The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-01-09

2 of Article W., where the pay of MEM
bers of the Legislature is limited to
session of sixty days duration.
No less than five amendments to the
were proposed by the Leg
islature Of 1862, and submitted to
the people at the recent State election,
each of which were designed to effect
in a greater or less degree the above
constitutional limitations, and to re-
lieve the pressure upon the general
legislative assembly. One OF these
amendments proposed new Constltu-
tional Convention; another was de-
signed to take the yearly enactment
or amendment Of a county government
bill out of the Legislature and place
it with the people of the respective
counties; another was to constitute
court of claims, composed OF Superior
Court Judges and relieve the Legisla-
ture of the pressure of relief bills; an
other related to consolidated city and
county governments, the object OF
which was to relieve the Legislature OF
framing laws for them, and another
was intended to permit OF a recess Oh
the Legislature of from thirty to sixty
days, and allowing legislators pay Tor
not more than seventy-five days, in
stead of not more than sixty days.
There have been other attempts to in
crease pay, or extend time, as for IN
stance the proposed constitutional
amendment off1S92, fixing compensa-
ton of members for each session at
$1,000 The demand for more time for
consideration of legislation has been
pronounced, but it has met with de-
feat at the polls each time, and the
defeat of most of these measures has
been by large majorities.
At the last session of our Legislature
there appears to have been $50 bills in
troduced in the Assembly, and Ioo IN
the Senate, besides the usual number
of resolutions, constitutional amend
ments. etc. OF these bills only 21S be-
came laws; as to the fate of the others
it may be stated that large number
passed both houses only to find the
fatal pocket" of the Governor; some
were vetoed, and great many never
reached the station of third reading.
Who can describe the field occupied
by all these bills? OF course in some
instances more than one. perhaps three
or four bills We're aimed at one object,
but of the 27S which became laws, the
result was the amending, adding or re-
pealing of fifteen sections of the civil
Code thirty-two sections of the Code OF
Civil Procedure, twentyfour sections OF
the Penal Code, and 1O2 sections of the
Political Code, and that about seventy
nine separate bills were passed in Ell
fecting these changes.
There is an advocacy, of no mean
proportions, for a change in the system
of legislation The initiative and ref
erendum' present a subject of Sc
ductive interest to people whose minds
have been awakened, as those of the
American people, especially at time
when evils of various kinds are be-
coming oppressive The writer of this
has himself lent a willing ear to these
seductive suggestions. but more con-
sderate deliberations have convinced
him that though legislation by repre-
sentation is not pure democracy 1t IS by
far the superior method of any yet pro-
posed for our people. upon govern
mental and administrative subjects.
This system has come down to US from
the earliest history of our race, and il
has proven adequate for the preserva-
ton of our liberties through the most
sanguinary and doubtful periods.
There is no need of change from the
representative system, but there is ne
cessity for some means of inspiring the
selection of legislators possessed of
some training for the business confided
to them. There is need of educating the
people to a higher sense of the respon-
s.bilities involved, and a curling of the
preference shown to mere political ad-
vantage. The high and solemn regard
in which the law of the land should be
held can only be inspired by good law
devoid of confusion. A large proper
ton of the members of the Legislatures
is composed of lawyers, yet as they are
frequently also either directly or indi-
rectly employed in the promotion of
private interests they are Indifferent
to the general body of laws proposed, or
barter their influence in behalf of those
laws for the better insuring the sue