Nebraska advertiser., 1871-02-02
.EROX-TAE. .CAPIEdL.
PRIVATE AND SPECIAL MEAS
URE LAW, &C.
LrncoLN. Jan. sOth, 1871.


before the Legislature TO keep it in
session during the natural lives Of its
members. provided all the business
be properly Considered aud disposed
Of Bills, resolutions and memorials
have been pouring into the Clerk
and s;ecretary's desks IN constantly
swelling streams. Of course the on
ly possible result must be that the
State ia to be cursed by vast-deai of
crude, ill-digested Legislation, to be
again taken up aud patched up by
succeeding legislatures, just rs the
present is engaged in. reconsidering
the work of its predecessors. Now to
be sure, very much of this is unavoid-
able, even by the greatest wisdom and
foresight.
The sver-ehsnging condition of
public affair, especially in q new.
rapidly-growing, rapidly-developing
State like ours, necessitstes frequent
changes il many of our laws-chang-
es that could not have been foreseen !;
but it is o notorious fact that at least
! half of this patchwork of our law
makers could have been avoided by
proper deliberatiou. Few, If any,
nc are printed before being passed.
They are seldom ever read but once,
and when read it ID rare thing that
there are any listeners. OF course
the provision Of our Constitution, for
bidding the passage of omnibus bills,
so far operates as sslutary check up
on legislation. nevertheless the op-
portunity for hasty and immature leg
isiation is still practically illimitable.
AS consequence of il all our statutes
are burdeued with acts whose titles
run "au act TO amend an act, entitled
an act to amend an act providing,
ETC."
Legislators are fallible men. Few
of them, there are, no do not wish
$ Reelection, and of course, they
must be able 10 show their constitu-
ents many acts, as monuments OF
their Legislative wisdom.
PRIVATE AID SPECIAL MEASURES.
AS usual private and special meas
ures form the bulk Of the legislation.
Should the bill, introduced into the
Senate by Senator Thomas, giving TO
District Courts the power TO change
names of persons, towns, cities and
villages, become law, il would cut
off much of this private acting. 1t
| is good measure so far as il goes,
but it only touches the subject. Moth
ing will answer but a constitutional
prohibition, far more sweeping even
than that suggested in my last. The
people of the State are quite willing
to pay S5OO.CO day to men engaged
in the mighty business of changing
the name of Philip Poland TO Philip
Steele and back sgain-ef ordering
some back alley of some Insignificant
town vacated, or something of equal
mportance-and are not willing to
provide anything better than "dug-
out" in which to educate their chill
dren. Is it so? Are men TO thou ht-
lessly squander thousands of dollars
themselves and then offset their own
prodigality, by niggardly restricting
their Executive eiiicers-paying them
! only starvation salaries? If they do
this. they ought not to expect, aud do
not deserve to have honest men in
these positions.
How cay it is to crimiuate others
How difficult to seriously act about
self-rsformstiOu! So return to legis-
lative doings.
HERD LAW.
Thus far l4S1 of our citizens have
petitioned for a general herd law
1869 have demonstrated against the
passage of such law. The remon
strances come mostly from the Older
river counties. This subject il diff
cult one to dispose of to general satis-
faction perhaps the sooner the peo-
pie conclude that only so mach of the
land as each has bought and occupies
belongs TO him, the better. It must
come to that sometime.
REGISTRY LAW.
1t Is hardly creditable, but Is, how
ever, a fact that q serious effort has
been made the past week to secure
the repeal of our registry law. / am
glad to say that only a few Republi-
cans have, thus far, expressed them
selves favorable to policy so suicid-
al. The immortal and irrepressible
Doom, under pretence of having the
law amended, is urging on the bill
for its repeal. He was stupid enough
to characterize the law as uncoustitu-
tional, because, he argued, the Con-
stitution says every white male citi-
zen shall be All elector, but the law
says that the elector must be register
ed before he can voteI The Cunsti-
tuition srys men shall have certain
rights; the law prescribes in what
manner those rights shall be sxercis-
ed; ergo, says Doom, the law il up-
constitutional!
R. Il. LAND GRANT.
The bill extending the time in
which railroads may compete for the
public lands, TO Dec. 3Ist, 1871, has
passed the House. 1t is accompanied
with a proviso declaring that no
railroad shall be allowed TO receive
any further donation after the expira-
ton of five years, from February Is,
1859.
q l., L. - a. er