existing rules to take it up for consideration, but this obstacle
was overcome by adopting a new rule by which a bare majority of
the House could forthwith take up a bill amended by the Senate,
for the purpose of non-concurrence but not for concurrence. The
object of this maneuver was to get the bill into a committee of
conference where the details could be arranged by private
negotiation. The rule was adopted on February 26, 1883, but the
committee of conference was not finally constituted until the 1st
of March, within two days of the close of the session. On the 3rd
of March, when this committee reported a measure on which they
had agreed, both Houses adopted this report and enacted the
measure without further ado.

In some cases, rates were fixed by the committee above the
figures voted in either House and even when there was no
disagreement, changes were made. The tariff commission had
recommended, for example, a duty of fifty cents a ton on iron
ore, and both the Senate and the House voted to put the duty at
that figure; but the conference committee fixed the rate at
seventy-five cents. When a conference committee report comes
before the House, it is adopted or rejected in toto, as it is not
divisible or amendable. In theory, the revision of a report is
feasible by sending it back to conference under instructions
voted by the House, but such a procedure is not really available
in the closing hours of a session, and the only practical course
of action is either to pass the bill as shaped by the conferees
or else to accept the responsibility for inaction. Thus pressed
for time, Congress passed a bill containing features obnoxious to
a majority in both Houses and offensive to public opinion.
Senator Sherman in his "Recollections" expressed regret that he