The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-01-02
THE SEASON OF LAW MAKING.

In their order, the topics that engross
most legislators are the speakership,
chairmanships and petty officers, COM
mittees, seats, perquisites, appropria-
lions. jobs and public interests We
are in the preliminary stages of the
first absorbing topic now and will reach
the remaining ones in due season. This,
on the whole, is fortunate for the pub
lie, because the conception of what is
for the real interest of the dear public
IS so vague in the mind Of the aver
age legislator that the patient old bur
den bearer is oftener hurt than helped
by their efforts in its behalf The pla-
card over the pianist of a Texan con-
cert: Don't shoot the pianist; he is
doing the best he knows" might we'll
be hung at the door of every legisla-
tive hall. Legislators have not changed
much since the days when the staunch
old puritan, Lyman Beecher, prayed:
Teach us, Lord not to despise our
rulers, and prevent them from acting
so that we cannot help it,
capable Of understanding our language.
to alight upon our planet during these
winter days when the wise men, the
assumedly wise men, of the nation and
states are gathered to mend the ways
of every one, save themselves. he would
surely conclude, as he watched the
flood Of constructive, roconstructive and
destructive bills offered, That into chaos
had come the command: Let there be
states, and that these busy builders
were engaged in establishing states
through the medium of law, construct
Ing society out of its raw material
instead Of only putting patches on
structures centuries old Each fresh
legislator comes up from his medita-
tons on the conditions of society as he
sees it with a keen perception Of some
one or more of it's admitted evils and
with a sublime confidence in the eff
cacy Of. "be it enacted" of the puts
SAINT body which he hOnors with his
wisdom to eradicate or cure. Sometimes
1t happens that there are enough Of
him who have discovered the same evil
and panacea to force the remedy down
the gullet Of the poor old public, in
which case, after the first guIp, the
old creature pursues it's accustomed
ways, and one more act is stored away
In the lumber room of dead letter laws.
Oftener, however, there is such a d.
Versity and multiplicity of evils and
remedies, and each doctor is so sure
of his disease and remedy that the
most Of the remedial measures get lost
in the madding crowd in the last days,
and disappointed. statesmen return to
their constituents to bemoan the de-
generacy of the day and the Needless
ness Of the average legislator of every
thing save such matters as contribute
to his material comfort and welfare.
We say fresh" legislator, for If,
through some Encouragement in the
custom Of rotation in office which re-
CARDS term in the legislature as large
~ honorary, to be passed around among
the boys a member returns often
enough to have lost his freshness. he
discards the notion Of reforming So
ciety by law, perceives that society re-
fuses to be reformed except in its own
way and time, and, If he is an honest
man, devotes himself to discouraging
the reformers and, where he cannot do
that, to asphyxiating their bills. If he
be not honest, he proceeds to get his
speaker elected and himself on the
railroad or some other opulent commit
tee, and to organize early a clearing
house for Doodle, through which the
cash Of corporations or other wealthy
interests dependent on legislation, can
be cleared under the old rule Of addi-
ton, division and silence. Between the
too fresh members and the seasoned
and dishonest ones, the session runs to
an end, and the community draws a
IoHg breath and emits thank the