FIRST CLOTURE RULE EVER ADOPTED BY U.S. SENATE

JFK+50:  Volume 7, No. 2242

SENATE PASSES CLOTURE RULE 76-3

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) 100 years ago today, March 8, 1917, the United States Senate passed the first cloture rule* ever enacted by that body.  The vote followed a successful filibuster which killed President Woodrow Wilson's Armed Ships Bill which would have given him the power to arm American merchant ships.

Senator Albert B. Cummins** of Iowa, a Republican, said he voted for cloture, not because the President 'demanded it,' but because the Senator had supported the cloture rule 'ever since (he) arrived in the Senate.'

Senators Sherman and Townsend "excoriated" the President for his statement assailing the Senate in which "a portion of the truth was deliberately omitted to arouse greater resentment against the few senators who stood against the armed neutrality bill."

Senator Sherman opposed cloture on the grounds that "it meant the gagging of the Senate."

President Wilson called the senators participating in the filibuster "a little group of willful men representing no opinion but their own."  Thomas W. Ryley argues in his 1976 book that the senators were "dedicated persons...who...felt it necessary to oppose Wilson's steamroller tactics."

*Cloture Rule, a procedure for ending debate & taking a vote in a legislative body.  It is used to break a filibuster.  The 1917 Senate Cloture Rule provided that when 16 senators wanted a vote, they made a motion & if 2/3 of the Senate ordered a vote, one would be taken.

**Albert Baird Cummins (1850-1926) was born in Carmichaels, PA & studied at Waynesburg College. He studied law in Chicago & opened his practice in Des Moines, Iowa.  

After serving as governor of Iowa, ABC represented his state in the US Senate 1908 to 1926.  He was president pro tempore of the USS from 1919-1925.  ABC voted for the war declaration of 1917 but opposed Wilson on the armed ships issue and US membership in the League of Nations. 

SOURCE

"A Little Group of Willful Men:  A Study of Congressional-Presidential Authority," by Thomas W. Ryley, Indiana Magazine of History, September 1976, www.scholarworks.iu.edu/

"Senate Reforms Itself, Cloture Rule Wins 76-3, Score Wilson," The Chicago Daily Tribune, March 9, 1917, www.archives.chicagotribune.com/

Senator Albert Baird Cummins

Harris & Ewing Collection (1911)

Library of Congress Photo

HOUSES PASSES ARMED SHIPS BILL

JFK+50:  Volume 7, No. 2235

HOUSE PASSES BILL GIVING PRESIDENT POWER TO ARM SHIPS

Washington, D.C.  (JFK+50) 100 years ago this evening, March 1, 1917, the United States House of Representatives passed a bill 403-13 to give President Woodrow Wilson the power to arm American ships and the appropriation of $100 million to accomplish that feat.

A provision to also give the President the authority to use "other instrumentalities" was not included in the House bill, but the United States Senate was expected to pass their version of the bill the following day with that provision included.

Minority Leader James Robert Mann*, who opposed America's entering the world war, voted for the House bill to protect American lives.  The House legislation had bi-partisan support.**

*James Robert Mann (1856-1922) was born near Bloomington, IL & graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana in 1856.  JRM graduated from Union College of Law in 1881.

JRM served in the US House of Representatives from 1897 to 1922 & was minority leader from 1911 to 1919.  He was co-sponsor of the Mann-Elkins Act which gave additional power to the ICC to regulate railroad rates.  He was author of the Mann Act which forbade transport of women between states for purposes of prostitution.

**The Senate's Armed Ships Bill was killed by a filibuster led by Senator Robert LaFollette from Feb 28 to March 4, 1917.

SOURCE

"House Grants Wilson Power to Arm Ships, Bill is passed in a Burst of Patriotism," Chicago Daily Tribune, March 2, 1917, www.archives.chicagotribune.com/

James Robert Mann

Congressman (R-IL)

Library of Congress Photo (1916)