The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-02-11
The State Capital.
The LegisIature-Talkingy vs.. Business =
FIippant sIanders Etc, Etc.

AUGUSTA, EoD Ii, IoIo.
There is general impression and, indeed, an
Augusta correspondent recently asserted, that
few men did all the business of the House.
That correspondent gave the names of a dozen
men of the present House who run the ma
chine, shape the legislation and do all the work
for the one hundred and fifty, and worse than
that, few outside of the dozen really know
what they are voting for or against. That cor
respondent cannot be acquainted with the
present or any other Legislature that have
seen here. True, there are few members
who do nearly all of the talking on the floor.
They have an aptitude for it. Indeed, it may
be said that some have a fatal weakness in
that direction and are woefully deluded into
believing that there is a strange fascination in
their voices for others besides themselves.
have nothing to say respecting the list which
the correspondent alluded to as the men who
did the work and exerted the influence, but
since no member of the Financial, Banking
Commerce, Education, Ways, Interior Waters
Committees, aad but one member of the Rail-
road Committee was embraced in that list of
potentals, one concludes that Col. Robbie failed
to recognize the merits and abilities of the
pOuJ oNCL WuiSh AO piCciuCo WuOu III up
his committees. The fact which every person
of experience comes to recognize is that some
Of the most Influential men in the Legislature
are those whose voices are rarely heard on the
floor and never in rounded periods. They are
the men who are potent in committees, who
present facts in strong Anglo-Saxon, who have
force of character to give them weight They
are such men as Shepherd, Davis, White Rog-
ers, Greeley, Hobson aud Bass of the Ways ana
Means Committee; True of the Commerce
Committee, Dutton of Lewiston, Grant Of
Bangor, Warren of Westbrook, Morrill, of
Deering, Paine of Eastport, Martin of Camden,
Ballard of Augusta, Wiggin and Burpee of
RockIand, Sargent of Ssdgwck, Allan of
Dennysvlle, and others whose names do not
now recall-all of whom have potent influence
in shaping legislation. There is yet another
class of Intelligent men who are not on so
prominent committees, but who have great
influence in the House. The fine delegation
in the House from Androscoggin county are
largely of this class; and in other counties this
| class embraces such men as Meader, Cumston
and Floyd of Kennebec, Chase of Standish
iCi4OWo VI w luuudul, ALuTlCu OL ET66pOFG,
Jordan of Brunswick, Blanchard of Yarmouth,
Young, Farrar and Burnham of Oxford,
White, Brown. Phillips and Sweetser.of Pc
nobscot, Leavitt, Gibson and Richardson of
Somerset Rolfe of Washington, Hussey,
Murch and Lord of York, Lord, Young and
Blaisdell of Hancock, and many others. No,
the talking men, SO called, do not shape legis-
lation by any means. They do their part, but
generally those men in delegations who can
present case with vigor to few associates in
their seats, and quietly canvass the merits of
questions in little knots at boarding houses and
about the state house-they are power in the
Legislature. All this stale babble about ''rus-
ticus" in our Legislatures, and men who ask
others how they shall vote is SANDER upon
the great majority of the people in our rural
| towns. Their representatives are generally
| practical, and intelligent men of conservative
tendencies. "Rusticus', as a correspondent
generaized large part of the House, is rather
indtfere mt as to his tailor does not always wear
a French calf boot, and often does shelter his
feet in No. los Of an article known as thick.
He isn't brilliant at dress parts aud possibly
contemns kid gloves. He wouldn't look we'll
in swallow tail coat and would Mt be an orna-
ment in "up-town" society. Nevertheless the
| statutes of the state bear the mark of his mind
as do its industries witness his energy, perse
verance and good judgment. The fippant cor
| respondent may find in "rustcus" fit subject
for ridicule, but lack of sense surely leads him
to SANDER and insult the representative of the
| great class of our Maine people, who have
made the state what it is and in whom is the
| hone of fntnra greatness s