.

making any payment to any officers or persons as aforesaid, whose compensation is determined by a fixed salary, or upon settling or adjusting the accounts of such officers or persons, to deduct and withhold the aforesaid tax of two per centum; and the pay roll, receipts, or account of officers or persons paying such tax as aforesaid shall be made to exhibit the fact of such payment.-Stats. at L., vol. 28, p. 557.

The salary and accounts for traveling expenses in going to and returning from Congress of Senators shall be certified by the President of the Senate, and those of Representatives and Delegates by the Speaker of the House of Representatives.R. S., sec. 47.

The certificate given pursuant to the preceding section shall be conclusive upon all the Departments and offices of the Government.-R. S., sec. 48.

The Secretary of the Senate and Sergeant-at-Arms of the House, respectively, shall deduct from the monthly payments of each Member or Delegate the amount of his salary for each day that he has been absent from the Senate or House, respectively, unless such Member or Delegate assigns as the reason for such absence the sickness of himself or of some member of his family.-R. S., sec. 40. (See Call of the House.)

In order to carry into effect the foregoing section in April, 1894, second session Fifty-second Congress, the Sergeant-atArms notified Members to certify the number of days they had been absent otherwise than on account of sickness. It was thereupon insisted in the House that Section 40 of the Revised Statutes had been in effect repealed by subsequent legislation. The Speaker, however, sustained the action of the Sergeantat-Arms, and declared that he, the Speaker, would not certify the salary due any member, who failed to furnish the required information as to the time, and the reason, of his absence.Journal, 2, 53, pp. 358, 359. (See also Cong. Record, 2, 53, pp. 5047, 5048, 5051.)

When any Member or Delegate withdraws from his seat and does not return before the adjournment of Congress, he shall, in addition to the sum deducted for each day, forfeit a sum equal to the amount which would have been allowed by law for his traveling expenses in returning home; and such sum shall be deducted from his compensation, unless the withdrawal is

with the leave of the Senate or House of Representatives, respectively.-R. S., sec. 41.

When any book is ordered to and received by any Member or Delegate, by a resolution of either or both Houses of Congress, the price paid for the same shall be deducted from the compensation of such Member or Delegate; except books ordered to be printed by the Congressional Printer during the Congress for which the Member or Delegate was elected.-R. S., sec. 42. No Member or Delegate is entitled to any allowance for newspapers.-R. S., sec. 43.

No contestee or contestant for a seat in the House of Representatives shall be paid exceeding two thousand dollars for expenses in the election contest, and before any sum whatever shall be paid to a contestant or a contestee for expenses of election contest, he shall file with the clerk of the Committee on Elections a full and detailed account of his expenses, accompanied by the vouchers and the receipt for each item, which account and vouchers shall be sworn to by the parties presenting the same, and no charges for witness fees shall be allowed in said account unless made in strict conformity to section one hundred and twenty-eight, Revised Statutes of the United States.-Stat. L., vol. 20, p. 400.

The compensation of officers and employés of the House as fixed by law or resolution is paid by the Clerk by warrant on the Treasurer of the United States.

CONCURRENCE.

The question which first arises on a resolution, amendment, or conference report is on concurrence. And as the negative of concurrence amounts to the affirmative of nonconcurrence, i. e., disagreement, no question is afterward put on the latter motion.

The House may concur in some of the Senate amendments and disagree to others, or it may concur in an amendment with an amendment thereto. In the latter event the vote must first be taken on concurring in the amendment with the proposed amendment thereto, for if the vote be first taken on concurrence, however the question be decided, the action would be final, and the vote on the proposed amendment to the amendment would be precluded.

A motion to refer Senate amendments to a committee, takes precedence over the motion to concur, for, otherwise, the refusal to concur being equivalent to nonconcurrence, the matter would in either event be concluded and the House precluded from committing the subject should it so desire.-Congressional Record, 1, 48, p. 3942.

Senate amendments to House bills which require consideration in the Committee of the Whole must be referred in the first instance to a standing or select committee of the House pursuant to Rule XI; but amendments of the Senate which do not require consideration in Committee of the Whole may be immediately acted on when laid before the House, and may be concurred in, disagreed to, or concurred in with amendments, as the House may desire.-See decision of Speaker Crisp, and rulings of Speaker Carlisle and of Speaker Reed therein cited. Congressional Record, 2, 52, pp. 1150-1153. Journal, 2, 52, p. 68; Ibid., p. 79.

An amendment of the Senate not requiring consideration in Committee of the Whole is, when laid before the House for action, subject to the motion to commit and other parliamentary motions, provided the previous question is not demanded on the motion to concur.-Journal, 2, 52, p. 101.

