Page:Roberts Rules of Order Revised 4th Edition (1915).djvu/106

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100
RULES OF ORDER
[§ 27

asks the question through the chair, thus, "Mr. Chairman, I should like to ask the gentleman," etc. The reply is made in the same way, as it is not in order for members to address one another in the assembly. While each speaker addresses the chair, the chair remains silent during the conversation. If the speaker consents to the interruption the time consumed is taken out of his time.

(c) Leave to Withdraw or Modify a Motion.[1] A request for leave to withdraw a motion, or a motion to grant such leave, may be made at any time before voting on the question has commenced, even though the motion has been amended. It requires no second. It may be made while incidental or subsidiary motions are pending, and these motions cease to be before the assembly when the question to which they are incidental or subsidiary is withdrawn. It yields to privileged motions, and cannot be amended or have any other subsidiary motion applied to it. It is undebatable. When it is too late to renew it, the motion to reconsider cannot be withdrawn without unanimous consent. When a motion is withdrawn, the effect is the same as if it had never been made. Until a motion is stated by the chairman, the mover may withdraw or modify it

  1. In Congress a motion "may be withdrawn at any time before a decision or amendment." H. R. Rule 16, §2. The rule given above, which is in accordance with the common parliamentary law, is better adapted to ordinary assemblies.