May cause sheets to be dry-pressed.

House members

may direct bind

from the house in which the same may be made.”—Stat. at Large, Vol. X, p. 34.

They may cause the printed sheets for the finer description of books authorized to be printed by either house to be dry-pressed before being bound, the cost not to exceed the sum of 50 cents per ream, medium.—Ibid., p. 645.

The committee on the part of the House may direct ing of certain ex- the binding of extra copies of documents, the size of tra documents. which shall not be less than 250 pages; the cost not to exceed 12 cents per volume.-Ibid., p. 190.

May control the order in which

done.

procurement

engraving.

of

They may control the order in which the Superintendprinting is to be ent shall deliver matter to be printed.—Ibid., p. 31. Shall direct the Whenever any charts, maps, diagrams, views, or other engravings shall be required to illustrate any document ordered to be printed by either house of Congress, such engraving shall be procured by the Superintendent, under the direction and supervision of the Committee on Printing of the house ordering the same.-Stat. at Large, Vol. XII, pp. 117 to 120.

To appoint per: son to edit and

documents to be

prepare index.

By the act of June 25, 1864, it is made the duty of select portions of said committee to appoint some competent person, who printed, and to shall edit and select such portion of the documents accompanying the annual reports of the heads of Departments as shall, in their judgment, be desirable for popular distribution, and to prepare an alphabetical index to the same. (See act of July 27, 1866, under head of PRINTING, PUBLIC, ante.)

tracts.

To direct en- By the same act said committee shall have the direction, graving and lithographing con- after advertisement, of all lithographing and engraving where it exceeds $250 in value; and they are authorized to empower the Superintendent to make immediate contracts for engraving, whenever, in their opinion, the exigencies of the public service will not justify waiting for advertisement and award.

To direct the furnishing of ex

By the same act the Superintendent is authorized, tra copies of doc. under the direction of said committee, to furnish extra uments to any copies of such documents as may be desired by any person. By the same act said committee shall have prepared under their direction a complete alphabetical index

person.

Shall have prepared index to the laws.

PRIORITY OF BUSINESS-PRIORITY OF QUESTIONS.

of the laws directed to be furnished for publication by the Secretary of the Senate.-Stat. at Large, Vol. XIII, pp. 185, 186.

171

of, shall report,

ing.

"There shall be referred by the Clerk to the members of House members the Committee on Printing on the part of the House all &c., on engrav drawings, maps, charts, or other papers, which may at any time come before the House, for engraving, lithographing, or publishing in any way; which committee shall report to the House whether the same ought, in their opinion, to be published; and if the House order the publication of the same, that committee shall direct the size and manner of execution of all such maps, charts, drawings, or other papers, and contract by agreement, in writing, for all such engraving, lithographing, printing, drawing, and coloring, as may be ordered by the House; which agreement, in writing, shall be furnished by said committee to the Committee of Accounts, to govern said committee in all allowances for such works; and it shall be in order for said committee to report at all times."-Rule 100.

"It shall be in order for the Committee on Printing to May report at any time. report at any time."-Rule 101. And the right to report

at any time carries with it the right to consider the matter when reported.-Journal, 1, 32, p. 195.

(See also PRINTING, PUBLIC.)

PRIORITY OF BUSINESS.

"All questions relating to the priority of business to Question relabe acted on shall be decided without debate.”—Rule 66.

tive to, not debatable.

PRIORITY OF QUESTIONS.

is under debate.

"When a question is under debate, no motion shall when a question be received but to adjourn, to lie on the table, for the previous question, to postpone to a day certain, to commit or amend, to postpone indefinitely; which several motions shall have precedence in the order in which they are arranged; and no motion to commit or to postpone indefinitely, being decided, shall be again allowed on the same day and at the same stage of the bill or proposition."-Rule 42. [When any one of the foregoing

On motions of reference.

Private bills.

Relief from the test oath held to be private.

Take prece dence on Friday and Saturday.

motion is received, the practice is not to entertain another of lower dignity until the former is disposed of.]

"When a resolution shall be offered, or a motion made to refer any subject, and different committees shall be proposed, the question shall be taken in the following order: the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union; the Committee of the Whole House; a standing committee; a select committee."-Rule 43.

PRIVATE BILLS AND PRIVATE BUSINESS.

