The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1885-04-09
CLOSING UP.
The Adjourned Session
Ofthe SiXty-SiXth GER
eral Assembly.
Very nearly at Its end. How
the New Administration
Strikes the People.

) Some of them are happy and some
Of them are not-just according to
the way in which they read the re-
turns. Some of them see reel
ection In these returns and some of
them seejust the reverse.
The people in the long run are
generally good judges, and they sell
dom 90 astray when it comes to re
electing a nan to a second term OF
of Office. They are liable TO be
fooled the first time, but they arc
seldom fooled twice in succession.
Hence, these members who are re-
turned, may. be regarded as pretty
good sort of fellows on tho average,
while those that are left at home
need not be mourned over great
deal.
There are several members of the
present Legislature, without regard
to party or previous condition who
will do quite as much good if kept
at home as if they were sent here.
However, it is not to be inferred
that the present General Assembly
falls below the average. On the
contrary it Is above it in many re-
spects. 1t had its faults and its
short com!ngs. but taken as a whole
it has done fairly well.
There has been but little vicious
or bad legislation either proposed
or enacted SO far, doubt the pro-
prlety of some two or three of the
reorganization measures, and think
it would have been much better to
have left the correction of the evils
they sought to remedy to the peo-
pie themselves. That correction
might have been a good while in
coming, but it would have come in
time. One of these measures the
Supreme Court has set aside, and
another of them will probably 60
before the same tribunal for decis-
ion. The people of the State may
felicitate themselves that if the Leg
islature makes mistake in any di-
rectlon, they have an able and a
conscientious Supreme Court to cor
rect that mistake
While there will be a great deal
of 'legislatlng,' so to speak, from
this on until the close of the sess-
ion, which will probably be toward
the end of this month, the most of
the real work has already been done,
with the exception of the General
Appropriation Bill, in which all
taxpayers are interested. For more
rhan u week this bill has been un-
der consideration in the House, and
it will pass it before this reaches
the eye of the reader, unless it
meets with some unexpected back
set.
To one who watches the process
Of passing large appropriation bill
through the Legislature, the wonder
is how it is kept down. Here is one
fact that | observed in connection
with the matter. The bill this year
seeks to appropriate appropriately
81, 500, 900. or about the usual am
cunt. Attempts wero made to
amend it by increasing items or add
ing new ones, which if adopted,
would have brought it up to the
neighborhood of 81, 900, 600. l have
seen a member vote right along
against twenty or thirty of those
amendments on the score of econo-
my, and give the best of reasons
for his vo:cs, until finally he would
offer an amendment himself almost
precisely like the one he had voted
against and helped to vote down,
which amendment would have ap-
propriated $1,000 or $4,000 or
some other sum of money to be
spent in his own immediate neigh
borhood.
This has been a regulr thing all
through the discussion of the rres-
ent bill and has been for years
Each member has pet appropria-
ton that he wants to get into the
bill, and supports it while he op-
poses all the other pets. One mem
ber, for instance, the amendments
to appropriate money for different
sections of the canals OH the ground
that it was throwing away money,
and then got up and offered three
amendments one after the other call
ng for 10000, $4,000 and $4,000,
to be spent in repairing a canal in
his own county, and he apparently
could not see the inconsi tency of
his position.
When one hears the pleas that are
advanced for extra and extraordin-
ary appropriations, in addition to
the carefully considered bill of the
Finance Committee, he is astonished
that no greater amount of money is
The new administration is par
alyzer to the Republican leaders,
let them take it in any Way they
please. Each day shows m ore clear
ly that Mr.. Cleveland is complete
master of the situation and that q
Democratic administration means
reform and reform of a practical
md not of theoret ical character.
AT first they said that Cleveland
was weak and that he would be put
ty in The hands of shrewd machine
D. liiicians. But this story wouldn t
hold good for a week, when it was