Bisbee daily review., 1913-04-22
OUR PERENNIAL LEGISLATURE.

} There is a great deal of dlssatisfac , tlen with Arlzona's first state legisla , ture which convened for the fourtl time last week at Phoenix. and tn, criticisms heard are certainly de
 served. There was excuse for on,
 extra session, but not for two. ana
 now we are having the third, whict
 will further drain an already depleted
 treasury. If the waste of the people.
 money were the only ill-efect to be
 feared. the state in time would re
 cover. but if the character of past
 legislation by the same body is m,
 criterion of what may be expected at the fourth session, the business in.
 ierests and taxpayers of the state
 have reason 10 be appreheEsive, says
 the Globe Record.
 Some of the democratic newspapers
 are alarmed lest the factionaI quar, rels, radical legislation and assaults cn the treasury will hurt the party" :"
 but the Record as an independent
 paper is not concerned for the safety
 of the democratic machine. Neither
 are we inclined to sympathize very much with the victimized public. for was not the legislature elected by the people, who presumably krew the cal Der of the men chosen to make their laws? And have they not been send ing the same class of representatives to Phoenix for To, these many years
 Would corporation. firm or mine owner hire a man as manager of ;heir business who they knew lacked the capacity and knowledge tc run it sue. ccssfully?
 California is having a similar ex- rerience with it's legislature, and the following from an editorial in the last number of The Argonaut is not in. applicable to our case:
 Tt is a peculiarity of our system that no man can successfully seek a popular suffrage unless he is on hand shaking terms with every man, wo- man iand child of his constituency. Sacramento who was not known by the people who voted for him to be what he is and who presumably ! voted for him because they knew it. 1 Nor do we remember that the news. { papers placed their records of their experience at the service Of the elec- torate. They made no appeals for the | choice of broad-gauge men with q | knowledge of what laws can and can not do. They issued no plea for intel ligence or for character. If they spoke l at all it was to recommend particular political labels without reference to the capacity of the man wearing the label Small wonder that with all the emphasis upon the label and nore upon the man the electorate should favor the orator fthe corner gro cery or whatever other local figure happened to be most impudent in his and noisy in his self as sertion. The legislature at Sacramento represents the mood of the the mood that allows itsel; to be governed by the dancing der wishes of Johnsonism.
 The mood, let US hope. is passing away. but the iIl-efects of folly are apt to finger uneomfortabiy. it was a mood induced by a frantic ProgressI- Tism that persuaded the public that t was a perilous condition and that nothing could save it except rescric tive legislation. It need hardly be laid that when we ask for restrictive legislation we always mean 1t shall lot be restrictive as far as we our elves are concerned But with gen ,ral and iucohefent mandate to re itrict and to prosecute placed in the hands of seebIeminded men it ds