The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-01-17


lists for office, the legislator of every other
year will have less than half the chance of
ever getting back to give the public .he bene-
tit of the experience he has acquired.
While the old arguments in favor of bien-
nial elections are thus seen not to be appli
cable to biennial sessions it is still the fact
that the old objections held against both.
One thing to be guarded against in every
form of government is bribery of the repre-
sentative. While it may not be true that
every man has his price yet it is true that
some nlen have. So far as they are con-
cerned the only question is. can anybody af-
ford to pay the price? If legislature can
pass law which will last two years it is OBJ
viously worth more to interested parties than
one for the continuance of which they have
got to fight next year. So on biennial ba-
sis they can pay more for vote or for Gin
fluence;" and if the bribed legislators con-
stituents suspect him they must endure him
for two years at least, and while he NAV not
sit at another regular session, yet if any ext
gency arises on the off year the bribed and
unworthy member will still represent an un
willing constituency. In few words the
two year rule renders the member more liza
BILE to De bribed and less liable to be punished
for 1t. The constituent is, by one-half, de-
prlved OF the power to put out bad and in
competent men both as a preventive against
foture betrayals and as a punishment for
past treasons. This matter of bribery has
hjfItQrtn boan nj
the wealth of the State increases and be-
comes more concentrated, We shall find our
selves needing all our safeguards Since
eighteen hundred and seventy years of chris
, tian civilization have no. prevented VIM. M.
Tweed and have left Oakley Hall unpunished,
we would do well not to act as if we consid-
| cred corruption lost art. Biennial sessions
also render it more difficult for the people to
improve their Legislature by choosing men to
their liking, men who have shown them
selves more fit, according TO the constituents
idea OF fitness, which is the ultimate STAN
dard. This is in addition to the difficulty OF
removing bad men already spoken of. Bien-
NAL sessions also prevent the grievances of
people from being listened to and if need be
redressed oftener than once in two years. On
this point, however, more hereafter. So ex-
tenslve were the evils our ancestors foresaw
IN any departure from annual elections that
they condensed into one sentence their aver
sion and lear, and held for a maxim that
"phere annual elections end tyranny be-
gans.'' We have lived so long under republl-
can government with no tyranny but the
tyranny OF the majority, that we almost reck.
on oppression aud systematic plunder of the
public property among things the possibility
OF which we have got beyond. We think so
10 spite of the fact already alluded to, that
within the last decade the metropolis OF the
country was for years in the hands of as Ut
terly unprlncipled band of banditti as ever
laid walled town under tribute in the mid
die ages-and in New York city the elections
were at least biennial
1t would be rash indeed to ascribe the con-
dition OF Louisiana to its departure from
sound principles in the matter of annual elec-
tions, but it does seem that length of office,
both on the part of the Governor and of the
Legislature, contributes to the disgracetul
state of affairs ia that State. The ruin be-
gan with Warmoth. In four years man like
Warmoth, active, unscrupulous, determined,
and with a genius for politics, could do and
did do what he might not have dared to at
tempt under annual scrutiny and annual risk
of disaster. Such men as Warmoth and
Aaron Burr are always possible in Republic
and always to be guarded asanot, But while
the old objections to biennial sessions are not
answered and the old reasons are not appli-
cable, it is not to be supposed that the change
Is advocated without some argument in its
favor.
so far as it is possible to get at the new
argument it proceeds upon the assumption
that the Legislature is an evil, necessary
evil to be sure, but an evil which we would
do well not to infict upon ourselves any
oftener than is needed. This may be an OBJ
jectonable way of stating the argument but
really comes to just that The specifica-
tlons emphasize the idea. 1t is said that
every winter the Legislature passes many
foolish laws, and public and private interests
are constantly in jeopardy as long as the
session lasts. Besides what the Legislature
actually passes, its time is taken up with
thousand foolish things which it does not
pass. For instance, a member last winter
stood up in his place and proposed to have
record kept OF every man's entrance and exit
from every town in the State, in order that
there should be no disputes about his settle
ment ii he became pauper! To these
specifications it is added that biennial sessions
would cut off greas deal of useless talk and
useless expense.
The answer to these things is not difficult.
It is charged that the Legislature passes many
foolish laws. Who is to judge of that? To say
that some acts are not the wisest is only to
say that Democratic government is fallible
and that the average sense of mankind as
found in the Legislature is not absolute wis
dom; but to say that great or considerable
portion of the laws made are unwse is proba-
bly, not true. The bulk of the public acts 60
through the hands of the Judiciary commit
tee which every year is composed of men far
above the average of intelligence of the State
The probability is that they who have heard
all the facts and arguments are better Judges
of the needs of the people than their critics.
If any public or private interests are put in
jeopardy by the session of the Legislature,
who knows but they ought to be put in jeop-
ardy. If they are in danger, it is because
other and opposite interests are pushing
them, AMI why should not the opposing
interests have hearing before the proper
tribunal? 1t might be urged, also, that if
Legislature which meets every year passes
foolish acts, a Legislature which meets every
other year will do the same thing with the
additional disadvantage that the fooshness
OF the latter will last two years and that of
the former only one.
It is charged that much of the time of the
Legislature is taken up by matters which are
finally rejected, some of them too absurd even
for discussion. This is true. And many a
man has sat and listened to the Speaker read
off rannvt after renort tsT.aoislat;on ;pavno