(4)  More  formal  is  vote  by  "yeas  and  nays,"  in  which  the
clerk  calls  the  roll  and  each  member  as  his  name  is  called  an-


5"7J


Amendments.
253


swera  "aye"  or  "uo."  The  importauce  of  the  yeas  and  nays
is  that  they  are  recorded  in  the  journals,  and  are  always  open
to  the  inspection  of  constituents.
Under  the  rules  of  the  House  and  Senate,  no  bill  can  be
passed  unless  it  has  been  read  three  times  on  different  days ;
but  there  arc  two  methods  of  expediting  business,  (i)  The
rules  may  be  suspended  by  a  two-thirds  vote,  so  that  the  bill
may  go  through  its  various  stages  in  a  single  day.  (2)  Almost
anything  can  be  done  if  nobody  objects :  a  very  large  part  of
the  routine  business  in  both  houses  is  actually  performed  while
there  is  no  quorum  in  the  hall,  and  this  goes  on  till  the  point
of  no  quorum  is  raised.  In  1895,  for  instance,  a  bill  was  in-
troduced in  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  passed  through
all  its  stages  in  a  few  minutes,  appropriating  ^50,000  for  the
Venezuela  Commission,  no  member  thinking  it  advisable  to
lodge  an  objection.  So  well  understood  is  this  practice  that  a
few  years  ago,  when  two  members  of  the  House  agreed  that
they  would  object  to  everything  until  certain  concessions  were
made  to  them,  they  actually  compelled  the  speaker  and  ail  the
other  members  of  Congress  to  placate  them.
