The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-05-02
EDWIN SPENCER'S GOOD WORK
AT TALLAHASSEE

Tallahassee, Fla, April IS, 1918.
To the Editor Ocala Banner:
Five hundred bills on the calendar
OF the house of representatives is the
record of the present legislature.
From the present time very few bills.
however, will be introduced, and the
house will begin to grind out laws.
However. from now on, the real fight
begins, and the slogan will be: Let
the Devil take the hindmost" Prac-
tica!l| eycry member who deems his
bill Of great Importance will try to
have his bill made a special order, or
strive TO waive the rules and have his
bill pushed through. No man who has
not served a term in the legislature
can begin to realize the hurly-burly
strife Of enacting a contested bill into
a law. My training in parliamentary
practice in high school and later in
college has been Of invaluable use to
me in aiding me on the floor of the
house, and in my duties as speaker
pro TEN. 1t is amusing, and often
times ridiculous, to see some mem
bers attempt to get their measures
before the house out of the regular
order
"Bill' Mapoles, the introducer of
the now famous pure shoe bill" gen
orally begins like this:
Mr.. Speaker, my bills got all ball
ed up with these here other bills, and
l want to git a vote on it by this here
house" And then Bill" is drowned
out by the laugh that follows.
1t is with no desire to burden your
readers by self praise. but because
l believe it my duty to inform my
constituency of what their representa-
tiyes are doing and intend to do, that
relate my personal achievements
and failures in this session.
My anti-lobbying BILL framed and
introduced by myself in the first part
of the session, and passed by the
house on a suspension of the rules.
by a vote of 81 to /, you are no doubt
familiar With, in view OF the wide
publicity that has been given it by
the papers of the state, and by the
series of unfavorable editorials run
ming in the Times-Union in opposition
to (which is the best advertisement
the bill could possibly have. But the
papers Of the state-the papers which
are close to the people-the papers
not owned or dominated by the re-
publican and Incorporate interests: pa
pers like the DeLand News, the Pen
sacOla Journal the Lakeland Tele-
gram, the Sanford Herald, Dixie and
many others, have so strongly endors-
ed the measure, editorially. that
am persuaded that in this instance it
is the nit dog howlng' when the cor
poration papers fight the measure.
That bill. if passed by the senate and
enacted into law, is. in my opinion,
one of the best bills ever enacted in
behalf of the common people. One
has but to serve a few days in the
legislature to discover that the peo-
ple-the farmers, the labOrers, and
those other of the toiling masses
have no paid lobbyists here to look
after their interests. but on the other
hand if a measure is introduced af-
fecting in the slightest the special in
terests, then sleek, we'll paid attor-
neys will be on the ground, attempt
ing in every way to defeat the meas
ure. But if a bill is introduced TO af-
feet the interests of the farmer, he
has no one to fight for his interests
except the Representatives he elect
ed at the polls. That bill, and the
resolution making it Immediately eff
fective in the house, has done more
for a clean, untrammelled house of