Arizona republican., 1906-02-20
HOW NOT TO LEeIsLArE.
A House That Weekly Acquiesees in
 Its Own Qualification.

Its Own Qualification.
 On the eve of the passage of the Hepburn bill in the house practically without opposition MT. Hepburn ad- mitted that he did not know what it meant. Here is a bill twenty six pages long. It is filled with minuteIy intricate provisions dealing with the administration of a property, billions in value and affecting all the people of the country. In the course of de- bate on the measure many sharp ques- tions as to the intent and effect of the language used have been raised Yet at the end the very author of the bill jauntily waved aside all mere details of "construction." As to the meaning of the words employed, MT. Hepburn declared, it was utterly futile" to think of getting Legislative unanimity on that point" Not a member of the house" he asserted "could write a twenty-word sentence that would not be capable of two constructions" We'll we should at least hope that any mem Der of the house could state unmistak- ably that this is not the way to leg islate. To stuff a bill with uncertain ties and antiquities and then to refuse even verbal amendments, and hold it up as the utmost reach of the wisdom of the house of representatives, is a mere travesty of law making. Ii makes the house assume toward the Hepburn bill very much the attitude of the old Scotch lady when asked if she knew what the Solemn League and Covenant really was. She replied: 'I do not, but I'll mainteen "t." That may be magnificent theology, but it is horrible legislation.
 One important matter left absolutely in a cloud by the Hepburn bill is the control of differential rates This is subject of vital interest. It involves the whole question of the long haul versus the short haul, and also that of discrimination against localities. In the latter particular complaints have been long and loud in many parts of the west. It has been alleged. and with a great array of evidence. that railroad managers have selfishly used discriminating rates to build up one town or develop one region at the ex- pense of another. A cure for this un- fairness was explicitly sought by the western advocates of railway legisla- tion, but how is the case left by the Hepburn bill? Nobody knows The point was closely argued on January 30 by Representative LittIefeld in his questioning of Representative Town send, one of the sponsors of the bill Did it give the commission power to abolish preferential rates, Mir Town send was sorry to say he thought not He said: ''The best authority I can obtain says not" "Others" he mag unanimously added, may understand that the bill confers such a power MT. Littlefield cited one member of the commission who thought it did.' He also argued that the power was con- ferred indirectly under section of the existing interstate commerce law. of which the Hepburn. bill is formally amendatory. But there was no agree ment. One member pointed out a glaring disagreement between one clause of the bill and a paragraph of the accompanying report; but trifles like that were not allowed to impede the march to enactment of a bill which It's very begetters do not profess % understand.
 Everyone understands, however, why the slOvenly bill is put through the house. It is to oblige the president. wno wants the matter hurried before the senate. Any old bill is good enough for the house. The real work of legislation is done in the senate. so push the thing along and get it over "llH as soon as possible. If there are clauses drawn with studied ambiguity, trust them above" to straighten out the tangles. And the house m ms,kly acquiesces in its own qualification Last year it whipped through the eI Esch-Townsend bill, with only seven teen dissenting votes. though, as Rep resentatiVe Sibley asserted the other day, not three members would now vote for such measure. With sirni- lar feigned unanimity and enthusiasm IL passes the Hepburn bill in the con- hdent expectation that it will emerge rom the senate in such shape that it's own mother would not know it. Yet one occasionally hears a representa- i've whining about the senate's usurp- alton of power. But if the house shirks the real work of framing laws. some constitutional body must attend to it. All the powers which the house weak ly lays down, it may be certain that the senate will take up with aIacrity and small blame to it.-New York Evening Post.