beyond the control of the member.-Journals, 1, 50, p. 2722; 1, 51, p. 1044.

(See Motions; Suspension of Rules.)

MORNING HOUR.

On all days other than the first and third Mondays in each month, as soon as the business on the Speaker's table has been disposed of, there shall be a morning hour for reports from committees, which shall be appropriately referred and printed, and a copy thereof mailed by the Public Printer to each Member and Delegate, if requested in writing by the Member or Delegate; and the Speaker shall call upon each standing committee in regular order and then upon the select committees; and if the whole of the hour is not consumed by this call, then it shall be in order to proceed to the consideration of other business as hereinafter provided; but if he shall not complete the call within the hour, he shall resume it in the succeeding morning hour where he left off.-Rule XXIV, clause 2.

The morning hour for the call of committees shall not be dispensed with except by a vote of two-thirds of those present and voting thereon.-Rule XXIV, clause 3.

A motion to dispense with the morning hour, or other motion incidental to the daily order of business expires with the day on which it is made and does not recur as unfinished business on the succeeding day.-Journal, 1, 53, p. 88.

Inasmuch as private bills are reported and referred to the calendars by delivery to the Clerk, pursuant to Rule XIII, clause 2, it follows that only bills of a public character can be reported to the House during the morning hour.

There is, pursuant to Rule XXIV, clause.4, a morning hour on Friday for reports on public business, and inferentially the rule (XXVI) setting apart Friday for private business is to that extent modified. (See Journals, 1, 52, p. 118.)

A privileged proposition, if reported during the morning hour for reports, loses its privilege and takes its place on the Calendar.-Congressional Record, 1, 50, p. 7641. But where the privilege is not dependent merely upon the right of the committee to report at any time, reference to the Calendar during the morning hour does not destroy the privileged character of the report.-Journal, 2, 53, pp. 53, 54.

During this hour bills reported are usually referred to the House Calendar or to the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, as the Speaker may determine, subject, of course, to the decision of the House.

All bills reported adversely shall be laid on the table, unless the committee reporting the same at the time, or any Member within three days thereafter, shall request its reference to the Calendar, when it shall be referred as provided in clause 1 of this rule.-Rule XIII, clause 3.

In case of an adverse report on a Senate bill during this hour it is usual to order that the bill be postponed indefinitely. If objection be made, however, to this course the bill adversely reported must go on the Calendar.

It is usual during the morning hour to entertain a request by a minority to present and print its views.

It is also the practice for committees to report public bills in this hour, with a recommendation that they be referred to another committee, when the first reference is deemed erroneous; although under clause 3 of Rule XXII the correction of an erroneous reference of a proposition (other than a private bill or petition) presents a privileged question, and is in order immediately after the reading of the Journal.

It is not in order during the morning hour to entertain a motion or request to proceed to the consideration of a bill when reported.

The morning hour, which by the rule is exclusively devoted to reports from committees, is sometimes confounded with the hour for the consideration of bills provided for in clause 4, Rule XXIV. The consideration hour on each day other than Mondays and Fridays follows immediately after the morning hour, unless prevented by the House resolving into Committee of the Whole to consider revenue or general appropriation bills, or unless other privileged business intervene. (See Hour for the Consideration of Bills.)

ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE RULE.

The morning hour as it now exists in the rules had its origin in the rule respecting the order of business adopted February 19, 1807, as follows:

"After the petitions have been presented and disposed of the reports of the standing committees of the House shall be called for in the order of their appointment at the beginning of the session.

"Reports from select committees shall then be received. "The above shall be done at no other part of the day. The House shall then consider other business," etc.-Journal, 2, 9, p. 395.

In the Seventeenth Congress, March 13, 1822, this rule was amended so as to read:

"The petitions having been presented and disposed of, reports, first from the standing and then from the select committees, shall be called for and disposed of. And not more than one hour in each day shall be devoted to the subject of reports from committees and resolutions; after which the Speaker shall dispose of the bills, messages, and communications on his table, and then proceed to call the orders of the day.

"The above business shall be done at no other part of the day, except by permission of the House."-Journal, 1, 17, p.

