Part 62 (1/2)
Qualifications for members.h.i.+p and term of office in each house.
Names of your own representative and senator.
Secure a map showing legislative districts of your state. Locate your own.
Whether representation in your legislature is proportional to population.
The ”gerrymander”: what is it, and has it been used in your state?
The legislature controls our lives at almost every turn.
It has control over the whole domain of civil law; [Footnote 2: See below, p. 437.] that is, it lays down the rules governing contracts, real and personal property, inheritance, corporations, mortgages, marriage and divorce, and other civil matters. It defines crime; that is, it prescribes those actions of the citizen which are to be punished by fine or imprisonment or death. It touches the property of the citizen not only by regulating its use, but also by imposing upon it a burden of taxation. Finally, it has control over the vast domain known as the police power, under which it makes regulations concerning public health, morals, and welfare, devises rules for the conduct of business and professions, and in other ways restrains the liberty of the citizen to do as he pleases. [Footnote 3: C.A. Beard, America Government and Politics,, p. 516.]
ATt.i.tUDE OF THE PEOPLE TOWARD THEIR LEGISLATURES
In view of this importance, it would seem that the people would have the keenest interest in their state legislatures and the greatest respect for them. This has not always been the case. As one writer says, ”it has become almost fas.h.i.+onable” to speak slightingly of legislatures and their members, and to talk of them as if they were wholly corrupt and dishonorable. If the very best men the community affords are not always chosen for the difficult and responsible work of lawmaking, the people have no one to blame but themselves. Moreover, the members of our legislatures average up very much like their neighbors, and most of them are sincerely desirous of serving their state and do so to the fullest extent possible under the conditions that exist.
It is indeed time that a different att.i.tude should be a.s.sumed toward these bodies. ... Acquaintance with actual legislatures will immediately reveal the fact that they are fairly representative of the American people, and that there is in them, a great deal of honest effort to grapple with the difficult problems of legislation. ... Before all, there ought to be a sustained effort to support the men who are with honest purpose struggling for equitable and effective legislation. ...[Footnote: Paul S. Reinsch, American Legislatures and Legislative Methods, p.
126.]
DIFFICULTIES OF WISE LEGISLATION
Most of the unwise and harmful legislation has been due, not to wrong intentions on the part of legislators, but to the difficulty encountered by a body of men of average intelligence and of little experience in dealing with public questions, in getting information necessary to enable them to decide wisely with respect to the mult.i.tude of complicated problems that come before them during the brief session of the legislature.
In the lower house of one typical legislature only 19 out of the 252 members had ever been members of a legislature before, 123 were farmers, 6 lawyers, 10 physicians, 48 merchants and manufacturers, 3 bankers, 5 preachers, 6 insurance men, 2 hotel proprietors, 3 liverymen, 14 laborers or artisans, 6 ”apparently with no occupation except that of general politician and office- seeker.”
Of the thirty members of the senate of the same legislature, 9 were farmers, 4 lawyers, 4 physicians, and 13 merchants. Seven of these had completed their education in ”academies,” while 13 had never got beyond the public schools.
These men had to decide, in the course of a few weeks, upon an astonis.h.i.+ng variety of problems, some of them of the greatest complexity, and all of them affecting the lives of the citizens of the state in a mult.i.tude of ways. It is not surprising that serious mistakes are sometimes made. [Footnote: C. A. Beard, American Government and Politics, p. 525 (from S. P. Orth, ”Our State Legislatures,” Atlantic Monthly, vol. xciv, pp. 728 ff.)]
The mere writing of a bill in language that will convey the exact meaning intended, and that will not involve undesirable and unexpected results, is a difficult matter that requires the skill of men trained for it.
LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE BUREAUS
In a number of states an attempt has been made to meet these natural difficulties by the establishment of legislative reference libraries, or bureaus, in charge of highly trained students who collect all available information relating to every possible subject of legislation, keep records of legislation in other states, and place the material in convenient form at the disposal of the legislators. Sometimes they provide expert service in the writing of bills in the proper form. It is said that such legislative reference bureaus have already greatly improved the quality of legislation in some of the states.
It would be impossible for a legislature, acting as a body, to give consideration to more than a small fraction of the bills that come before it.
It is said that it is not unusual for more than 2500 bills to be introduced at a single session. Legislatures are in session from 40 to 90 days. If the session were 60 days, and the working day 10 hours, there would be but 15 minutes for each of 2500 bills. This time would be divided between the two houses. Besides, a great deal of business must be transacted other than the consideration and pa.s.sage of bills.
THE COMMITTEE SYSTEM OF LEGISLATION
To make possible the handling of all this work, each house is organized in standing committees. As bills are introduced, they are referred to their appropriate committees, in which most of the work of lawmaking is done. Most of the bills so referred are never reported back to the legislature at all, and those that are reported are in most cases acted upon by the legislature in accordance with the committees' reports, with little general discussion. The procedure followed in referring bills to committees and in considering them when they are reported back is determined by a complexity of rules that are confusing to the outsider and that cannot be explained in detail here. But their declared purpose is to save time and to enable the legislative business to move smoothly. The small committees can work to better advantage than the large body of men in either chamber. The work is divided up so that the few members of each committee can concentrate their attention upon a few subjects and gain experience in handling special kinds of problems.
INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT
On the other hand, it is to this organization that we owe some of the bad lawmaking for which our legislatures are blamed. It tends to remove legislation from the control of the people, and results in what is often called ”invisible government,” government that is carried on out of sight of the people. It opens a door to partisan influences and to control by political ”bosses” and self-seeking ”interests.” In the lower house the committees are appointed by the speaker, who is the presiding officer, and who is always chosen by the members of the majority party in the house from their own number. The senate committees are sometimes appointed by the presiding officer of the senate, who is often the lieutenant- governor, and sometimes elected by the senate itself. But the chairmen and the majority of the members of all committees in both houses belong to the majority party, which is thus enabled to control legislation for partisan ends if it so desires, and it often does so.
EVILS OF THE SYSTEM
Bills may be ”killed” in committee, or reported unfavorably, or so amended as to change their meaning entirely, merely at the will of the party leaders, or of ”bosses” and interests outside of the legislature. A large part of the work of the committees is carried on in secret. Although ”hearings” may be held at which citizens may present arguments for and against proposed measures, these may be mere matters of form. Influential interests may maintain a lobby at the legislature, which means that they are represented there by agents who seek to influence the members of the legislature, and especially of the committees, sometimes by corrupt methods. The lobby often works by secret methods, whereas the ”hearings” are public.