The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1929-01-11
LEGISLATIVE LETTER No. |.

sergeant-at-arms and good steno-
graphers and such.
Legislative Output.
We often see by the papers that
what we need is less laws rather than
more of them. But if you deplore the
tremendous output of our lawmaking
machines, don't blame the legislature,
blame yourself. Only small proper
ton of the bills that are dumped into
the legislative hopper are the result
of the initiative of the members them
selves. 1t is his constituents who
cajole and coerce the member in in
PRODUCING bills Ever hear of a lobby
at st. Paul or Washington working
for fewer laws? Never!
There are 100000 people in Min
nesota, maybe a few more, and only
1913 members of the legislature When
the bill hopper in the legislature be-
gins to grind, seems like every one of
those 2,500,000 people of the state think
there ought to be a law" They des-
cend upon the defenseless 1913 men,
bers of the legislature with proposals
of every sort. The 1913. battle desper-
ately to hold back the deluge. Valiant
are their efforts and notable are their
accomplishments, for when the final
count is made it will be found that
only, about $500 of those 100000 pro-
posals have actually been introduced
in the legislature.
Then the embatled 1913 take another
hitch in their belts and assault those
$500 bills with blood in their eye.
When the final day of adjournment
comes, after four months of carnage,
it will be found that more than 200
of those bills have been slaughtered.
Hardly more than 400 of them will
survive.
Good work for the 1913, We'll say.
:. Few New Laws. :.
Out of the 400 odd laws which the
Legislature of 1929 will enact, con-
siderably less than 100 will actually be
new legislation In fact it is probable
that less than 10 per cent of the work
of any legislature consists of entirely
new proposals. Most laws are simply
amendments of existing statutes or
changes to meet changed conditions,
mostly local conditions, thruout the
state.
Shaking the Plum Tree.
of a Minnesota legislature is organi-
zation-a dignified word for shaking
the plum tree. ALI the work of the
legislature is done thru committees
and try as we may we can't seem to
get the committees appointed before
the second week of the session. Any
how the committees are a part of the
plunls and during the first week we
put in our ticks trying to land the
committee places we want.
When it comes to shaking the plum
tree the house has it on the senate in
one respect. Altho it is frequently
called the upper house" and notwith-
standing the fact that by reason of it's
smaller membership it arrogates to
itself some superiority, the senate
hasn't got word to say as to who
shall preside over its deliberations.
The senate has just got to get along
with anybody the voters give tt. Not
so with the house; it elects its speaker
and the speakership Of the house is
the pricipal plum IN the gift of the
legislature,
In other respects the senate has the
best Of the house. It allocates To each
senator one plum-one appointment,
but 131 house members have to scram-
bic for some 90 appointments. The
senate, with only half as many mem
bers, has to have almost as MANY en-
ployees to keep it straight as does the
house. It employs about IS, TO 100 all
told for the house. The bill to the
state for the last session was; senate
$81, GOO, house $4,000
The speaker OF the house has some
80 jobs to dispose of. The 13l mem
bers of the house have urged about
TOO different persons upon Speaker
Johnson so far for these 90 places
Yet he keeps himself and the other
100 of us good natured; guess that's
why he Is speaker.
A Veteran Legislature.
The Legislature of 1929 is veteran
legislature. Senators, who are elected
for four years. are all hold-overs, ex-
cept those elected to I'LL vacancies. In
the house there are but 80 new MEM
bers; SO have had previous legislative