The Daily Alaska empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1926-1964, 1937-08-25

ANY discussion of a bicameral or two-house
legislature as against unicameral or one
house legislature involves the proposition as
to whether in government two are better than
one. 1t is apparent that it would greatly facili-
tate the labors of the politicians and moneyed
interests to have only one house to deal with.
Concentration is of the essence of lobbying;
and so is secrecy Then, too the expense
would be less and the chances of success
greater 1t was concluded by the makers of
the Constitution after long drawn out argu-
ment that three were even better than two,
and they gave us a government divided into
three separate and well-defined powers the
executive. the legislative and the judicial, the
= first two branches checking one another, and
the third checking both Then they went
little further for good measure, and split the
legislature two ways for the sake of the add 4
tional insurance. Their ideal basedgApon trars
dition, long experience and many, fears, was
a government of checks and balances and
time has appeared to Justify their Judgment.
democracy cannot be too, careful !, There
is always plenty of bad legislation, tlloughtless
legislation, but without the'Schecking system
it would have been far worse. Not that legis-
lators as a rule are seeking to do the wrong
thing; they are not Far from it. But there
distinct very often, so that the worse at times
is made to appear the better reason And
then, too there is always honest error to con-
tend with and lack of foresight-not to men
ton the cats and dogs of legislation which are
always in fun cry after money or advantage.
Self-interest, too is potent in any man. The
quiet scrutiny of a second chamber, if not al
ways effective, is, such as it is almost ndis-
pensable No change in our form of govern
ment, defective though it may appear at times,
is called for. The shortcomings are solely the
fault of our governors and still more are they
the fault of ourselves. Its failures are not
inherent in the system
The value of our present system is well IL
Illustrated by circumstance that occurred in
our own history at the time the Organic Act
was passed by Congress 1t appears that a
large corporation took great interest in the
situation and lobbied strenuously for one
house legislature for Alaska instead of two
house one, probably the first time such a
proposal was ever heard in America The
idea was never seriously considered, however,
and died adjoining. Why bring it up now?
Every civilized country in the world has
wo-house legislature with the exception OF
Turkey, certain Baltic and Central American
republics and the state of Nebraska. Hun
gary and Jugo-Slavia after experimenting
for few years with one-house legislature
in both countries under temporary dictator
ships-soon returned to the double model. 1t
would seem that as an efficient system and
as a defense against privilege, greed and dc
tatorship the world especially the democratic
wJrld, has almost exclusively pinned its faith
to the bicameral legislature. So far, in spite
of its defects, nothing better has been de-
vised. The reasons for this, as outlined above,
would seem to be sufficiently obvious and the
reasons against it would appear to be equally
So
Why this sudden referendum plan for the
people of Alaska to choose between the two
systems one of which most of them never
heard of before? 1t is just another phase APP
parently of those larger politics of which the
ordinary man is quite ignorant but quite Curl
GUS In the deep pools lie many strange fish
The somewhat sighting words of Shake
speares Tombstone about his bride-to-be
might well be chosen descriptive of this
baby, An fll-favored thing, sir but mine
own" 1t will probably turn out to be lille
ultimate too.