[The line of distinction between public and private bills is so difficult to be defined in many cases that it must rest on the opinion of the Speaker and the details of the bill. It has been the practice in Parliament, and also in Congress, to consider as private such as are "for the interest of individuals, public companies or corporations, a parish, city, or county, or other locality." To be a private bill, it must not be general in its enactments, but for the particular interest or benefit of a person or persons. A pension bill for the relief of a soldier's widow is a private bill; but a bill granting pensions to such persons as a class, instead of as individuals, is a public bill. Bills for the incorporation of companies, and whose operations are confined within the District of Columbia, have been treated as private; but where such companies are authorized to have agencies and transact business outside of the limits of the District, they are treated as public. Bills granting lands for railroads have always been held to be public; while a bill authorizing the extension of a railroad into the District of Columbia, or conferring certain privileges upon such an incorporation, has been held to be private.]

A bill relieving a person elected to the House from taking the test oath is held to be a private bill.—Journal, 2, 41, pp. 265, 266.

"Friday and Saturday in every week shall be set apart for the consideration of private bills and private business in preference to any other, unless otherwise determined by a majority of the House."-Rule 128. And such bills may also be considered in their order on

other days, notwithstanding their precedence on Friday But may be conand Saturday.-Journal, 1, 19, p. 795.

sidered on other days.

determine what

When all private business has been disposed of on Majority may Friday or Saturday, it is competent for a majority to to consider after disposing of. determine what business shall be considered.-Journal, 1, 26, p. 460.

into a Committee

House takes pre

mo

tion to go into

A motion to go into Committee of the Whole House A motion to go on the state of the Union may be entertained on private of the Whole bill day, (Journal, 2, 22, p. 212 et passim ;) but the mo- cedence of tion to go into a Committee of the Whole House takes Union. precedence, (Journals, 1, 29, p. 850; 1, 30, p. 775,) [unless, according to the general, although not universal practice, a special order is pending in the former.]

Court of Claims.

"The bills from the Court of Claims shall, on being Bills from the laid before the House, be read a first and second time, committed to a Committee of the Whole House, and, together with the accompanying reports, printed.”— Rule 122.

to a Committee

House.

[Although there is no express rule requiring it, except By usage, go in the preceding case in regard to bills from the Court of the Whole of Claims, it is the usage in the commitment of private bills to send them to a Committee of the Whole House, while public bills are sent to a Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union.]-(See COMMITTEES OF THE WHOLE.)

On fourth Friday

such as are not

be considered.

"On the first and fourth Friday and Saturday of each on first and month the calendar of private bills shall be called over, and Saturday, (the chairman of the Committee of the Whole House objected to are to commencing the call where he left off the previous day,) and the bills to the passage of which no objection shall then be made shall be first considered and disposed of. But when a bill is again reached, after having been once objected to, the committee shall consider and dispose of the same, unless it shall again be objected to by at least five members."-Rule 129. And this rule applies as well to the consideration of bills in the House as in Committee of the Whole.-Journal, 1, 31, p. 697. [On such days, objection, such as is indicated by the above rule, or debate arising thereon, is fatal to the further consideration of a bill, but an amendment may be entertained and

174

PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS, COMMITTEE ON―PRIVILEGE.

When appointed,

and number of.

Its duty.

Privilege from

arrest.

voted on. And after a bill has been objected to, and on that account passed over, it cannot, without unanimous consent, be recurred to.]

PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS, COMMITTEE ON.

There shall be appointed at the commencement of each Congress a Committee on Private Land Claims, to consist of nine members.-Rule 74.

"It shall be the duty of the Committee on Private Land Claims to take into consideration all claims to land which may be referred to them, or shall or may come in question, and to report their opinion thereupon, together with such propositions for relief therein as to them shall seem expedient."-Rule 86.

PRIVILEGE.

"Senators and Representatives shall, in all cases except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privi leged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective houses, and in going to and returnNot to be ques- ing from the same; and for any speech or debate in House for speech either house they shall not be questioned in any other place."-Const., 1, 6, 9.

tioned out of

or debate in House.

Privilege from

arrest.

House may ex pel its members.

Penalties inflicted for breach of

"This privilege from arrest privileges, of course, against all process the disobedience to which is punishable by an attachment of the person; as a subpœna ad respondendum or testificandum, or a summons on a jury; and with reason, because a member has superior duties to perform in another place."-Manual, p. 58.

"Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly conduct, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member.”Const., 1, 5, 8.

In the maintenance of what are denominated its privileges, and of the privileges of its individual members, the House, in former Congresses, has imposed various penalties.

In some cases it has directed its Speaker to reprimand the party offending.-Journals, 1, 4, p. 389; 1, 15, p. 154; 1, 22, pp. 730, 736.