350.

The provisions of this rule with some change in arrangement were substantially continued in force until the Twenty-second Congress, January 5, 1832 (Journal, 1, 22, p. 155), when the limitation of one hour for reports was removed, and in lieu thereof was inserted a provision that after one hour devoted to such reports it should be in order to move to proceed to other designated business. In the first session, Twenty-fifth Congress, September 15, 1837, it was provided that if the House passes to other business before the call is completed, the call is to be resumed the next day where it was left off. And in the first session Thirty-fifth Congress, December 7, 1857, it was further provided that whenever any committee should have occupied the morning hour on two days it should not be in order for such committee to report further until the other committees were called in turn. The rule as thus successively modified was continued in force until the Forty-sixth Congress.

It will be observed that hitherto it was the practice and reg

ularly in order for the House to consider and dispose of reports as soon as made by the committees. In the Forty-sixth Congress the innovation of Calendars (or dockets) of the several classes of reports was established, as provided in Rule XIII, and at the same time the rule relating to order of business (now Rule XXIV) was so modified as to confine the morning hour to reports of committees for reference only, either to the calendars, or to other committees, where a change from the former reference was desired.

The morning hour for reports as thus limited in its scope was retained down to the Fifty-first Congress, when the system of making reports by a mere delivery thereof to the Clerk was instituted in its stead.

In the Fifty-second Congress the morning hour for reports was again established, as it is also in the Fifty-third, but is confined exclusively to reports on public business, since the present Rule XIII (clause 2) requires reports on private business to be made by delivery to the Clerk for reference to the calendars.

The call of committees for reports never actually occupies more than a few minutes, and the designation morning hour, as thus applied, is somewhat misleading.

In the Forty-ninth Congress the order of business, was amended by adding a provision for the calling of committees for one hour, during which, business of a public character previously reported might be called up for consideration; (see Rule XXIV) this hour to follow the so-called morning hour for reports. The hour for the consideration of business previously reported has been retained in the rules since its adoption in the Fortyninth Congress, but was amended in the Fifty-third Congress so as to include private as well as public business, and comprehends the chief purpose of the morning hour under the early practice.

(See Hour for Consideration of Bills.)

MOTIONS.

Every motion made to the House and entertained by the Speaker shall be reduced to writing on the demand of any Member, and shall be entered on the Journal with the name of

the Member making it, unless it is withdrawn the same day.— Rule XVI, clause 1.

When a motion has been made, the Speaker shall state it, or (if it be in writing) cause it to be read aloud by the Clerk before being debated, and it shall then be in possession of the House, but may be withdrawn at any time before a decision or amendment.-Rule XVI, clause 2.

Motions are sometimes entered on the Journal, even when they are withdrawn the same day, in the event of other business intervening between the making of the motion and its withdrawal.

Whether a motion may be withdrawn after an order for the yeas and nays thereon, which may be demanded by one-fifth of those present, seems to be an open question. As, according to the practice, this is but a method of taking a vote, it is not clear that it should be so construed as to deprive the mover of his control of the proposition.

It may be withdrawn while the House is dividing on a demand for the previous question (Journal, 2, 29, p. 241), and all incidental questions fall with such withdrawal.-Journal, 1, 26, p. 57.

A motion to dispense with the morning hour or other motion incidental to the daily order of business expires with the day on which it is made, and does not recur as unfinished business on the succeeding day.―Journal, 1, 53, p. 88.

A Member may submit more than one motion in connection with a pending proposition, if the latter motion is of higher dignity than the former.-Journals, 2, 33, pp. 483, 486; 2, 35, p.

477.

A motion to strike out the enacting words of a bill shall have precedence of a motion to amend; and if carried shall be considered equivalent to its rejection. Whenever a bill is reported from a Committee of the Whole with an adverse recommendation, and such recommendation is disagreed to by the House, the bill shall stand recommitted to said committee without further action by the House. But before the question of concurrence is submitted, it is in order to entertain a motion to refer the bill to any committee of the House, with or without instructions, and when the same is again reported to the House