can secure an
opportunity for those bills which he wishes the House to pass and ensure
the defeat of those to which he is opposed by giving so many other
matters the preference that they can not be reached before the close of
the second session.

The power thus exercised by the speaker, coupled with that of the
committees, imposes an effectual restraint not only on the individual
members, but on the majority as well. A large majority of the bills
introduced are vetoed by the committees or "killed" by simply not
reporting them back to the House. There is no way in which the House can
override the veto of a committee or that of the speaker, since even when
the rules are suspended no measure can be considered that has not been
previously reported by a committee, while the speaker can enforce his
veto through his power of recognition. Both the committees and the
speaker have what is for all practical purposes an absolute veto on
legislation.

A motion to suspend the rules and pass any bill that has been reported
to the House may be made on the first and third Mondays of each month or
during the last six days of each session. "In this way, if two-thirds of
the body agree, a bill is by a single vote, without discussion and
without change, passed through all the necessary stages, and made law so
far as the consent of the House can accomplish it. And in this mode
hundreds of measures of vital importance receive, near the close of
exhausting sessions, without being debated, amended, printed, or
understood, the constitutional assent of the representatives of the
American people."[153]

This system which so effectually restricts the power of the majority in
the House affords no safeguard against local or class legislation. By
making it difficult for any bill however worthy of consideration to
receive a hearing on its own merits, it naturally leads to the practice
known as log-rolling. The advocates of a particular measure may find
that it can not be passed unless they agree to support various other
measures of which they disapprove. It thus happens that many of the
bills passed by the House are the result of this bargaining between the
supporters of various measures. Certain members in order to secure the
passage of a bill in which they are especially interested will support
and vote for other bills which they would prefer to vote against. In
this way many bills secure a favorable vote in the House when a majority
of that body