010.)

PROMOTIONS IN THE ARMY.

QUARTERMASTER'S DEPARTMENT.

Capt. Kensey J. Hampton, quartermaster, to be quartermaster with the rank of major from March 3, 1911, to fill an original vacancy.

ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT.

Maj. Colden L'H. Ruggles, Ordnance Department, to be lieutenant colonel from April 13, 1011, vice Lieut. Col. Frank E. Hobbs, who died April 12, 1011.

INF ANTBY ARM.

Second Lieut. Hornsby Evans, Nineteenth Infantry, to be first lieutenant from :March 2, 1911, vice First Lieut. Kaolin L. Whitson, Ninth Infantry, who died March 1, 1911.

PORTO RICO REGIMENT OF INFANTRY.

First Lieut. William H. Armstrong, Porto Rico Regiment of Infantry, to be captain from March 31, 1911, vice Capt. Emil J. Huel.lscher, retired from active service March 30, lDll.

Second Lieut. Daniel Rodriguez, Porto Rico Regiment of Infantry, to be first lieutenant from March 31, 1011, vice First Lieut. William H. Armstrong, promoted.

APPOINTMENTS IN TIIE ARMY.

ll!EDICAL RESERVE CORPS.

To be first lieutenGtnts with rank fr<nn April 12, 1911.

Joseph Cushman Breitling, of Vermont.

Charles Frye Sanborn. of Illinois.

Walter li'ranz von Zelinski, of Illinois.

William Holland Wilmer, of the District of Columbia.

To be first lieutenant with rnn7;,jroni February 16, 1911.

Jolm Edwin Rhodes, of Illinois.

NoTE.-The al>ove-nametl person was nominated to the Senate on February 21, 1011, under the nnrue of John Edwin Rhoades, for appointment to the designated office, and his nomination was confirmed :March 2, lDll.

This message is submitted for the purpose of correcting an error in the name of the nominee.