The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-01-15
A Long or a Short Session?

No sooner does the Legislature get fairly to
work than cry for short session is heard
and once heard is very generally joined in by
the unthinking. Doubtless some who advo-
cate short sessions do so from conviction Of
their benefit, but the majority favor them be-
cause it is the fashion. Certainly there is no
reason to believe that the people of the State
are dissatisfied at the length of legislative ses-
sions or would.be pleased were the sessions
made briefer. There is in fact but one OBJ
lection of any strength urged against long
sessions, and that is urged by the men who
hold or affect to believe that all legislation is
an evil and that the less we have of it the
better off the State will be. 1t is unnecessary
here to meet that objection. The question
has been pretty thoroughly discussed since
the world began and in this country we have
adopted representative republican form of
government. With the workings of that form
only we are concerned. 1t is an indisputable
fact that all powers weaken by infrequent
use, and that all rights and privileges not
strenucusly insisted upon fall in time into
allegiance. History teaches US that represen-
tative governments have failed because the
people rarely availed themselves of the right
of representation and so scarcely missed it
when taken from them by designing men-or
if they missed it were so incapacitated for its
exercise by long disuse that their attempts to
recover 1t we're failures. To say that like
fate could overtake this country is not so pre-
posterous a statement as 1t seems at first
hearing.
The province of our Legislature is two-fold,
-law-making and educational. In its law
making province it enacts repeals or amends
statutes, and makes provision for their en-
forcement. Representatives from all parts of
the State meet and confer upon the wants
and demands OF their sections, and listen to
the pleas of the various interests which go to
make up the State. In its educational prov
ince it takes every year hundred and eighty
men, familiarizes them with public business
and the methods of transacting it, acquaints
them with public institutions, enlarges their
knowledge of the interests and requirements
of other sections, and teaches them the ma
ture and practical workings of parliamentary
government,-a government with which, it
being our own, every man ought to be famil-
lar. In this particular the Legislature sup
plements the town-meeting. The one ac-
quaints the citizen with the method of gov
erning by pure, the other by representa-
tive democracy. Every year some two hun
dred men leave Augusta with good idea of
legislative government, with knowledge
more or less thorough of the machinery Of
the State, and with minds broadened by a
considerable acquaintance with public men
and measures. If the town meeting is the pri-
mary school of our political system the Leg
islature may be looked upon as the high
school to which the brightest or most indus
trious scholars are presumed TO be sent. 1t
is evident that the longer the session the
more considerable will be the education
gained and the more thoroughly will the
Legislature serve one object of its existence.
Again our legislators owe it to the people
whom they represent as well as to themselves
that the session shall not be hurried one.
They are sent to Augusta to make what new
laws the welfare of the State may demand,
to repeal the laws which have proved hurtful
and to amend the laws which have defects
that interfere with practical or benefcent
operation. They are there to hear the wishes
Of the people for new laws or their objec-
tions to old ones, to hear every man who
4 feels aggrieved at the operation of the stat
utes and believes he may be benefited by a
change. Many of these desires and COM
plants may be foolish, but they are none the
less entitled to patient hearing.
The complaint is made that some bad or
unnecessary laws are enacted by our Legis-
lature. That may be the case; to assume the
contrary would be to assume that men are
infallible. But it will be found that the ma
jority of bad or unnecessary laws have been
put through-very often in the hurry of the
closing hours of the session-without due
consideration. The Legislature has not de-
voted proper time to their examination. This
is fault of short session, not Of a long one.
1t is unfair to judge the Legislature by occa.
sional mistakes; it should be judged by the
general excellence Of Its work. If we care
fully watch the record of its proceedings we
will be agreeably surprised to find what a
great number of proposed laws, injudicious or
needless, it rejects. These are carefully con-
sidered aud their faults discovered. If an
unwise measure does get through it is gen
orally because it has not been thoroughly ex-
amined. Perhaps the clamor for short ses-
sion may have hurried the committees in
| their action.
1t is to be hoped that this Legislature will
not be induced by the desire for a short ses.
sion to hasten over with insufficient examina-
ton any measures which may be submitted
to its consideration. Let it take sufficient
time to inquire into the merits and dement's
of all the acts proposed for Its adoption.