River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1904-03-31
The Legislature of 1908.

mission, has written an able, con-
sentative and instructive article on
the last Legislature of this state. He
entities it, "Assisting Legislature
to Legislate." The article is pub
lished in the February number of
"The World To-Day" magazine.
Mr.. McCarthy's essay should be
widely read by the voters of Wis
consin. We give below few ex-
cerpts:
What sort of men compose the
Wisconsin legislature? 1t has long
been the custom to laugh at the
Legislators and to belittle the politi-,
clans who are our lawmakers. To
the average citizen the legislator in
general appears as very ordinary
individual who is a politician for
what he can make out of it.
1 confess that [ was agreeably
surprised to find that, however the
case may be elsewhere, the Wiscon-
sin legislature is composed of men
far above the average In every re-
spect. The average wealth is very
high and the average intelligence is
still higher. Among them are
sharp, shrewd merchants, bright
young lawyers, sober, progressive
farmers, retired engineers and bust
ness men. I found the Wisconsin
legislator hard worker, and long
hours of work in the sitting COM
mittee-rooms make his position no
sinecure. His greatest need seemed
to be that of assistance.
The common opinion insists that
corruption exists everywhere in our
American legislatures. Investiga-
tons in many states have shown us
that money, wild lands, inside clips"
from stocks, and other consideration,
have been freely used. But the
most prevalent form of that assist
ance to law making which is proper
ly called corruption, in the last Wis
consin Legislature, was the "hold-
up" bill; that is, bill against some
interest which is withdrawn or kill
ed in committee when money is
forthcoming for that purpose. Many
bills of this sort were introduced in
the last session and almost without
attempt at concealment. Strange to
say, many honest members intro
duced these bills. They were often
handed to these men by the authors,
who then had them assigned to the
committees that they could control.
think I am conservative when |
say that altogether there were at
least nine men in both houses en-
gagged in this work, and these men
could always be directly or indirect
ly approached. When they wanted
a bill killed, they went to the col
leagues with whom they had been
voting on other and perhaps more
important matters, and said to them
in effect, ssYou must vote with me
on this measure if you want my
vote on other measures" AS the
division on large issues was often
very close, these men, as can be
readily seen, carried huge clubs.
BY this principle of log rolling, one
corrupt man can not only influence
a great deal of legislation, but some
times carry with him honest men.
Yet log rolling and vote trading ar
rangements are so common as to
need no comment. They are ac-
cepted as inherent in our legislative
| systems.
There were other influences tend
ing to assist wrong legislation and to
degrade legislation which were
prevalent at the last session. The
lobbyist must be examined in this
connection. What is meant by lob
bying? Many laws against the
practice define lobbyists as "persons
who try to influence legislation" or
sslegislative counsel" A restrictive
law with such definition violates one
of the greatest principles of democ-
racy, and is almost never enforced.
Our Wisconsin law is practically a
dead letter. Every one of us has the
right to see that we are represented
by our representative and to urge
him to do his duty. No law can
keep us from. talking to our repre-
sentatives, and while such is the case
it is foolish to make laws to keep
particular individuals from repre-
senting certain interests.
A great reason for the success of
lobbying lies in the fact that the
men we send to the legislature, al
though intelligent and able in ordi-
nary affairs, know nothing about
the making of laws or the practical
underlying principles of economics
or political science.
Fortunately, legislatures are be-
! ginning to realize that certain sub
4 iects are too abstruse and complied
ted to leave to the haphazard work
of the ordinary committee. Any
one who saw the Wisconsin tax
commission defending their bills
last winter must have realized that
legislation in that direction has taken
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