Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-01-14

Ready for
Business
Defeated in Effort to
do Away With Useless Com
mittee and Secret Sessions
--NOwReady fOrHard Work

lulILtG 1Alu SGGLEL CESSlUnS
-=NOwReady fOrHard Work
In the opening round Of his fight 20
have the legislature adopt reform
methods Of procedure by doing away
with graveyard committees and secret
committee sessions, Representative
Eaton, of Lane county, met with defeat
early this afternoon when the house
by an overwhelming vote adopted the
majority report Of the committee on
rules. Mr.. Eaton had presented mi
nority report embodying his proposed
reforms, and he declared that his sole
purpose in putting for tho the sug-
gested changes was to promote har-
mony through the session by having
the house adopt rules that would best
give every member an equal chance to
present and work for his measures.
His proposed reforms in the main
embodied doing away with star cham
ber sessions of the committees, and
the decreasing of the number Of work.
ing committees from 43 to %. He
claims that the rules committee, which
was in session until midnight Monday
night was stacked against him and
that the other four members ran the
steam roller over him very, very rude
ly.
"The adoption Of fair and feasible
rules" said Mr.. Eaton during the de-
bate, "would close the gulf between
the legislature and the people which
was growing wider every day. He inn
plored the house not to take up cor
rection of the direct system of legis-
lation until the proper time comes,
and then said "the proper place to
begin correcting the oregon system is
here and now by adopting reforms in
the methods of legislative procedure.
He said that the greatest changes in
improving legislation in Oregon had
been done by the people direct and not
by the legislature. For the benefit OF
the new members Mr. Eaton sarcasti-
cally remarked that "the assumption
that previous legislatures were cor
rupt and that this legislature had
started out honest and efficient and
would continue so was not an unnat-
ural phenomenon" The reforms he
! advocated he said were calculated tC
J promote facile and fair methods ant
an efficient legislature.
, The majority of the committee OF
I rules, he said, seemed to think tina
there were some members of the hous,
who were of such mental caliber tina
the useless and unimportant commit
tees should be continued in order t.
scatter these men on them.
81 have never yet met a man in thi
q house." he said,, "who should be plac
t ed on a graveyard committee. Th
S personnel Of the legislature Is deter
0 mined more than anything else by
e lot of graveyard committees. Me-
= who are the ablest and most honest ar
y not insistent on jumping into the ban
wagon and seeking the best commit
}, tees. have seen the best member
r shelved in in previous sessions be
r cause of such modesty and the legis
: lative methods in vogue" The mos
d effective work Of the legislature |
e done in committee meetings"
Denouncing secret sessions Of tn
l. committees as perniclous and as tend
l. ing to give a legislature a bad repr
D. tation. Mr. Eaton asserted that a
such meetings should be open to ever
member Of the house and senate an
VI the accredited representatives of tn
press. "It is is due to the legislature
reputation that the press be present {
II these meetings" he said, "They reall
J. represent the people. The newspaper
} have done more TO discredit the legi
d lature than all other forces combine
CT The press must be treated fairly an
g. squarely Then there will be no e.
e. cuse for scandalous and unrellab
b sorles. The most dangerous sign
the times is the widely growing gu
between tho legislature and the pc,
10 pie"
Mr., Eaton's minority report also pr
Is vided that all committee meeting
u should be regularly and public
~ scheduled, and that no bill should
Ell in committee more than seven day
3 instead Of IL days
OF Speaker Macarthur took the floor
De defense Of the majority report. /
no