would be taking the subject virtually away from the consideration
of congress at its present session. I do, however, hold that
there is no necessity for the creation of a special committee to
attend to this subject. The Committee on the Judiciary has within
the last few years, upon many occasions, attempted to deal with
it. Since you, sir, and I have been members of that committee--

Mr. HOAR: Mr. President--

The PRESIDENT _pro tempore_: Will the senator from Delaware yield
to the senator from Massachusetts?

Mr. BAYARD: I will, if he thinks it necessary to interrupt me.

Mr. HOAR: I desire to ask the senator, if he is willing, having
been lately a member of the committee to which he refers, whether
it is not the rule of that committee to allow no hearings to
individual petitioners, a rule which is departed from only in
very rare and peculiar cases?

Mr. BAYARD: I will reply to the honorable senator that the
occasion which arose to my mind and caused me to remember the
action of that committee was the audience given by it to a very
large delegation of woman suffragists, _to wit_, the
representatives of a convention held in this city, who to the
number, I think, of twenty-five, came into the committee-room of
the Committee on the Judiciary, and were heard, as I remember,
for more than one day, or certainly had more than one hearing,
before that committee, of which you, sir, and I were members.

Mr. HOAR: If the senator will pardon me, however, he has not
answered my question. I asked the senator not whether on one
particular occasion they gave a hearing on this subject, but
whether it is not the rule of that committee, occasioned by the
necessity of its business, from which it departs only in very
rare cases, not to give hearings?

Mr. BAYARD: I cannot answer whether a rule so defined as that
suggested by the honorable senator from Massachusetts exists in
that committee. It is my impression, however, that cases are
frequently, by order of that committee, argued before it. We have
had very elaborate and able arguments upon subjects connected
with the Pacific railroads, I remember; and we have had arguments
upon various subjects. It is constantly our pleasure to hear
members of the Senate upon a variety of questions before tha