Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-01-27
LEGISLATION AND LEGISLATURES.

upon the entire personality OF legislatures.
It is necessary to keep in mind the distinc.
ton between the criticism of a system and
the mere agencies through which it accom-
plishes its ends. In the majority of in
stances there may be accorded to legislators
IN the States of the Union honesty of pur
pose and desire to advance the best in.
terests of the country. In our own Legs
latuTe there is observable fewer than is usual
of the class which has won the inelegant but
distinctive title of Legislative cranks. !"
The body is not, probably, actuated by par
tisan motives in much greater degree than
would characterize majority OF any party
suddenly and unexpectedly thrust into
power.
Generally it is fairly representative body
of men, with fair proportion of clements
of the better order. and types of the better
civilization, aud probably as little of the
unthinking element in society is represent
ed as is to be expected in BODY selected
at this day by popular vote, under party
control. But, az legislative body repre-
senting our system of aw-making, is it
possessed of that grade of intelligence, or
that information which should i'm.
press every part of its work The men
who are thoroughly and well informed on
the topics upon which they attempt to
legislate are in the minority. A class
almost equally as wise, and one that is sin
cere, and conscious Of its defects in this
respect, is content to listen ard to vote,
leaving to others the doubtful credit Of
deluging the body with Improbable and
ill-considered measures.
Professor Winchell, one of the deep
thinkers OF the day, in g recent article on
1.-The Experiment of Universal Suffrage >
uses this forcible language to express
recognized truths "The enactment
of useful laws demands an acquaint-
ance with the history and results
of legislation under analogous condi.
tions knowledge of political, industrial
and financial sciences acquaintance with
the nature and usefulness of the great pub
lie enterprises consummsted or undertaken
in the past; a comprehension of the public
people concerned courage and intelligence
to project and to promote benefcent pub
lie measures; virtue to seek justice be-
tween men and between nations, and to
provide wise laws for the encouragement
of virtue and the suppression of vice ;
patriotism to restrain from the sacrifice of
the public welfare for the sake of personal
ends"
The application of so high standard of
legislative qualification to our own houses,
presents their defects in a strong light.
When but eighteen of their legislative
days have passed, their dockets show
very nearly 500 bills, amendments to
the Constitution and concurrent resolu-
tions introduced. These treat of almost
every imaginable subject possible to the
influence of State legislation; they re-
fleet the intellectual peculiarities, and
the degree of learning of the members,
and expose, side by side with their
wisdom. the vast contrasting bulk of their
misconception of the primal duties and OBJ.
legations of law makers. The bills largely
reflect the animosities of the day and hour,
the partisan hopes and schemes of mere men
of party, and the frantic endesvors made to
shape society, commerce and the immutable
laws of trade to the crude notions of men to
whom the science of political economy is
sealed book. With these hundreds of
measures in view, the State may be COM
pared to patient, well enough in his own
opinion, but beset by multitude of doc
tors. each one insisting that he is grew
ously i'll, each armed with special nossrums,
all specifics, and which it is insisted the
unwilling sufferer must take, whether he
will or not. Ii one half of the bills were
passed as introduced it is safe to say the
codes would be so revolutionized that the
Courts would find it all but impossible to
administer the laws, and no Executive
would dare approach the undertaking of
enforcing al the new.made statutes.
We have now before US proposed meas
ures on prison reform, education and pre-.
vention of abuses, regulative statutes, re-
codidcation of the laws, on Practice Acts,
on Penal Codes, on social reformatory
measures, plans and devices for doing the
impossible, and wild declarations and ap.
peals on all manner of subjects filed with
theories that demonstration has long since
exploded, and bristling with allega-
tions that truth has long since
condemned. If it is replied that
in the nature of things all this must
prevail in representative body, we
answer, that if such body is to be judged
by its work, and if it represents the high
eat civilization of a people, such
display of legislative unskillfulnesa is
to be accounted for Only on the theory
OF the incapacity of the people to wisely
choose; and it must be admitted that their
after verdict gives some strength to that
doctrine, since they so often express ap.
prehension while legislative session con.
tinues, and rejoice when it closes. But
if it may be admitted that even in the best
forms of government the representative
body viii reflect the crude notions and the
wild speculations of the illiterate, the ill.in
formed and the thoughtless, it still should
be possible to improve our methods so as
to weed out the luxurisnce OF rank legisla-
ton by means less expensive, tedious and
discoursging than the routine of proceed.
ings now make necessary. This may re-
quire radical change in the organic law,