A Senate amendment being before the House generally, the question would arise on concurrence even without a motion therefor, and if a demand for the previous question were entertained and the previous question ordered, the motions to amend or commit would be cut off and the House brought to a direct vote on the Senate amendment. If, however, the previous question be not first demanded on concurring, the motions to commit or amend would take precedence of the question of concurrence.

(See Amendments between the two Houses.)

CONFERENCE COMMITTEES.

It is on the occasion of amendments between the Houses that conferences are usually asked; but they may be asked in all cases of difference of opinion between the two Houses on maters depending between them.-Manual, p. 175. A conference committee, under the usage, consists of three Members of the

Senate and three Members of the House; but on the occasion of measures of unusual importance a greater number of conferees is sometimes appointed by each House.-Journals, 2, 47, p. 521; 1,51, p. 1047; 2, 53, p. 470.

A committee of conference is practically two distinct committees, each of which acts by a majority.-Journal, 1, 30, p. 1283; 15 Congressional Globe, 1179.

The usual course of proceeding previous to a conference is for one House to disagree to the other's amendment, and for the amending House to insist upon its amendment and ask a conference. Journals, 1, 35, pp. 711, 933, 1062. But it sometimes happens, near the close of the session, that one House disagrees to the other's amendment and thereupon asks a conference.-Journals, 1, 3, pp. 221, 222; 2, 35, p. 564. (See Senate Journal, 2, 42, p. 850, H. R. 1; Ibid., p. 1003, H. R. 2705; and 3, 45, p. 433, H. R. 6471. See also proceedings in the Senate, H. R. 2228, 1, 48, Congressional Record, vol. 67, pp. 3974, 3975, 3976, and 4098, 4099, 1004, and 4101.) A conference sometimes takes place after one House has adhered.-Journals, 1, 3, pp. 281, 283; 2, 3, p. 254; 1, 34, pp. 1600, 1602; 1, 35, pp. 604, 615, 620; Senate Journal, January 20, 1834; Manual, p. 176.

In the ordinary parliamentary course there are two free conferences at least before an adherence. There are sometimes three and even four conferences before a matter of difference is disposed of.-Journals, 1, 34, pp. 943, 1600; 1, 35, p. 1136.

In the case of disagreeing votes between the two Houses, the House may either recede, insist and ask a conference, or adhere, and motions for such purposes take precedence in that order. (See Manual, p. 164; Journals, 1, 23, p. 229; 1, 34, pp. 1516, 1518.)

Even though the previous question may be pending on a motion to insist or to adhere, a motion to recede, which removes the disagreement between the Houses and passes the bill, may be made, but in such case is not debatable.

A member of a conference committee who may be absent on the business of the committee is, according to the practice, understood to be absent by leave of the House.

Where a conference committee is unable to agree, that fact is reported, and another committee is usually asked for and

appointed.-Journals, 1, 31, p. 1681; 1, 34, pp. 838, 919, 1516, 1518; 3, 34, p. 663; 1, 35, p. 1118.

So, too, when a report is disagreed to, another conference usually takes place.-Journals, 2, 27, p. 1248; 3, 34, pp. 653, 655; 1, 35, pp. 1105, 1106.

The proceedings when there has been a disagreement between the two branches of a legislative body are different in many respects from the proceedings in other cases. The paramount object of all such proceedings is to bring the two branches to an agreement. Therefore, either may, without reconsidering previous votes, take action in a directly, opposite direction. For instance, the House may refuse to concur in an amendment and may afterward insist again and again upon its disagreement to the amendment, and yet it may ultimately, without reconsidering any of these votes, recede absolutely from its disagreement, or recede from it with an amendment, as its judgment may dictate. And while it is competent under the recent practice of the House to instruct conference committees, still the House in that case, as in the other, may ultimately recede from its disagreement to the very amendment in regard to which it had instructed its conferees to insist on a disagreement; and that may be done with or without a conference report upon the subject. The whole effect of the conference report in such a case is to bring the matter again directly before the body for its consideration and action, and does not bind the House at all. The House may refuse to agree to it, in which case the whole subject is again open; and the House may absolutely recede from its disagreement to the Senate amendment, or recede and agree thereto with an amendment. Speaker Carlisle, Cong. Record, 1, 49, p. 7826.

The House having disagreed to amendinents of the Senate to a House bill, and a conference on the disagreeing votes having been ordered, it is competent for the House, pending the conference, to discharge its conferees from further consideration of the bill and amendments and recede from its disagreement to such amendments.-Journal, 2, 53, pp. 563, 561. The request for a conference must always be by the House which is possessed of the papers.-Manual, p. 176.

In all cases of conference asked after a vote of disagreement,