Daily Kennebec journal., 1878-01-16
From the Portland Press.
A Long or q Short Session.

No sooner does the Legislature get
fairly to work than a cry for short
session is heard and once heard is very
generally joined in by the unthnking.
Doubtless some who advocate short sos-
sons do so from conviction of their bene-
fit, but the majority favor them because il
is the fashion. Certainly there is no rea.
son TO believe that the people of the State
are dissatisfied at the length of the legisla-
tive sessions or would be pleased were the
sessions made briefer. There is in fact but
one objection of any strength urged
against long sessions, and that is urged 10y
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
1t is unnecessary to answer that objection.
The question has been pretty thoroughly
discussed since the world began and in
this country we have adopted represen-
tative republican form of government.
With the workings of that form only are
we concerned. 1t is an indisputab.J l4ct
that all powers weaken by infrequent use
and that all rights and privileges not stren-
uously insisted upon fall in time into abey-
ance. History teaches us that representa-
tive governments have failed because the
people rarely availed themselves OF the
right of representation and 50 scarcely
missed it when taken from them by design
ing men-or if they missed it were so inca
pacitated for its exercise by long disuse
that their attempts to recover it were fail
ures. To say that like fate could over
take this country is not so preposterous
statement as it 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. aud makes provision
for their enforcement. 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 It's educational province
1t takes every year hundred and eighty
men, familiarizes them with public busi-
ness 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 nature and practical work
ings OF parliamentary goyernment-a gov
eminent with which it being onr own.
every man ought to to be familiar. In
this particular the Legislature supple
ments the town-meeting. The one ac-
quaints the citizen with the method of
governing by pure, the other by rep
resentative democracy Every year some
two hundred men leave Augusta with a
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 primary school of our
political system the Legislature may be
looked upon as the high school to which
the brightest or most industrious scholars
are presumedito be sent. 1t is evident that
the longer the session the more consldera.
BILE 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 peo-
pie whom they represent as well as to
themselves that the session shall not be a
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 hurllul and to amenC
the laws which have defects MAT interfer,
with practical or benefcent operation
They are there to hear the wishes OF I'll,
people for new laws Or their objections tt