The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1896-01-30
THE LAST SESSION.
Speaker Moores' Timely Article
on the Last Legislature.


. The following letter appeared in recen
issue OF the Oregonian. The article wa
Il written by Hon. G. B. Moores, speaker o
n the last house. 1t is one of the most timel,
e articles on state politicle matters that ha
e been made public for long time, and con
e tains SO much food for careful thought and
v study that the GAZETTE publishes it in full
n ''No pastime has ever been more popular
with the American people than that of ut
tering maledictions upon the heads of mem.
bers of congress and of the legislature. Il
is one national fad which never wears out
Whenever we are in trouble, our first i'm
pulse is to look for scapegoat. 1t was this
j popularity of human nature that started
/ pcpull>m in Kansas. Hundreds of thous-
ands of people went out to make homes upon
the prairie lands of that state with barely
: their houses and plant their first crops. Bank
ing too much on the future, they borrowed
money in large sums, and about the time
payday came around, a dsouth and biz
zard and a cyclone or two came with it and
brought them into just that condition of
mind which gave the populist damagogue
|, his opportunity. The republican party was
the most convenient scapegoat, and every
time blizzard came bowling over the plains
a half dozen populzt politicians came howl
ling along in the rear, and the populist vote
increased and the republican vote decreased
in direct proportion. Today the people
everywhere are burdened with heavy load
iof taxation, and the most convenient scape-
goat upon which to shoulder the responsible
ity is the last Oregon legislature, and among
the loudest in denunciatiol of that body are
many lately weaned taxeaters who have fed
sumptuously at the public crib all their lives.
One Of the most deeply injured, who canno t
be classed as n taxeater, is our friend DR.. j.
L. Hill, Of Albany, who doyotes column in
your issue OF Saturday to what he calls the
"Mollie Maguireism'' and the 'sholl born"
laws of the last republican legislature. Cur
friend is of very placid and phlegmatic
disposition or he would have spoken more
severely and not have tempered his remarks
with such judicial placidity. One would in
fer that the last assembly was positively the
but can You recall single legislative assem-
| bly, in the past generation that has Jared any
/ better in the public estimation? Unfortu-
natcly, human nature is so constituted, and
Legislatures are so constituted, that no law
making assembly ever does meet public ex-
pectation, even though the great majority Of
such body may be composed of not only
car ,tn h,,t
faithfully to serve the public The last legis-
lature was like all its predecessors, but the
country has in the last three years, trough
the combined influences of populism and
democracy, beon brought into such deplor-
able financial condition that any unrecessar
lily added burdens arc moro severely felt than
ever before, and the innate disposition to
criticise was never moro acute. 1t has been
but a few short years since our state debt was
SO enormous that VIC of the present genera
tion scarcely dared hope we would ever see it
paid. In the early '70s itusod to be com
mon saying that the legislature was simply
convened fur the purpose Of registering the
will Of Ben Holiday. In the later '7Os Hon.
William Galloway, late democratic candi-
utation through the scathing report he, as
one Of an Investigating com mittee, made
upon the iniquities of the democratic, state
administration. About this time. too, the
editorial columns of the press were loud with
denunciations Of what was known as the
Oregon City lock and dam swindie, and
later, men of every degree OF prominence
and of all shades of political belief were
being charged with completely in swamp land
frauds In all the reckless charges which
have been made against the last legislative
assembly there is nothing that has imputed
to it the turpitude and criminality alleged
against the legislative bodies which have
gathered in our state capitol in past years;
and here it is proper to interposo the sugges-
tion that none of these legislative assemblies
were guilty of one half of the offenses of
omission and commission with whiuh they
were charged.
| "Your Albany correspondent is man OF
| high standing in his profession, and as citi-
zen, but about one term in the legislature
would immensely broaden his horizon. He
would thereafter ''sing exceedingly low"
aOOut lcgiSidllNe SAIi oSaSoHSC Aho'A
cheney, even if he had S9 other legislative
compatriots just like him. There is no man
in the country who could go successfully con-
duct the American nation out of its present
deplorable financial condition as the populst
who last week made an assignment Of his
peanut roaster for the benefit of his creditors.
All experience shows that it is much easier
to moralize over matters of this kind than it
lis to correct the evils from which we suffer.
No legislative body ever did meet public
Iexpectations. None ever will, and no man,
however high his resolve, ever came out OF
Legislative body with half as much self-satis-
faction as he carried into it. Indeed, as a
rule, the man who promises the most before
he gets in, and who talks reform the loudest
after he gets in, usually geos out with the
sorrlest record. A man in the privacy OF
his own sanctuary can reform the world with
1.-THE utmost ease. The same man will GO
Into convention with 50 others and come
: out Of it with absolutely nothing but his
| experience As rule, a legislator is neither
better nor worse than his constituent, and
Legislature is always fairly representative
body. The burdens carried by the people O.
la: H. not Prom, anu tray nan