Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-01-26
/ Adjournment of the Legislature

Adjournment of the Legislature.
Mr.. LAYMAN:-Under the above heading,
THE STATESMAN of Saturday morning con-
tains an article which, in the main, meets
my cordial appreciation.
The legislation of the present day has be-
come little else than a great farce. Three
weeks have passed, and how many days has
the Legislature been in session? And what
has been done? Literally, nothing to ad-
vance the interests of their constituents.
There is, in fact, but little required to be
done, save the passage of the necessary ap-
preparations, to meet the current State eX-
penses. Some measures have. btel intro
duced, of little or no consequence, the
prime object of the movers being to get
their names upon the Journalism common
parlance, it is all for "Buncombe."
This thing of adjourning for three days
at time, and drawing pay for four days
SIG for each member amounting to some
S2000-is simply an imposition upon the
people of the State; and the people should
hold their Representatives to a strict ac-
cOuntability for thus squandering their
money, especially ut q time when every
cent of the public moneys should be care
fully husbanded, in order to tighten the
burdens of the taxpayers, who are now la
boring under heavy taxation to support,
in many cases, a worthless set of office
holders, who hang around the treasury like
leeches set of blOod-suckers, who stick
closer than the poisoned shirt did to Nessus.
Connected with this abOnlinable practice
of adjourning for days at n time, is very
great evil, which has much to do with it,
1t is the practice of railroads "dead-head-
ing" members and officers during the ses-
sion. We venture to assert that there is not
n In fha Gfoto h,.t hnc 1oI
members and officers during the session.
perhaps during the year-sO that they can
go home, or elsewhere, without paying
railroad fare, which is something of an
item. This is all wrong What more right
has member or officer to be a dead-head,
than the commoner? / should be glad to
see an end put to this. 1t savors too much
of consideration-I will not say bri6e. In
the New York Legislature, not many years
since, member had the independence to
introduce bill prohibiting railroads from
giving passes to members. What became of
it i do not remember, Tut trust it was en-
acted into law.
Again: Years ago, in the mes of the old
State House, when the Senate was composed
of more members than at present. it did not
require score Clerks, Sergeants-at-Arm
and Messenger boys to wait upon Senators.
Who, among old citizens, does not remem-
Der Isaac Cool, Esq, for so many years
Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate? can re-
member him well. can see his tall, straight,
manly form moving up the aisle, and around
the Chamber, here and there, as quiet and
as noiselessly as if he were in church.
Why, that gentleman could do more work
in day, than the present five or six Ser
geants could do in week. Mr.. Cool had
no assistants, save fireman, who carried
the wood up to the Chamber, and attended
to the fires. He had no Messenger boys
None were needed. He could do, and did
do, all these things himself, and satisfactory
ly, too, for he was very popular, and no one
saw fit to oppose him when he was candi-
date. We have no Isaac Cools now.
And so 1t was in the House, pretty much
the same way, only now there are more
members. The Clerks were allowed one As
sistant, until near the close of the session,
when business accumulated so that it re-
quired more clerical help. Those who were
employed. however, were paid for their |
time and not for the whole session.
But times have sadly changed; and ifI
some members had to pay for backing their
boots, instead of havingit done at their ho- |
tells or boarding houses, they woull 90 in |
for having that labor performed at the ex-
pense of the State! You may laugh at
this idea, but there is no doubt Of it.
But one might write upon these matters,
until the "crack of DOOM" without the
least effect. The people are the sufferers,
and If they passively submit, why, so mote
IL be.
had intended saying something about
the refusal of the Legislature to pay for
publishing their proceedings In the city pa
pers. But let that pass. 1t may be we'll
that they do not desire to let their con TT
uents see what they are doing or rather,
not doing. They win squander in adjourn
ments, during the session, ten times more
than would pay for full reports of their do
ings in two Of our daily papers.
FACTS.