The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-06-28
Rural and Industrial Legislation.

The great State of Illinois has set an
example worthy of the imitation of
other States. The increase of members
in both branches of the General AS
sembly has given the industrial classes
a larger representation and has pre-
vented hasty and improper legislation.
1t has been found also much more diff
ficult to get up rings in the interest of
moneyed corporations and no previous
legislature has ever done as much to
forward the mechanical and agricul-
tural industries of the State, and so
little for the benefit of the non-"roduc-
ing classes. The farmers a d heel n
les, according to correspondent OF the
Prairie Hu7naer, find that it is scarcely
worth while to nominate lawyers be-
cause they make a better appearance
on the stump, when these same gen.
tlemen of 'genteel speech are utterly
ignorant of the wants and necessities OF
the working and producing masses"
Nearly one-half the members OF the
Illinois Legislature belonged to this
latter class and that was small rate OF
representation for ninety per cent. of
the people of that State are workers
with their hands.
There can be no question in our
mind as to the injury done the great
industries of the country by the cleo
ton of men, whose whole course of
thought has been confined to the dead
past and not to the living present.
We admit the necessity of lawyers and
of the ministers of the law. There can
be no good government without them,
but we deny most emphatically that
they make the best legislators. In
speaking capacity, in the ability to
draft laws and in the art of finesse and
diplomacy they are unquestionably
superior, but in that kind of knowledge
that advances the material gre tness of
a State, in the matters of detail con-
corning the industrial vacations, it is
impossible in the nature of things,
that professional men should be as well
acquainted as those who have served
an al, premiership in them. A large
part of our legislative bodies should be
composed of representative men-men
whose interests are identified with
those persons whom they represent.
If a majority of a population are law
.'ers, then lawyers SHOULD predominant
mechanics then the Legislature should
have u anu IL IL
majority of the citizens are farmers
then a majority of the Legislature
should be far,.Iers. 1t is self-evident
truth that no one knows how to repre-
sent a class so well as an intelligent
member of that class. A farmer cannot
represent the legal interests of the
State, nor can lawyer properly repre-
sent the agricultural interest. Let each
class in the community have its own
representatives. This class denOmina-
ted "professed Politician" whose Occu-
patton is to court all classes and de-
ceive all classes, should be ignored by
all classes.
There are some minds, like Webster s.
so grasping as to be fit representative OF
all classes, but such minds are rare. The
bulk of politicians are not statesmen
They give their voice for whatever will
swell the interests of their class, and 1t is
high time that the farmers of the country
should burst the film with which politicians
have surrounded them, aud act for them
selves. A good rule is never to elect any
man who makes his living by being elected.
Such men will represent nobody, will serve
no interest, will do no good for any one but
himself The question they consider most
when they are called upon to act, is, how
will this affect my chances for reelection.
These barnacles that cling with lifelike te
nacity to the hull of State, should be
scraped off, and then the country will move
on with accelerated speed in its course to
greatness and prosperity. We throw out
these suggestions because we are satisfied
that we are drifting in the course that has
made the legislatures in some of the states
a synonym for fraud, crime and corrup-
ton.