The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-01-02
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FRANK B. HOWE. Editor and Publishs
The Legislatures Weakness.

The Legislatures Weakness.
There has been such wholesale, and
even reckless criticism of the present
legislature that the Banner has hest
tated about adding anything TO the
outburst. So much has been said
however on, what seems to us, so
little basis of fact and comparatively
nothing on what We esteem to be the
real weakness of the legislative ma
chine, that one additional opinion
more or less, can do no harm even if
it does no good
Vermont legislatures are all about
alike, made up of divergent and dis
cordant elements and interests, with
plenty of individual merit and ability
but little tendency toward careful
organized effort along given lines, no
general plan of action and few ele-
ments of cohesive strength. Various
plans of reform have been suggested,
but most of them 50 difficult to put in
force that they cannot even be tried
without the long delay necessitated
by a constitutional amendment which
might be defeated in the end. The
old system now in force served its
purpose in the past when the interests
of the state were smaller and less
diversified than now. The best that
can be done is to try TO improve the
system with the material now on
hand. 1t is too late of course for any
change TO be effective for this session,
but We believe that good deal could
be accomplished in the future
When the legislature meets it (aHd
in speaking of the Legislature We refer
principally to the House as the larger
and more unwieldly body finds itself
composed of strangers to each other
and strangers to legislative method
and procedure. 1t cant go to work
for it doesn't know what to do or how
to do it. The members are suspicious
of each other until they get acquaint-
ed, and the men of ability are unrecog-
nized until the session is half way
through. The first thing that should
be done is to start the legisltive ma
chinery properly, and we believe that
this alone would make d great change
for the better. II does no good to
lecture the legislature on what it
ought to do when it doesn't know
the first principles of how to do it,
Under the present law it is the duty
of the attorney general to assist
members in drawing bills for introduc-
ton but we know for fact that the
great bulk of the members did not
know of this provision until it was
too late to do them any good. Con
sequently they waited until they got
acquainted with and helped one an
other in writing their bills and the
introduction of bills kept right up to
Thanksgiving The attorney generals
office should be provided with suftici-
ent help to write all bills promptly
and properly at the first of the SEES
sion so that they can be gotten at
once before the House and Senate
and into committees.
The second and most important
change should be in the committees
as It is now some rs men on the more
important committees have about
all the committee work to
do and have to and do work
tremendously hard. When the news
papers or public accuse these
men of idling away time at
Montpelier they do a grave injus-
tice At the same time there are
committees that never have a particle
of work to do, though there are men
on these committees who would be
willing and glad to work and are COM
petent to work intelligently If these
members had something to do they
wouldn't start for home every Friday
morning and not come back until
Tuesday.
The rules relative to the appoint
ment of committees should be radical
" changed. Some committees should
be done away with and some new
ones formed. The committee on judi
ciary. the most overworked Of any,
should be enlarged a little and work
in two sections, one perhaps taking up
bills relating to changes in court
practice and procedure, and the
other taking bills on other subjects.
The committee on appropriations,
second in quantity of work, should al
so be divided into two committees,
each to take appropriation bills OF a
certain class. The next hardest work
ing committee is the committee on
municipal corporations, should be
made into two committees, one to
consider city charters and the other
to consider the charters of villages
The committee on game and fisheries
might well be split and two commit
tees made to take its place. The
committee on elections has a large
number of important bills and also
has to act on contested elections