Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1922-02-08
AS to Biennial Sessions.

AS to Biennial Sessions.
The bill for biennial sessions for
the General Assembly having been in
PRODUCED as usual, let it be said that
the arguments in its favor are weigh
ty and it's passage will cause no lam
entations in Columbia or elsewhere.
The measure should not be passed,
however, on the plea that it will save
to the taxpayers a considerable sum
of money or, for that matter, any
sum worth mentioning. 1t is not at
all likely that the General Assembly
will be able to do the work in a 4o
day session held in alternate years
that it can do in a 40 day session held
each year. The General Assembly
does not waste time. 1t is not possible
for a parliamentary body to work
with the constancy and expedition OF
a plowman in a field or an artisan at
a machine.
The legislatures are always pressed
for time. In 40 days it is well nigh
out of the question to give full con-
%sideration to many measures of great
moment. A legislative body must
have time to find itself, to crystalize,
to develop leaders and leadership.
When a new house is elected, the
members are scarcely able to become
acquainted with one another at the
first session and no body of men can
be effective until it is thoroughly or
gained, not merely by the election
of officers and appointment of COM
mittees, but by its members learning
their places, where they fit in, and
what the relation of one member is
to another. In congress it is well IN
derstood that a new member counts
for little in legislation in this first
term of two years although the con-
gress be in session six or eight months
in each year.
If we could have in South Carolina
a legislature elected once in four
years and meeting once in two years,
to sit three, four or five months, it
would in time give to the state num-
bers of legislators not entirely
"green." If the bill for biennial ses-
sions be passed, the General Assem-
bly, will be forced to sit at least 80
days and provisions should be made
that the session continue longer, say
12O days, if need be. Repeated expe-
riences of late years have shown that
a 40 day session once a year is
scarcely sufficient and in the saying
that the legislators trile and waste
time is neither truth o justice. AL
ways will be certain manifestations
of foolishness in the General Assem-
bly,, preposterous measures will be in
.troduced and the chaff will have to be
sifted, but so long as men who, are
after all, but representatives of their
fellow citizens, shall not be paragons
of mind and heart, this will be I'M
avoidable.
A constitutional convention should
be held to make over the organic law
of the state and the matter of legis-
lative sessions would have its atten-
ton. The remodelled law should pro-
vide a method by which the General
Assembly could be convened in spe-
cial session without the consent of the
governor. If the legislature could
meet but once in two years a state
officer or judge might run amuck for
nearly that period without mourning
a danger of impeachment. The leg
islatures should be authorized to con-
vene in special session upon petition
addressed by a majority or by two
thirds of the members of each house
to their respective presiding officers.
The State.