Evening star., 1944-06-11
By Gould Lincoln.


Representative Arnold.
the job and voting. He has made no
speeches. During the coming campaign,
however, he does intend to make few
addresses in his district.
"A public officer, in my opinion" said
Mr.. Arnold. continuing his comments,
should be SO restricted in his tenure Of
Office that his efforts as legislator
would not have the opportunity to be-
come completely unhinged from every
day realities, as calculated from the
standpoint of John q. Public
"TIis period Of service to his country
should be spent in complete freedom
from the aggravating responsibility of
continuously building toward reelection
A Congressman should serve his term of
Office and then return to his district to
see II he could earn decent moral
living under the laws which he had been
instrumental In enacting. No Congress-
man who cannot demonstrate his USE
fulness to his constituents in practical
enough way to justify his continuance
In Office for three terms should expect
to be returned to Congress indefinitely.
Such a down-to-earth approach to the
problem should be a forever effective
bar to the overlooking of the statute
books with legislation as ill-conceived as
is its effect upon red tape -ensnarled
citizenry."
Would Infuse New Blood.
asked Mr.. Arnold what would be the
effect and the benefit from his plan of
limiting tenure of Office should 1t be
adopted. He replied:
THE infusion of new blood into the
Nations Legislature, which would be the
direct result of limiting the eligibility
of public servant to reelection, should
produce the immediate benefit OF break
ing up congressional and administrative
cliques-those instruments of perversion
whereby the popular mandate and the
true functions of the Republican form
Of government are SO viciously inverted.
mo legislator needs to be reminded Of
the archaic procedure by which standing
committee chairmanships pass to the
senior member in point Of service. There
is no qualification, other than endur-
ance, which 4 Congressman need possess
to inherit the tremendous burden OF
power and responsibility inherent in the
administration Of committee activities.
"such practices will cease, to the ulti-
mate good of the Nation, if my resolu-
ton is enacted into law. This resolu-
ton, which I introduced in the House
on October IA, 1943, provides for six
year limitation of the Office of the Presi-
dent, Vice President, Senators and mem
bers of the House. The Representatives
may, If my bill is enacted into law, have
three terms of two years each so that
the idea of the trainers of the Consti-
tuition can still be carried out, that of
change in the House every two years.
"It was not my intention, in intro
ducing the bill, to question the wisdom
of the trainers of the Constitution. The
stipulated two years term of Office will
stand, but with the added qualification
that no more than three such terms may
be served by any one person"
Mr. Arnold said that another benefit,
If his plan became law, will be to
sponsor a much more progressive ap-
proach to the entire legislative pro-
gram.
"It should foster the growth of such
sorely needed innovations as the stating
of all full committees with legislative
experts whose duty it would be to ana
lyze critically all projected legislation
The aid of such impartial advisers
would tend to increase the effectiveness
of committee functions tremendously.
No legislator under existing circum-
stances, can do full justice to every
official decision which he is forced to
make. His public life is so full of ex-
traneous matters, mainly in the interest
Of reelection, that he has scant time
to explore the extensive ramifcations
of the State affairs which come within
his purview."
Bureaucracy In Legislature.
The Missouri Representative at this
point advanced a new idea-that bu-
reaucracy may exist in the Legislative
as we'll as in the Executive. He said:
TT seemed to me, in framing the