The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1890-09-25
Excessive Legislation.

The States are all statute-ridden. In all
of them there is an accumulation of rubbish
on their Statute books in the shape of crude
and imperfect and mischievous legislation
which it would be for the good of the pub
lie to have wiped out and swept into the
limbo. They are the work of annual and
biennial sessions of legislatures that be-
lieved it was their business to make laws.
and so made them in the most off-hand and
prodigal manner, whether they were needed
or not OF the work of any state legisla-
| ture, each session. how much is there that
is really needed? How much that the peO-
pie would not really be better without? Is
the infniteSimal proportion of our legisla-
tiOn that is really practical and wise, worth
anything like the cost of it? Is it not, in
deed. hundred times Outweighed by the
damage which comes to every public and
private interest which comes from crude
and hasty laws. and the disadvantage and
danger of being exposed to the operations
of caprcious and too often corrupt legisla-
ton?
The Times has already declared its be-
| lief that if our legislative sessions were
made quadrennial or setennial instead of
biennial. the change would rebound to the
public good. On the score of economy the
benefit would be great A session OF the
state legislature costs Minnesota not less
than 100000 for expenditures that can be
easily traced and pointed out. But who
ever knows anything about the methods of
| legislation and the manner in which legisla-
tuIes are run, knows that there are a thou
sand ways in which a legislature costs a
State money, that do not appear in any
form in which they can be directly traced.
Legislatures are not only an expense in
what they directly absorb themselves. but
they are much more costly in the facilities
they afford others in tapping the treasury
in ono way and another, and in establishing
leaks of indirection. These methods are of in
finite variety. and the ingenuity of the sharp
and unscrupulous members are in constant
exercise to increase them. Each year brings
new schemes and fresh inventions for tap
ping the public till. TO uncover and ex-
pose them is useless; the fertility of the
| cOnspiratOrs Outruns exposure. and before
the last scheme has been uncovered, there's
new one on foot. The only remedy is to
take away their means of access to the
treasury by interpOsing longer interreg-
mum between the legislative sessions.
Another argument which strongly recon-
mends the proposed change is the moral
one. A legislative session is more or less
source of Generalization. All the great
monopolies and greedy corporations and
syndicates, depend for the accomplishment
OF their purposes upon the corruption of
money. Wherever there is an agent OF
monopoly Offering to bribe. there are rep
resentatives of the people ready to accept the
corruption money and betray their consti-
tuents. Whoever recalls the performance
of the last Minnesota legislature needs no
bill of particulars to point the moral"
which is merely limited here. This moral
phase of the subject will bear consideration
by ITSELF Minneapolis Times.
Took Him Literally.