The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-25
Present HIS Of LegislatiUe Haste
 Are Due to QuadrenniaL Sessions
The Wiser the Better Plan the Biennial Session Where Legislation Can Be Dgested and Where Law, If Proves Bad, Can Be
 Repealed at the End of Two Years

, only one thing dfd the co..veAtton do which prvvea to Dc an oD-t-c . tu prosperity triuhlpnanl niaIcn. Il siIenced the Legislative voice u4 A a- DAIna, TOT tour years and .nsn akaiIi Tor 4vur years.
 A snort wnlle before the eohyention there had been a IegaslaIure. winch ilau gained an unenflaple unpopularity. 10 be a member of the cons.ItutIonal convention was esteemed u nigner and finer thIng than to be member Ul the legislature. It was a hign honor and nobody thought more Gt u or of himself than the man who had Den elected to the constitutional congen- ton. The members of the constitu- tional convention proceeded to show the Legislature was a weak and small thing, given to making mistakes, In more ways than one the convention threw discFedit on the Legislature and as crowning act of conIumeiy II ordered the Legislature not to come to- gether, except once every four years.
 Now the states had seven years of the experiment. what has been the re- suit of the constitutional conventions dream of protecting the state from foolish legislation by a visionary theory?
 A quadrennial legislature cost the state in its own expenses more than twice as much as blenniei legislature. The figures prove it. Quadrenn.ai legislature appropriated twice as much as any biennial Legislature. The fig ures are there. A quadrennial Legis- lature made twice as many mistakes as biennial Legislature. Tn the light of the record of the last Legislature nobody will doubt this.
 Mile q Minute LegisIation.
 What happened when the last Legis- lation convened in Montgomery? :? There was a handsome surplus in the treasury, and what happened to 1t wouldn't bear telling. To run backward little bit. the state would have been better off if the surplus had not been there. This Is said in no spirit of criticism of the splendid business judgment and rigid economy of the Jelks administration which paid off a slight deficit and slowly piled up surplus notwithstanding the reduced tax rate.
 It would have been better, if the Legislature had gotten chance at that surplus two years previously. For one thing 1t would have been paid out more ture the law makers were rather eau tious in making expenditures. The last time. though, the Legislature was like a reckless and untrained boy com ing suddenly into an Inherited fortune If the Legislature had met two years pfevfousiy wlth. eaxs-half the suEpsnR that was found there in 1sOS. it would have dealt with 1t according to the old iiea because 1t would not have looked so big. Then various state in- stitutions were sorely in need of ex- tension and improvements. These in- stitutions. with Alabama's prosperity had grown rapidly. They need d money to meet the increased demands for the purpose for which they were created. And in the treasury the money was stacked up in bales. The Legislature could wisely have relieved the needs without making the great big gifts that were made when the hungry law makers at last got to- gether.
 When the long four years was end ed, when the Legislature in the consti- tutionaI conventions own appointed time did gather. there was the money all stacked up in bales. That stack of money had the same show and no better than a big watermelon at an Emancipation Day celebration. ..
 The formation of kind of legisla- tive machine for the distribution of the money was the most natural thing in the world One man had a pet pro- 5ect that needed money. He found all about him men with the same idea. There was nothing easier than going to one after the other and saying, you want your appropriation bill passed and I want mine passed. You stick up to me and will stick up to you"
 Ground HoR Case.
 It was ground hog case. If the appropriation was not gotten. then there had been four lean years with out chance of getting it and when four more years would slowly pass without another chance 1t was all up. The law maker had to make the deal tory of the last Legislature and zee if this is not true. It Is worse tran foolishness to say that all that traf-