_Committee Hearings._--Committees charged with the consideration of important bills frequently hold public hearings at which interested parties may appear and present arguments for and against the measures under consideration. Thus the ways and means committee of the house in 1909 held public hearings at Washington for many weeks on the tariff bill, and scores of persons appeared to advocate lower or higher rates on various articles on which duties were to be imposed. Frequently members who introduce bills appear before committees and urge favorable action. The more important committees in each house have a regular day in each week for meeting, and a few of those in the house of representatives meet twice a week. Most of the committees, however, have no regular meeting day, being called together by their chairmen as occasion requires. _Forms of Committee Action._--The committee to which a bill is referred may pursue any one of the following courses: (1) It may report the bill back to the house with a recommendation that it be passed; (2) it may amend the bill and recommend that it be passed as amended; (3) it may throw the bill aside and report an entirely new one in its place; (4) it may report the bill unfavorably with a recommendation that it do not pass; (5) it may "pigeonhole" the bill, that is, take no action on it at all, or report it so late in the session that no opportunity is allowed for its consideration. The latter method of disposal, sometimes called "smothering," is the fate that awaits the great majority of bills introduced into Congress. The "smothering" of bills became the subject of so much complaint among members recently that the rules were amended so as to allow members to demand that their bills be reported to the house for consideration. The house, of course, may at any time instruct a committee to report a bill for its action, but this is rarely done. The report to the house is usually made by the chairman of the committee, or some one designated by him. Not infrequently the minority members of the committee also make a report opposing the recommendation of the majority. The committee system of legislation is so thoroughly established in Congress that a bill favorably reported stands an excellent chance of being passed, while one adversely reported hardly ever passes.