The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-05-20

four of his colleagues, all of whom at
the time of his Oratorical effort may be
giving close and fixed attention to some
newspaper, and he is liable to wonder
why some weak-Voiced, hollow-chested
old member can get the attention Of
the house whenever he chooses. l am
not a candidate for reelection, but it
is my deliberate opinion that the
oftener a member is reelected to the
legislative position the better it is for
those whom he represents. He usually
spends the first session getting onto
the ropes and in fulfilling his nun erCuS
committee duties, for no new member
is satisfied with appointment on less
than four or five committees and in
trying to do his duty to all of them he
is usually of little benefit to any.
After he has had the experience of
one term he concludes to get on one
good committee, always be at commit
tee meeting and if some member who
has bill before his committee IS
knocking on one of his bills on the
floor and elsewhere, he proceeds to hold
up the other n ember's bill in his com
nlittee until the other member comes to
his senses as to his bill and sees the
good points in it and even decides to
advocate it with great ardor.
Another mistaken idea which many
new members harbOr is that because
they are in the legislature 1t is their
duty to introduce bills, and therefore
the more bills they introduce the
greater success they have made in the
legislature 1 nave Tor some time Deem
firmly of the belief that it is as much
the duty of a legislator in ordinary
times to restrain legislation as to pro
mote it. and that at many sessions a
legislature could do the state no greater
service than to pass the necessary APP
propriation and local bills and adjourn.
After serving through four sessions
and without making any pretense to
any exceptional or extraordinary brand
of honesty it is my deliberate opinion
hot = of tn,
vote and your Influence in the legisla-
ture for money In the first
place the average member who is
in the boOdling business does not come
high A hundred dollars viii easily
catch him and they have been quoted
as low as five. He is not apt to be
wanted often and therefore his oppor-
tunfties are limited. If ne commands
the highest figure his money usually
comes easy, and as the bOodler is in
vaEiably a poker player, what he gets
by unhOly means in the daytime he uSu-
ally gives up to some member of the
third house at night. and the worst
part of it for him IS that a man can
not be a boodler and conceal it, 1t is
like murder, it will out. And before
the session is over the professional
boodler is a marked man among his
colleagues and an object of their sus-
picion and srOrEs~ will undertake TO
say that / can name every member Of
the last legislature who was corrupt.
but 7 viii not now. Since this session
and others have closed have heard
members Of the lobby boast of how
they had bought certain members Of
the legisla ture and congratulate them
selves on how cheaply they got them,
while the unsuspecting member was
doubtless concentrating himself on
how well the lobbyist was guarding the
secret which he had sworn to conceal.
There are. however, Isolated cases Of
members who parade their venality.
They know how easy it is for one MEM
Der to obstruct, especially legislation Of
a local nature and they lose no oppor-