The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1913-03-21
LEGISLATIVE
SYSTEM WRONG
CLOSING DAYS OF LAW-MAK-
ING BODIES A BEDLAM OF
DISORDER IN WHICH ALL
KINDS OF LAWS ARE EN-
ACTED.
Especial Correspondence.)

few days of legislative session and
rights are juggled and jostled about in
veritable bedlam of disorder, hurry
and feverish excitement, they would
never again take chances on trusting
this time-honored, but sadly out-of-
joint, institution with the important
duty of making laws.
Imagine, If you can, the condition
that exists on such an occasion. Here
are these two bodies of men, the SEN
ate and the house of representatives,
vainly striving to examine and pass
upon more than 1900 bills within a
period of sixty days. 1t is physical
impossibility for any member to read
over the list of bills carefully enough
to get any intelligent understanding
of them whatever, 10 say nothing of
attending to his other duties or max
ing any necessary outside investiga-
ton of their merits. But for the first
forty days members go on pilling
up bills with reckless haste to get all
of their pet measures in and under
way Everthing drags while the ma
chine members and the representa-
tives of the big business interests
(the great silent forces of govern
ment) are making their trades and
driving tho ranrocaptotivoc into limo
for be it understood no member is to
be allowed the passage of any bill
that affect the welfare of his particu-
lar district until he promises to de-
liver the support that the machine
demands.
By the time the process of legisla-
ton has gone through all these ma
chine requirements, remember that
practically the last week of the ses-
sion is upon you. Then begins a
wild scramble to get the goods de-
livered. By this time the members
are all so securely tied up and bull
dozed by the machine, that, outside
of few stanch supporters of decent
legislation, the common people are
forgotten. The judgment of big
business is now ready to ride rough
shod over everything, taking all in it's
mad swath and leaving little for the
people but blasted hopes. The ma
chine seems SO overmastering in its
splendid powers of organization, that
most of the inexperienced members
who are trying to do the right thing
fall into despair, and the army of the
peoples defenders is reduced to its
minimum as the closing hours ap-
proach.
Yet it is at this fatal hour that the
most important legislation yet re-
mains to be acted upon. Is it any
wonder that under the stress of such
excitement, when every one feels that
it is incumbent upon him to strain
every point to secure his own pet
measures, and all about him is the
disorder of a crowd of fellow legisla-
tors, all like situated as to their bills,
with uncertainty, trading and treach-
cry on every hand, that such time
the well oiled machine of the lspecia
interest with their own speaker in
the chair and trained, veteran leaders
upon the floor, crush the hopes of the
people and put through the special
legislation that has SO long cursed
this corporation ridden common
wealth?
Legislatures, made up of represen-
tatives coming from certain elective
districts, are failure so far as good
legislation is concerned and must be
cast aside as a thing that is obsolete.
As long as the legislators represent
districts the districts will expect leg
islation that benefits these districts.
To get these things for his district,
the individual legislator has forced
upon him the demand that he deliver
his vote on measures that the ma
chimes interests desire. Nine times
out of ten the measure that the ma
chine demands is a thousand times
more injurious to the people at large
than can possibly be offest by the
benefits of the particular local legis-
lation for which the member is made
to feel that it is necessary for him
to barter. Can anyone see the end
to the evils of this pernicious sys.
tenn of legislation by trades and bar
ter? Nor is 1t any less disastrous
to thus trade and barter in legisla.
tion than it would be to pay the mem
bers so much cash outright for their
votes on any measure. Buying for
cash was the old system of controll
ing legislation which an aroused pub
lie conscience has largely driven out
of practice. We will not have bet
tered matters much, however. until we
so curb the powers of legislators thai
it will be made impossible for then
to trade and barter in the passage o.
! laws.
This can best be done by extend
ing the principle OF direct Legislation
until legislatures will no longer hav'
the power to enact laws, but only t