St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1914-08-12

to be gained by excess Legislation
than by crowdiIlg more food dowl
the throat of a man who has had L
loosen his belt to make room for the
tonnage he has already stored away
1t causes distress.
A consideration of this very truth
+ is what has brought about the de.
mand for a limited legislative SEES.
sion. However, it seems that put
ting a time limit on is the wrong
way to accomplish resu&s. Ken
lucky got an idea that she was suf-
fering from excess legislation and
proposed to put on the brake She
voted to herself a sixty days ses-
sion every two years, the same as is
proposed for Vermont, and If The
Louisville Courier-Journal is to be
believed, the result has not been an
unqualified success.
Kentucky has found, according to
the same authority, that the session
is so short that the new members
hardly learn the ropes" before the
period of adjournment is reached.
The new member is as much OF
problem there as here, apparently,
and in this connection The Messeng-
er would repeat the oft-expressed
advice that Vermont pay more at
tention to the men who are elected
to the office of representative, and
that tried and true legislators who
have shown themselves worthy be
returned to Montpelier rather than
shelved in order to make room for
some good fellow whose turn to go
has come.
But the worst evil of the limited
fnv1 e r. ~ ,.1-
is essential and the resulting half
baked legislation that keeps the
courts busy and the cost of run
ming our legal machinery ever on
the upward path. Ill-considered and
clumsily drawn legislation is
nut through the mill on the closing
days and the statute books are load
ed with the imperfect output. But
1t may be suggested, and with not a
little merit, that this same deplor-
able state of affairs exists when
there is no time limit and one can
point to our own experience as
proof.
If this be SO, and The Messenger
would not be SO rash as to say that
it isn't, what is the remedy to be?
If neither limited nor unlimited ses-
sions bring good results, what in
heavens name can be done to cor
rect an evil that is commonly admit
ted to exist? Well, 1t is we'll to con-
slider men as well as things, and
possibly some light might be gained
by so doing in this instance.
The legislature is human as well
as inhuman, It is made up of men
and men are made up o. It. The
thing to do then, lis to make sure or
the men. A session of the legisla-
ture will be a composite picture of
the men who are in it. If the ses-
sion isn't satisfactory, then the men
have not been up to snuff, or at least |
a majority of them. The place to /
begin work is on the human element |
in a legislature. Correct the defects
of that element and the good deed I
is accomplished.
If you want to have a short ses-
sion of the legislature, make it !
point in your town to elect men who |
realize the advantage of a short ses-
sion. They exist. If you don't want |
a great mass of undigested legisla 7
ton passed in a hurry in the clos /
Ing hours of the session, just elect /
men who do not feel that it Is their |
duty to introduce a score of bills
that they may demonstrate that they
are on the job, and who will insist
On quality instead of quantity. They
exist. Then, when you have elect
I'd such men, don't turn them down
;old at the next election. Return
hem just SO long as they do good
service and you know with reason
lble certainty, that there isn't some
)ther man who would do just as
veil and a little better.
Consider the legislature in it's hui
nan ASPECT and go about correcting
he evils Id q human way. Checks
nd balances are good but they aren't
he whole thing They wouldn't
mount to jiff if it wasn't for the
human. And the human has a way
# getting around artificial checks.
n other words, don't put too much
aith in pieces of ! governmental
but pay a whole world
# attention to the choice of those
Tho are going to use the machin-
ry-St. Adams Messenger.