The Portland daily press., 1867-10-03

tendency to- render the details of legislation
and administration less aud less ineligible to
the general public. 1t is an easy thing to in
spect and criticise the operation of hand
loom, but in the midst of the whirr and rat
tie of a factory, where thousand shuttles
are driven by steam or water power, the atten-
ton is distracted and the spectator appre
hends only results, without pretending to un-
derstand processes. But because the affairs with
which the Fortieth Congress has to deal are less
simple than those which engaged the atten-
ton of the First Congress, it docs not follow
that they should be Systematically withdrawn
from public view. The debates of Con-
gress are carefully reported for the pub
lie eye; the proceedings of our city gov
ernment are duly published in the daily pa
pers; the whole theory of our government
assumes that the proceedings of our national
and municipal agents shall be at all times
open to public inspection and criticism. II
the details with which our representatives
have to deal are almost infinite in number
and complicated to the verge of distraction,
then at least they should be brought as clear
ly as possible into public view, for the in
struction of all who need or choose to exam
inc them. .4-. -
The tendency just now is in the opposite
direction. The multiplicity of details has
compelled division of labor. Committees
have been appointed to make special study
of every topic OF Importance. These commit
tees, forgetting that it is their province SIM
ply to investigate and report, assume to legis-
late; report measures instead OF facts and
reasons, and drive them through under the
whip and spur of the ,"previous question" a
devi.e which is as well understood in the
Common Council of New York as in the Ma
tional House of Representatives. In this way
the business Of legislation is withdrawn from
the legislative body, which is gradually COM
ing to be mere assembly for registering the
decisions reached by the committees. The in
structive discussions which the public has a
right to hear, which it pays for, take place
behind the closed doors of committee rooms,
and the reporters give us instead merely the
votes and speeches "for Buncomb" which
ought to be stamped and laughed down by
our representatives themselves.
In the Senate of the United States and in
our State Legislature, one may yet hear some
genuine discussion. In the House of Repre-
sentatives at Washington and in our city
councils generally, debate is becoming one Of
the lost arts. We pay reporter to attend
the meetings OF our own City Council; the
public which elects the City Council expects
report of the proceedings and pays for it,
though indirectly, just as the nation pays for
the elaborate reports in the Congressional
Globe. Well, not long ago our reporter at
tended a meeting at which question of great
public interest was coming up. A special
committee was to report, after some weeks in
vestigation, upon proposition to supply tine
city with water from Sebago. The people of
Portland were looking for Information on this
interesting, this vitality important topic
What did they learn? Why, simply that in
the opinion of the committee, it was inexpe-
dent to accept the proposition before them
And the City Council, without asking why or
wherefore, Immediately acted upon the re-
port ofthe committee and rejected the propo-
sitionl
In this particular instance the committee
was probably right. The mischief of such
methods of proceeding is, that nobody can
know whether recommendations so presented
are right or not If the committee was right,
it had good reasons for its report, and the
public had right to know those reasons, or
at least to the poor apology that it was mad
visable to assign them. When no reasons are
given, the inference is, unless in extraordina-
~ instances, that there are none to give. We
publish to-day communication from a re-
| sponsible citizen cf Portland, directly charg
ing the committee on streets with squander-
ing the public money upon 'Job" on West
| Commercial street and attempting to do the
same thing at the eastern end of Congress
street. That is the conclusion at which some
of our citizens have arrived, after such inspec-
| tion of the proceedings Of our City Govern
ment as is possible under the circumstances
The fault is directly ehargeable upon this
system of Committee Government into which
we have imperceptbly drifted. III the COM
| mittee on streets had reported to the City
Council, recommending the construction of
West Commercial street or the grading of
Congress street on the further slope of Mum
| joy, and assigning the reasons therefor, and if
then the Courcil after open discussion had
voted to proceed with these works, it would
have been impossible to misunderstood
the grounds of their action. The no
tion of the City Council may be
that the development Of taxable
property ON the shore lines east of Vaughan's
bridge and north of Fish Point will repay
| the present expenditure many fold within
few years; and we are not prepared to say
| that such a notion is erroneous. The trouble
is that while this may be the basis of the ac
ton taken nobody is authorized to say that it
is. This system of managing public affairs
| as if the members of the boards were princi-
pals instead Of agents and had a right to de-
liberate without witnesses and act without
assigning any reason, is entirely wrong; it
furnishes an opportunity for mismanagement
| which ought not to be offered, and exposes
honest men to suspicious which they ought
not to incur. 1t has become an urgent duty,
laid upon all men who desire to preserve the
purity and provide for the pemanence of re-
| publican institutions, to oppose the present
| tendency toward Committee Government.
| Meanwhile we trust those members of the
City Government who have examined and
recommended these projects, will see the ne
cessity of offering now the explanation which
wasdue to the public at the start They OF
course are not personally responsible for
methods Of doing business which have grad
ually come into use during long series OF
years; through the accident of their position
| it is nevertheless for them to take the first
step toward reformation.
| Frosty Lands.
Some lands in the same latitude are more
| frosty than others. In low situations. wber
| the night atmosphere becomes dense. anf
] when the air is not in motion, frost will
strike with fatal severity, whilst in lands mors
elevated, where the atmosphere is purer ant
the air circulates at all, vegetation will escape
harm from that cause. In a northern latitude
like ours, this fact is entitled to special con.
sideration in the selection of lands for gener-
al cultivation. By due and seasonable Gaze
IN this respect, one may place himseif as ~
were, in a considerably more southern 'at'-
tude than his neighbor lives in, VINO, IN Tue