The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1911-01-20
The Meddler
III The coat fip yoa. pHf {" on

After considerable time spent IN watcn.
Atv' saceedinas of the legislature, tiht
ia and yirtuous assemblage lnut w.
is " lie labors at Montpelier 10
o oIn.a L hoped, The Meddler has come
conclusion that he can name az
Lust Two reasons why so much Valuapi,o
,inoo L wasted in transactlng the state
business One is the propensity OF ngh
hers nj the house TO repeat arguments sna'
have already been made, by others, apPa,
ren.lv for the sole reason 3i Put'ha
themselves on record. The other u Wv
practice OF making the same aIgunhe nv
over and over again, IN an enos' Ia
doubt 10 give the impression oI Mius
knowledge and thorough INCONSISTENCIES ,,,,
Whenever an important measure Soiies y Z,
for consideration It's prlncipal au.gvat 80 =
s snns yhv lie bill should be passed, whllee
,Se lender of the opposition Is aiterward
hoard on the other side OF the question
Tho chances are nine TO one that these
100 sneakers will present all OF the atgu'
ments for and against the bill, but the
debate seldom stops at tins point: SOME
,nan,Lar whose views coincide with those
NJ fbe first speaker spends several minutes
in nresenting exactly the same arguments
~ ,vere 6rst advanced, only in slightly
Jifercnt form. He is followed by several
others who do the same thing on one slde
Or The other. with the result that an hour
or two of time that is worth several nun.
dred dollars an hour is consumed IN whoiy
unnecessary discussion.
The Meddler believes that the legislature
sbould debate all important questions
freely but he fails to see why members
should consider il necessary to reiteratte
arguments that have already been maze
merely for the purpose OF letting thelr as
sociates know where they stand when thls
information could be conveyed simply, Dy
saving, II agree with what Mr.. So-and'So
has said on this subject" Neither does y
expedite business when member win
one or perhaps two, ideas on blll ae'
votes from 10 to 90 minutes IN expressing
these ideas in as many different ways as
he can think Of Yet this is done repeat
edly. For example: The gentleman from
Beersheba is in favor OF the bill changing
the name of Saleratus Hill to Baking
Powder Bluff, because baking powder. Is
more generally used nowadays than Tor
merly, and saleratus is an Ingredient OF
baking powder. But instead OF stating
these momentous reasons concisely and
then sitting down he says first that bak
ing powder is used more generally now
than formerly; second, that formerly
baking powder was not used as generally
as it is now; third, that before baking
powder came into general use very little
of it was used fourth. that saleratus il
an ingredient OF most all kinds of baking
powder; fifth, that most all kinds of bak
ing powder contain saleratus; sixth, that
there is practically no baking powder
I ,t,1. Il NOT rurrl lara
tus. BY this method of argument he man
ages to speak for several minutes without
contributing to the discussion one particle
Of information that could not have been
given in less than a minute. When legis
lators with nothing to say learn to say
nothing it will be possible to transact the
states business with some degree OF
economy,