The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-25


 tells of the last Legislature the sur plus that was piled up by the Jelks administration was 8 doubtful blessing to the State. The harm. if there was harm in the surplus, came not from the surplus itself. but of the succ eding Legislature that could not stand pros perity.
 Going back to the source of things. the evil of extravagant and hysterfcal Legislation can be traced to the door of the constitutional convention of 1901. which decreed that the voice of the people of the state should be silent in ali legislation for a period of four years. No other state has or has ever had such an astounding proposi ton in its constitution. To decree that the legislative branch of government branch which the constitution made coordinate with the executive and Judicial should be paralyzed for four years. to decree that no matter what the ills of the people were their voice could not be heard in legislative halls was an unexpected and surprising action which has. as the light Of the past seven years has shown, shackled the progress of the state.
 All in all the new constitution of Alabama Is a splendid document But 1t was not divine1y inspired. It was conceived in human minds and written by human hands. And being of human production 1t had to be faulty some where. The fault-the srIevous fault of that document, which in so many respects Is worthy of so much ainnira- ton. was found in that provision which declared that no Legislature of Ala bama should meet in four years.
 The voters of Alabama have q chance to correct that error on November Srd. If they think, reason and study The story of the state government of Ala bama for the seven years in which that provision has been in force they will Iop off that provision and throw 1t In the trash pile of legislative mls- takes.
 The constitutional amendment which is before the people of Alabama pro- poses to re-establish that old and time honored plan of Biennial sessions of the Legislature. That is all that there. is to it.
 A Novel Proposition.
 Now Alabama, in It's swaddltng clothes as a State had the Legislature to meet every year. In some things our fathers were wiser than we. So when the state was new and crude they had a constitutional convention at Huntsvllls and deereed that the alegisiaturee shouid meet every year. That must have been pretty tough on the members from Madison who had to make the trip from Huntsville to. Cahaba on horseback once every twelve months. They had no railroads then. and incidentally they had to free pass question, but that's neither Here nor there. An annual session of the Legislature was decreed, notwIthstand- ing the hardships of travel, notwith- standing the slender legislative docket. offeredby the needs of a young and thinly populated state. The Lagisla- ture must meet once every year. to be ready to settle every question. as it rose. If the legislation was needed the pioneers took the sensible views that the need should be met and not be car ried forward year after year, as an undone task.
 But the years passed. Tn recalling the pioneers period however, 1t should in its earlier days grew faster than any state or territory in the union When 1t was first opened for settle ment 1t established a record for early growth that was not even surpassed by Oklahoma in later years. But the years passed and another constitu- tional convention deereed that the Legislature should meet for only once every two years. For practically half of its life time Alabama held its Iegis- lative session every two years. That seemed reasonable. It gave two years for the testing of a law. If the law was bad. through some fault. the Lsgis- lature overlooked, the next LeRisla- tura could cure the fault or repeal tho law.
 PunishInR The LeElAlatuPe.
 But the constitutional convention ot 1901 met. The State was in the midst of the greatest era of prosperity that Alabama had ever known. The deep wounds the war had left had at last healed. On the dead institutions. kill ed by that war new civilization had been built. The waste places were blooming again and dollars were plen tifui where they had been scarce.