The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1897-04-21
SHAMEFUL.

Illdu race Will D0.
SHAMEFUL.
Countries that are ruled by despots
and don't possess the right of self-gov-
eminent, would be willing to wade to
their necks in blood to obtain that in
estimable privilege of freemen while
lands, like our Northwestern states,
which have inherited the right to make
laws for themselves without limitation
or restraint, are ready, in obedience to a
purchased cutlery for economy, and in
the interest of great corporations, to re-
duce the time in which they can legis-
late to shamefully small proportions.
Here in Minnesota there are over a
million, five hundred thousand people;
their annual appropriations run into
millions of dollars, their taxes are thir-
teen millions annually; and yet they
are fooled into the belief that they
should not permit the legislature to sit
for more han ninety days in two years,
or FORTY-FIVE DAYS A YEAR!
If they had session of ninety days a
year. it would cost them perhaps $780,
900 year, or about THREE CENTS
PER CAPITA! And to save that three
cents we have the state of things de-
scribed in the following extract from
the Minneapolis Times of April 18th:
"The senate law mill is in working
order. 1t ground, out thirty bills in two
hours, from to- 6 o'clock last evening,
or at the rate of one bill in four min
utes. 1t was touch, bang and she's a
law
Cup to yesterday morning only about
$50 bills Of thiss session, out of about
1900 introduced, had become laws. But
in the morning the senate yesterday
passed twenty-five bills, not to mention
those killed and the raft of other bust
ness on hand, and in the last two hours
of the afternoon 80 more bills were
taken from the calendar and passed.
The senate, in other words, passed fifty
two bills in one day. as against $50 bills
that were made laws by the legislature
from Jan. 1 to April H. At this rate,
heaven only knows what laws may be
turned out between Monday morning
and Tuesday midnight, when the law
making ends.
1.-The innocent reader wants to know
are all of these bills which go through
at the rate of one in four minutes care
fully read and considered? Are they dis
cussed? Are their constitutionality and
eXpediency and necessity to public well
fare weighed in statesmanlike style?
Perhaps the best answer is to present
a list of the measures passed and the
method of passing. The reader will be
able to judge for himself as to the
amount of deliberation invested in the
law-making process when he reflects
that the passage of bill is supposed
to involve the following process: First,
reading of the bill, which may consist
of one to a dozen folio pages; second,
discussion; third, roll call of the house,
which is then supposed to be verified,
and a second call of absentees; fourth,
counting of the vote by the clerk and
announcement of the result by the chair.
Imagine 30 laws made by the above
process between 4 and o'clock in the
afternoon, after hard days grind.
Il don't see how they can read thirty
hills in tUn hOr1rc LOT o1nn0
them" the innocent reader again re-
marks, Well, there is reading and read
ing. Sometimes, the reader gets through
a bill and sometimes through a para
graph or a sentence or two. Old slow
coach states down East may take time
But that will not do with the aggressive
West We do things up ship shape here.
We do. We can grind out more statutes
in two hours than the taxpayers who
pay the bills can read in two days. l'if-
ty-two laws in day is small record
compared with what may be done to-
morrow and next! day, when the last
whirl comes,s Things will whiz at double
speed tomorrow and the bill that gets
four minutes timeqwill be daisy"
Who profits by this state of things?
The corporations, the rings, the plum
derers of the people, the lobbyists, the
knaves. Who pays for it all? The peo-
pie. BY one act passed as described by
the Times, the taxpayers may be robbed
of enough money to keep the legislature
in continual sessieh for a year,
And when the people try to accom-
plish needed teforh1s, the rogues (whese