The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-08-29

wise respectable men from trying to buy what they ought not to have and looking plous and solemn while they try to get their arms in up to the el- bows In the grab bag. am inclined to think the legislative output will be about as good as the general public de- mands. As at present constituted it does not at all adequately represent the general public and the only wonder is that it does as we'll as 1t does,
 This Is a rambling epistle and hard ly meets your inquiries, yet in a gen. eral way expresses my views along lines of your letter.
 Sincerely yours,
 GEORGE M. GUNN.
 Milford Aug. r, 1907.
 Less Jockeying Needed.
 Col Norris Osborn, New Haven, Conn.
 My Dear Sir; Replying to your letter of Aug 18th and the questions therein contained. I do not believe that the fixing of a time limit to the sessions of the General Assembly would expedite matters. ! have fear that it would have a tendency to bring about two sessions each practically as long as our existing sessions. The elimina- tion of special legislation would un- ldoubtedly expedite matters as well as remove the only really dangerous kind of lobbying. I believe that the length of our sessions is due chiefly to two things: First, the jockeying on the part of the leaders and second, lack of any definite system of work and re- Iporting on the part of the commit Itees. I would deal with the first of these two difficulties in this way
 I would make it duty of the speaker of the House to ask the chair lman of any committee within two weeks after the committee had held Tits hearing upon any proposed bill as to whether or not he was ready to re- port to the House This would call Ithe attention of the assembly to the fact that certain chairmen were hold ling back some of their reports.
 The House would begin to draw it's own conclusions as to the motives causing the delay. The press and the public at large would begin to grow inquisitive with the result that the Ichairlnen unless they had some valid reason for delay, would be forced into reporting.
 The answer to the second difficulty lis this A system could be worked out along this line Any person introdue- ing a bill should be required to fur finish enough copies Of the bill so that leach member of the committee before (which it's hearing is held, could have lone. At present there Is but one copy of each bill in the hands of the clerk of the committee so that the members often have their hearings on the bill without having read it or having had any opportunity to examine it.
 After the hearing has been held the chairman of the committee should assign certain of the plIls to certain members of the committee for them to look through with the view of dis covering if they cover the alleged points or any others and for them to report to the committee at it's next executive session as to the effect of the proposed bill, At the following executive session of the committee the IDeTSOu SO dDpplillGu 6Abdth lllelNC lllo report to the committee and after the committee had taken action the chair man should instruct the person who made the report to the committee to make the report to the House. I find that in many cases where re- ports are tabled in the House 1t is due to the fact that the person who made the report was not himself sufficiently informed as to the contents of the bill which he was reporting and he, con- sequently was unable ~v convince the House that he was right and the House growing suspicious had the matter tabled. At present because of the lack of system, it is frequently the case that on some one of the busy days when a committee has heard some thirty bills, each member of the committee will have read the three (9) or four (4) most important bills, while no one of the committee has ever read the remaining twenty-six or twenty-seven.
 When these matters come Into the House and the clerk starts to read the heading of the report, it is very fre- lQuGnI to S66 tue CIdll lIlidll Ol llC committee consulting hastily with such members of the committee as happen ed to be within his reach, to find out If any one of them has any recollec- ton of the contents of the bill; and it is not infrequent to have a man get up and give in explanation, reasons that have absolutely no connection l with the bill and to succeed in getting Ithe House to accept his report on the strength of his false statements. I am afraid that you will think your } question has brought forth deluge but this is a matter which 1 have thought over considerably and be- lieve that if some such system were put into effect the result would be a shortening of our sessions to half their present length.
 Yours very truly,
 ERNEST WALKER SMITH. Hartford, Conn, Aug. 16, 1907.
 Less Special Legislation.
 Col. x. G. Osborn, Editor, New Haven,
 Conn. | Dear Sir: Replying to your inquiry