The San Francisco call., 1904-10-09
CHAPTER VI.
OF the Making of Laws.

alarmists who had prophesied eVll ana
evil only Of the "Populist" victory were
fast losing credit with the men of their
own camp and with the country at
large.
After the orthodox strife over the
speakership OF the House, and the
equally orthodox wrangle over contest
cd seats, the State Assembly had set
tied down 10 routine business, dispatch
ing it with such unheard-of celerity as
TO win columns Of approval from the
State press as a whole, though there
were not wanting a few radical editors
to raise the ante-election cry Of reform
and to ask pointedly when it was TO
begin
Notwithstanding the lack Of alarms,
however. the six weeks had been pc
riod Of unceasing vigilance on the part
Of the interests which were supposed to
be in jeopardy. Every alien corpora
tion. owning property and doing bust
ness in the State had its own quota Of
natchful defenders on the ground; men
who came and went in the lobbes Of
the. capitol, in the visitors galleries,
at the receptions; men who said lit
tie, but who saw and heard all things
down to the small talk of the corridors
and the clubs, and the gossip. of the
hotel rotundas.
David Kent was of this silent army
Of observation, doing watchdog duty
fer the Western Pacific; thankful
enough, If the truth be told, to have
thing to do which kept him from dwell
ing overmuch upon the wreck of his
hopes. But in the closing days of the
session, when a dispatchful Assembly,
anxious 70 be quit of its task, had gone
into night -sittings, the anodyne drug
Of work began to lose its effect.
The Brentwoods had taken furnished
apartments in TETON avenue, two
squares from the capitol, and Kent
had called no oftener than good breed
ing prescribed. Yet their accessibility
and his unconquerable desire to scar
his wound in the flame that caused it
were constant temptations and he was
battling with them for the hundredth
time on the Friday night when he sat
in the House gallery listening to a per-
functory debate which concerned itself
with a bill touching State waterways.
''Heavensi This thing is getting TO
be little short Of deadly" fumed Cren-
shave, his right hand neighbor, who
was also a member of the corps of OBJ
servation.
I'm going to the club for a game
of pool Won't you come alOng?
Kent nodded and left his seat with
the bored one. But in the great ro-
tunda he changed his mind
You'll find plenty of better players
than 1 am at the club" he said in eX
tenuation. 4 think I'll smoke whiff
or two here and go back They can't
hold on much longer for tonight"
Five minutes later, when he had
lighted a cigar and was glancing over
the evening paper, two other members
Of the corporation committee of safety
came down from the Senate gallery
and stopped opposite Kent's pillar to
struggle into their overcoaots.
Its precisely as 1 wrote our people
two weeks ago-a timidity scare, pure
and simple" one Of them was saying.
i've a mind TO start home tomorrow.
There is nothing doing here, or going
to be done"
mo-" said the other. 'If it wasn't
for House bill %, I'd go tonight. They
will adjourn tomorrow or Monday"
House bill 29 is much too dead to
bury" was the reassuring re-
joinder THE committee is ours, and
the bill will not be heard Of again at
this session. If that is all you are
holding on for"
They passed out of earshot, and Kent
folded his newspaper absently. House
bill 2s had been the one measure
interests; the one measure for the
suppression of which the corporations
lobby had felt called on to take steps.
IT was an omnibus bill put forth as a
substitute for the existing law defining
the status of foreign corporations. 1t
had originated in the Governors office
"a fact which Kent had ferreted out
within twenty-four hours Of its first
reading-and for that reason he had
procured a printed copy, searching it
diligently for the hidden menace he
was sure IL embodied.
When the search proved fruitless he
had seen the bill pass the House by
safe majority, had followed it to the
Senate. and in a cunningly worded
amendment tackled on in the upper
house had found what he was seeking.
Under the existing law foreign corpora
tions were subject to State supervision,
and were dealt with as presumably un-
friendly aliens. But the Senate amend
ment 20 House bill 29 fairly
swept the interstate corporations, as
such, out of existence, by making it
obligatory upon them to acquire the
standing Of. local corporations. Char
ters were to be reflled with the Secre-
tary Of State; resident directories and
operating headquarters were to be es-
tablished within the boundaries and
jurisdiction of the State; in short, the
State proposed, by the terms of the
new law, to deal only with creatures of
its own creation.
Kent saw, or thought he saw, the
fine hand Of the Junta in all this. 1t
was a still hunt in which the longest
way around was the shortest way
home. Like all new-country codes, the
organic law Of the State favored local
corporations, and il might be argued
that a bill placing the foreign COM
panies on a purely local footing was
an unmiXed blessing to the aliens. But,
on the other hand an unprincipled ex-
ecutive might easily make the new law
an engine Of extortion. To go no fur
ther into the matter than the required
refilIng of charters: the State constitu-
tion gave the Secretary of State quasi
judicial powers. 1t was within his
province TO pass upon the applications
for chartered rights and to deny them