Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-08-19
The Legislature Of 1894.
lrrom the petroIt Eeho Of lnIy sth, lsel.l

CFrom the Detroit Echo of July sth, 1917
Last Thursday the legislature of 1891
completed its record of incOmpetency
and uselessness by adjourning. For
over six months its members have sat
at Lansing, furnishing in the length of
their sessions no improvement on the
legislatures that have gone before them
and that the democrats have been wont
to condemn. The opportunities which
were before them at the opening of the
session were before them when they
closed and still remained Enacted up
on. There has been an odor of corrup-
ton about their doings not at all UNI
like the corruption that hung about
previous legislatures that the demo-
Gratis like to point to as bright exam-
pies of the possibilities of corruption.
Beginning with Gov. Winan's inau-
gural message, wherein he asked the
democratic Legislature to go over the
list of Offices and cut away the useless
ones, To consolidate state boards and
to do the legislative business of the
state promptly and speedily, to the
end that taxation might be reduced
and the business of the state con-
Quoted economics lily, the legislature of
1891 has failed to furnish a realization
for any of the hopes that were en-
tertained as To the course it might
take. So far from cutting away the
useless officers, the incumbents there
of, rs soon as they were filled by DEM
ocrats, made the strongest demands
upon the legislature to retain the
Offices for the sake of the patronage
they furnished the party. The pat
ronage argument prevailed over the
governors desire to cut down the eX-
penses of administration, and the peO-
pie who had the governors wishes
beaten were his own appointees.
So far from consolidating the null
titude of state boards that roll up bills
of expense by the maintenance of
officers and heavy bills for travelling,
the legislature has consolidated only
those boards relating to the states
charitable and reformatory institutions
for children. That change was not
made in pursuance of the governors
recommendations, however, but simply
because it was the only way to retire
an obstreperOus board of control of
the state public school, which persisted
in retaining Supt. Newkirk, of the
Coldwater school, in the face of gross
irregularity. So that even for that
change the legislature may not be COM
mended on the score of economy.
So far from having been an econom-
ical legislature, if the bodies that pre-
ceded it were eXtravagant, the legis- |
lature of 1891 has been quite equal
to its immediate predecessor. There
were 81 SOB 800 spent for certain spe-
citic purposes by the legislature of
1889. For the same purposes the leg
islature of 1891 spends 81 ,574, 66S, a
saving of not quite $4,000. In adj
dition to this there is an addition of |
500 900 for the worlds fair approprl- |
alton and increases in the amounts to |
be paid for salaries of state officers, |
for judicial salaries and expenses, for |
the conveying of persons to prison, for
the live stock commission and for the |
current expenses OF state institutions. |
Taken, big and large, the expenses of
the state government during 1891 or
1892 will be greater than the expenses
were during 1890 as the result of the
legislation of 1889.
The work that the body has done
upon which it prides itself most has
been of the most doubtful character. |
1t played upon the farmers by reduc- |
ing the legal rate Of interest, though |
such reduction can apply only to |
judgments and overdue accounts, can
not apply to existing contracts, and
may be set aside up to s per cent in
future contracts. 1t passed the Miner
bill for the choice of presidential
electors which will give the democrats
victory in few districts at the expense
of possible victory on the whole
electoral ticket of the state. 1t in
creased the taxation of railroads by
statute, with the prospect of having
the legislation ultimately overruled
when the railroads come to test the
legislation i'll the courts, and the GER
tainty of having the amount of taxes
added To the freight rates in any event
The lesson of the legislature of 1891
is one that the Democratic party
should not fail to heed. 1t should
reform its party so that such fellows
as have graced the present legislature
should not be nominated again. If it
had a properly representative set of
democrats in the legislature instead of
fellows of the type of Senator Smith
and Senator Park, and of deceivers
and wire pullers of the general type
of the average democratic member of
1891, the party would be better off and
its opportunities would not be lost.
The lack of party organization at the
time of the conventions, was what let
such fellows in, and good organization
in the future should keep them out.
Obituary.