Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1876-11-30
The Legislature of 1876.

The Legislature has adjourned, and
its members are on the way to their
homes. 1t has won distinction chiefly
in the role of an "aWful warning"
against the evils of the one term rule.
1t was composed of better raw material
than the average of Legislatures. The
trouble with it was that il was too raw.
Each branch was IN the main composed
of excellent men, wholly without ex-
perience ia Legislative duties. Having
everything TO learn in their new buzz.
ness, they spent six weeks in going to
school to the few experienced members,
and two weeks in work. A Legislature
composed, as Legislatures used to be I'M
der the two term rule, with over fifty
per cent of experienced members, could
easily have completed the entire work
of the session in three weeks-at a saw
ing of fifty thousand dollars to the State
in per diem and expenses. AS it was,
hardly anything was done in the first
month of the session. An old and ex-
perienced member gave US his deliberate
estimate, that for the first four weeks
the House did not spend over ten hours
week-a little over two hours day for
four days of the week-in actual work
Business certainly started more slow
ly than in any Legislature within
our recollection, and the sum total of
valuable work accomplished is certainly
not startling. The hobby of the body,
if it had one, was the excellent one of
retrenchment. Schemes involving unus-
ual and special expenditure were jeal-
ously scrutinizecl, and as rule, Jared
hard. The salaries of most of the State
officers were cut down, at cost to the
State, for the time spent in debate over
the reduction, of double the entire saw
ing. But it never seemed to occur 10 the
members that the greatest economy they
could effect would be to do up prompt
ly the necessary work before them, and
to adjourn sine die. If they had thus
shortened the session but by three weeks
the saving of twenty-five to thirty thou
sand dollars to the State treasury would
have been worth talking about. Slack
and dilatory as the legislature of 1876
has been, the fault lies rather with the
voters than with the members. A few
towns had the good sense to select expe-
1ienced Representatives, and these few
have done the greater share of the work.
But the great mass of the people DELHI
erately preferred to adhere to the wretch
ed one term rule. They have no
right to complain of the inevitable con-
sequences of their folly, and they
will get no more efficient Legislatures
till they return TO the old plan of an
nual sessions, or (Which would probably
be better) adopt the two-term rule with
the biennial system. OF this last, how
ever, there is no hope. This Legislature
adjourns just as the greater portion of
It's members have gained the proficiency
in legislative duties which can be Sc
cured, and secured only by experience
added to capacity. They go home to
stay. Possibly dozen or twenty of
them may be returned to Montpelier
two years hence. But the seats of nine
out of ten of them will be filed by new
members, wholly unwonted to the place,
unfamiliar with the routine and machin-
cry of legislation, unacquainted with
each other, ignorant of precedents and
of the knowledge OF the subjects of leg
islative inquiry which their predecessors
had gained. And they will give us, as
these have done, a Legislature perhaps
careful of dollars and cents, but waste
full of time, which, when the state is
paying for it by the day, for three hun
dred men, is money-money out of
pocket for the State. -Bnrltngton Free
Press.