The Caucasian., 1897-05-27
4 GREAT evIl-.THE REMEDY.
An ILLUSTRATION OF NOW LAWS ARE
Ere ovEnTlv RUSHED TsRouen

sWe VVeWtkv HUSHkO IH00ueM
asv The MN Grtsas-Asa ss, .@N. u
ere Take Adsss,.g. OF II. HssA-ss.
ssgssssiess rhss We.ia a..~.s, -
Tveasls.
Hon Ignatius Donnelly i. mem
Der OF the present State Legisla,ur,
Of Minnesota. He describes in b,
paper the representative. . grea
evil that Is . curse TO every Stat,
Legislature that has not yet had ,h,
wisdom TO change their legislatv,
systems. When Marion Butler va.
. member Of the State Senate in iSgl
he introduced a comprehensive meas
urc that would have made IL possibl,
for g Legislature to give proper
deliberation TO important questions
Read Donnelly's description of tn.
evil:
1.-The Senate law mill is in wo,k
ing order. 1t ground out thirty bill.
in two hours, from 1 20 6 o'clock las,
evening, At the rate Of one in -four
minutes. 1t was touch, bang and
she's law
up to Yesterday morning olly
about $50 bills of this session. out OF
about 500 introduced, had become
laws. But In the morning the SEN
ate yesterday passed twenty-five
bills, not to mention those killed and
the raft of other business on hand,
and in the last two hours of the az
ternoon thirty more bills were taken
from the calendar and passed. The
Senate, in other words, passed ffiy.
two bills in one day, as gainst Isl
bills that were made laws by the
legislature from January TO April
IL. At this rate, heaven only knows
what laws may be turned out be.
tween Monday morning and Tues
day midnight, when the Law making
ends.
"The innocent reader wants to
know, are all of these bills whic b
60 through at the rate of one in four
mint tes carefully read and consid
eredi Are they discussedi Are
their constitutionality and expedi
ency and necessity to public welfare
weighed in statesmanlike style'
"Perhaps the best answer is te
present a list of the measures pas
sed and the method of passing. The
reader will be able to Judge fol
himself as to the amount of de
liberation invested In the law max
ing process when he r. fl scts that the
passage of bill is supposed to in
volve the following process: Firs'
reading of the bill, which may con
sist of one TO q dozen folio pages
second, discussion: third, roll call o.
the house, which is then supposed t.
be verified, and a second call of ab
sentees; fourth, counting of the vot,
by the clerk and announcement O
the result by the chair.
'Immagine thirty laws made b,
the above process between 1 and
o'clock in the afternoon, after ,
hard days grind.
81 don't see how they can rea,
thirty bills in two hours, let alon
pass upon them, p" the innocent reade
again remarks, Well, there is read
ing and reading. Sometimes, tn
reader gets through a bill and some
times through q paragraph or
sentence or two. Old slow coacl
States down East may take time. Blu
that will not do with tho aggressiv
West. We do things up ship-shap
here. We do. We can grind ou
more statutes in two hours than tn
taxpayers who pay the bills can rea
in two days. FIfty-two laws in
day is a small record compare,
with what may be done to-morro,
and next day, when the last viii,
comes. Thugs will whiz at doubl
speed tomorrow and the bill ths
gets four minutes time will be
daisy"
Who profits by Ibis state of things
The corporations, the rings tn
plunderers of the people, the lobby
lists, the knaves. Who pays for
alli By ono act passed ty tn
present legislature. the taxpayer
may be robbed of enough none
to keep the legislature IN contiDu,
session for q year."
The remedy for all this is simple
The local legislation that makes u
the great majority of the bills intro
duced and which take the large
part of the time by members, shoul
never come to the legislature at al
1t should be attended to by the couu
ty commissioners of each county
Why should legislature be calle
upon to incorporate churches an
schoo , houses, to prevent fast drivinI
over some bridge, or to regulate tn
hunting or fishing seasons in
certain county. If this and all simi
lar local legislation we're turned owe
to the county missioners ther
would be three or Eve men to pai
upon the matter. They are as equa
ly familiar with questions an
equally as competent as the on
man sent to the legislature. Beside
if there is any division among th
people in q given locality as to tt
wisdom or necessity of a propose
measure of local legislation, they ca
all 60 to the county seat and bot
sides be heard by the count
com mmissioners. The men WI
are sent to the legislature pledge d
secure certain local legislation Il
often gives all his time to such ma
ters, while the important matters {
State legislation are negl. cted, AT
the corporations push through the
Jobs which the me mbers don't fl
out till after they have gone home.
| Another remedy woulI be to hs'
a gene raj law prescribing the pri
ileges that corporations may ct
their charters, and then force the
all to come under the same gener
terms. This would keep corpor
tions from coming to the legisla,u,
and corrupting it or fooling it in
0ivinp them speciAl and unusu