The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-06-05
The Vermont Legislator.

cent conversation with a prominent
resident of this valley brought out
the remark that he was fully con-
vinced the fault was not that legisla-
tors were dishonest but incompetent.
He went on to further explain that
this did not infer the members were
not good men, among the best in the
state. but that they were incompetent
through lack of experience and
knowledge of legislative work. His
remedy was to elect men OF expert
ence. This is sound logic and worth
thinking about."-Groton Times.
If one were to attempt careful
analysis of the primary fault of Yer
mont legislatures, it would have to
take as a premise pretty much the
same conclusion that this prominent
resident" lays down. But it is not
always possible, not always practical,
not always desirable, to elect men OF
experience" in legislative work.
Theoretically, it is better to re-elect
to the legislature men of tried and
proven capacity in lawmaking. Prac-
tically, the voters are up against the
experience that not every man tried
has been proven, and beyond that,
even, lies the inherent tendency of
democracies to persist in passing the
Office around, to regard the election
to sucn posts of responsibility more
| in the light of recognition of some
worthy citizens personal desert OF
the honor as a reward of merit and
ambition rather than TO consider that
the state is in need of efficient ser
vice and should summon to its coun-
ellis only men competent to perform
that service, not for the credit and
distinction that will come to them but
for the good their service may do for
the state.
AS a matter of experience, the in
competency of the average Vermont
legislator lies not so much in the fact
that he is personally disqualified for
the exercise of fair amount of com
mon sense in the discharge of bust
ness that he knows something about
but that he knows comparatively little
about the particular business for
which he is chosen In his every day
vocation the average Vermont legis
lator will rank with most men. But
his personal ambition and the we'll
meaning but not always discriminate
ing intentions of his neighbors pre-
cipitate him into the performance OF
a public duty for which he has made
little or no preparation and the full
significance of which he seldom APP
preciates himself until he finds him
self in his seat and face to face with
the responsibility of going on record,
yes or no, upon measures that not
merely his own little community but
the whole state is regarding with
anxious interest.
The average Vermont legislator is
not a travelled man, travelled, that is,
in the sense of familiarity through
personal contract with the different
localities in the state, the varying
types of people that compose their
communal life, and the equally vary
ing local interests those people pur-
sue. This need not always be COM
plete drawback to his usefulness, but
| when it is considered that the aver
age legislator does not make much of
an attempt, If any attempt at all, to
specially inform himself about these
varying local interests, one phase of
his relative incompetence is plainly
apparent.
The average legislator is not a very
deep student of public affairs from the
viewpoint of sphere OF interest wi
der than Vermont. Without dis
paragement of his native intelligence,
it is within the truth TO say that he
is not much given to following the
trend of political economy, of the
evolution of the theory of government
of the experimentation and growth in
laws and governmental functions in
the other forty-five states of the
Union. AS a result, he is prone to
treat public issues from an isolated
Vermont relationship, without much
heed of the progress that may have
been made along the same lines else
where, or to realize in the fullest
sense that, after all, Vermont is only
part of the country at large and that
she must keep in touch with the
growth and fruition of ideas outside
her own confines if she expects to do
her full share, not only in the better
ment of her own condition but in her
contribution to the welfare of the ma
ton and the development of its char