The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-04
TEST SENTIMENT ON
 BIENNIAL SESSIONS Many Business Men Found to Oppose the Plan EMMETT O'NEAL FAV0RS II One Banker Writes President Harding That He Would Rather See ses-
 sions Every Eight Years.
 Some of the Letters.
EMMETT O'NEAL FAV0RS II

While the proposed amendment is popular in some quarters many business men in Birmingham and elsewhere in l the state are expressing themselves in l opposition to a change. As rule the opponents of the amendment measure take the ground that a session of the | legi -.are always results in unrest in business circles. On the other hand those who favor the biennial plan maintain that period of four years be- l tween regular sessions means too long a wait for the consideration of law making business, especially when acts that prove to be harmful or unpopular are pressing for repeal or amendment;
 in other words too long for the cor rection of mistakes.
 President ". P. c. Harding of the First National bank of Birmingham, by
 way of sounding the business men of ! the state as to their views touching the question of changing from quad
 rennial to biennial sessions, wrote
 number of letters of inquiry and he states that with one exception his re-
 plies have indicated a decided opposi- tion to change.
 Emmett O'Neal of Florence, who as a member of the constitutional conven- tion vigorously opposed the quadren- nial experiment, writes letter of great length. in which he discusses exhaus- l lively his reasons for favoring the bien- niaI as against the quadrennial plan. l Among the letters received from | fo ic from Eutaw in which MT. Hardings 1 correspondent says: q am opposed to biennial sessions of the legislature. We need, in my opinion, more rest from politics Should it become necessary the governor could call an extra ses- sion to enact any desired law"
 A letter from Tuscaloosa reads this way: "As a member of the constitu- tional convention I favored and voted for the quadrennial session of the legis- lature. I have seen no good reason to | change my views on the subject In fact the quadrennial session has not been given a fair trial as yet A Huntsville banker writes as fol lows: Tn my opinion biennial sessions would increase nasty and radical legis- lation of which we are now having too much, and thereby intensity unsettled business conditions in the state"
 A banker of Greenville has this to say: Experience teaches that frequent sessions tend to multiply laws and con fuse their interpretation, rather than to
 weed out or repeal undesirable ones, hence quadrennial sessions would be conducive to greater deliberation and care in amending old and the passag ! of new laws, and are to be preferred to biennial sessions. It occurs to me that
 we have been burdened with ill-ad- vised legislation in more than one direction and that sessions at more fre- 1 quent intervals than four years would l only add to the burden"
 From Demopolis MT. Harding re- | ceived this terse note: q can see no good in the legislature meeting oftener than every four years; in fact l think
 we would be better off if it did not meet oftener than every eight years.
 Ex-Senator Rogers writes as follows:
 Gainesville, September 2S, 1908.
 Hon. W. P. G. Harding, Birmingham,
 Ala:
 Dear Sir-Replying to your letter of the 18th, asking for expression of my opinion of the proposed amendment to the constitution providing for biennial sessions of the legislatures"
 | I am opposed to the amendment for | the following reasons:
 l. There is absolutely no need for it.. Under the present constitution the gov ernor can call the legislature together al any time and therefore the plea of it's advocates that we need frequent ses- sions of the legislature to meet the grow i ing interests of the states falls to the ground
 1 ? 1t is not proposed to elect a new membership of the legislature every two years but to have the men sit twice
 instead of once aggravating instead Of alleviating the evils of the present sys- tenn. It was long ago written and wise | ly written that it lis better to bear the ills we have than fly to others we know not of
 | D. It costs from one hundred and fifty 1 to two hundred thousand dollars to hold 1 a session of the Alabama legislature. l Money well spent, if wis ,ly spent, but | it is spent in passing many foolish and l sometimes vicious laws or in repeating | similar acts of the last legislature; this | money had better go to the public schools | or to the payment of the states debts. | 4. The legislature never meets without | changing the revenue laws increasing l taxes and disturbing business. Therefore l the more seldom it meets the better it is | for the people of Alabama. Every new | member feels that his constituents expect him to pass at least one new law with | the result that we now have so many | laws the lawyers themselves can't keep | up with them and as for the average | man, he is as ignorant of the laws of l his state as of the hieroglyphics on the | tombs of ancient Egypt.
 6. No one is favoring the amendment | except the lawyers, who profit by the multiplicity and the diffiulties of the | laws, the professional lawmakers whu | make it their business to go to the leg | isluature and the politicians, pretended representatives of the people.
 6. The business men of the state, the | bankers, the merchants, the farmers and i all who labor asking simply to get | a chance to elect one more legislature | composed mostly of new men who will {, amend, perfect or repeal the bad laws now on the books, adjourn as soon as possible and go home, giving the state | a rest for four years, to have the laws enforced, to the end that every man may feel secure in his inalienable right to life, to liberty and to the pursuit of happiness Very sincerely yours