The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1937-03-04
OTHER STATES ARE WATCHING THE
SWITCH IN NEBRASKA
by
Rodney CrouthcIn the Baltimore Sunday Sum- Feb. 28 1887

the unicameral plan in Colonial days
and the early days of independence was
Benjamin Franklin, whose influence
appears largely responsible for the
adoption of it in the Pennsylvania
Constitution. His friends were not as
sanguine of its success as he was, and
not a few leaders of the time were
definitely convinced that it was bad
thing. When John Adams read the
Pennsylvania Constitution for the first
time he remarked: "No country will
be long happy, or even entirely safe
and free which is thus governed"
DR.. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia,
wrote: "a single legislature is a big
tyranny. I had rather live under the
government of one man than seventy
two" Once called upon to defend the
single-chambered legislature of his
State, Franklin quoted the fable of the
snake with two heads:
"She was going to the brook to
drink, and on her way was to pass
through a hedge, twig of which OPP
posed her direct course; one head
chose to go on the right of the twig,
and the other on the left; so that time
was spent in the contest, and, before
a decision was completed, the poor
snake died of thirst"
But the Pennsylvania system did not
work altogether to the satisfaction of
her people, especially because it yield
ed too readily to the pressures of spec
ial interests, and after fourteen years
they gave it up for bicameral legis-
lature. Not only had that States
single house been accused of prevent
ing the orderly administration of Gov
eminent, but it was also charged with
having seriously hampered the States
participation in the War of indie
pendence.
Vermont's experience with a single
house was of quite different order.
1t worked well, probably because Of
the large measure of power exercised
in the town meetings, and as late as
1885 most of the newspapers of that
State were reported to have been firm
ly supporting the system. 1t sue
cumbed, however, to the impact of a
dual conflict, according to study made
for the Vermont Historical Society by
Daniel H. Carroll. 1t collapsed in 1886
in the midst of powerful political con-
test between National Republicans and
the anti-Masonic party, and its fall
was also in part the result, according
to the Carroll report, of an intense
fight Of the bankers who wanted to
block a plan of the Legislature for
regulations of State banks.
The average annual cost of the
unicameral Legislature of Vermont
from 1826-1835 was $52,995.5e the
Carroll report states. III the period
from 1886 TO 1845 the average annual
cost of the new bicamera. Legis atufe
was $50, 608.03, or an increase Of 52.1
percent. How much OF teis should be
attributed to the larger number O.
legislator: and how mlch should be
allotted to the increase cost of dealing
with an expanded State business prob
ably could not be determined with any
accuracy.
Although majority of the States
have chung to their dual house system,
as have most of the nations of tn,
world, practically every city of impor
lance anywhere has shifted to single
compact, legislative body. They be-
gtn, curiously enough, with single
bodies; gave them up for the bicameral
system, and then, one by one, came
back to the single chamber. Incl
dentally, it may be of interest to note
that Baltimore was the first of the
major cities to embrace the bicameral
City Council more than a hundred
years ago, and the last to abandon it.
This city has had single chamber
only since May %, 1923. 1t had been
preceded in the switch over by Phila-
delphia only four years bfeore that
although many other municipalities
had given up tradition in the interest
of what they considered greater eff
cheney many years before then.
| $50
The single-chamber City Council
came into being coincident with the
Inauguration of Howard w. Jackson
as Mayor for the first time. Mayor w
F. Broening, whom he succeeded, had
pushed the matter of submitting the
question of single-chambered Coun-
Gil quite seriously, but always the
First Branch unanimously blocked him.
The Second Branch unanimously ap-
proved it the very first time the ordi-
nance was submitted; but the First
Branch was almost unanimous against
it. Then committee Of citizens, head
ed by Judge Morris A. Soper, investi-
gated the plan and urged its adoption,
but the First Branch again turned it
down-accampanying its rejection that
second time with the assurance to the
single-chamber hackers that they
didn't want to hear any more about it.