time. The pending motion that was last stated by the chair is called the immediately pending motion. Debate must be confined to the immediately pending question, and must deal with other questions only so far as they are necessarily involved with the immediately pending one. The speaker must avoid all personalities, must not attribute improper motives to a member, and must not even mention a member's name if he can be properly described in some other way, as "the member who last spoke." Officers should be referred to by their official titles and not by their names. No one can speak in debate, except by permission of the assembly, more than twice on the same question on the same day, nor longer than ten minutes at one time. On an appeal from the decision of the chair,[1] no one but the chairman can speak more than once. No member can speak a second time on a question if any member who has not spoken upon that question desires to speak. The member making a debatable motion has the right to the floor for debate, if he claims it with reasonable promptness, in preference to other members even if they rose and addressed the chair first. A member who has exhausted his right to debate the main question has a right to debate any debatable subsidiary question that afterwards may be immediately pending. If several members claim the floor at the same time, and the chair knows on which side they will speak, he
- ↑ See page 93.
