THE STATE LEGISLATURE AND ITS WORK UNDER THE PART/ SYSTEM BY MARJORIE SHULER STEBBINS & COMPANY BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 1427 Union Street y right. 1922 BY STKBBINS & COMPANY CHAPTER I THE LEGISLATURE AND ITS POWERS The State and the Citizen. In our dual sys- tem of governing the functions and powers of legislative authority are divided between Con- gress and the respective state legislatures. It is, however, the state authority that touches most closely the life and immediate interests of the citizen. Practically all the laws that regulate the conditions under which we live, work, carry on business, acquire our education, and derive our amusements are the product of the state legisla- ture, or of subordinate bodies that derive their authority from that source. It prescribes the qualifications of the physician who tends us dur- ing illness. It provides the schools that we at- tend and the boards of health which regulate the conditions under which we attend them. It deter- mines the nature of the transportation that car- ries us to and from business in cities. It places restrictions on various businesses and professions. It touches us in one way or another in almost 97 520899 98...... . f Thf. : State Legislature every, transaction that' we make involving another p"ersbn/ : ''And: tlir'ecfly or indirectly it collects from us the money with which it pays for its great and varied activities. It is, therefore, a body in which we should have a great personal interest, and with whose acts we should be familiar. Divisions of the Legislature. In every state there are two divisions of the legislature, called houses. This has not always been so. The first legislature in this country, that of Virginia, in 1619 had two houses; but of the original thirteen colonies, both Georgia and Pennsylvania had one house only. Vermont at first had one house, not adding the second until 1836. The purpose of the two houses, or bicameral system as it is called, is to provide against hasty and unconsidered ac- tion. This method of checks and balances, which is a feature of the entire American system of government, has beeen subject to criticism, and in recent years there has been agitation, especially in the western states, for a single-chambered leg- islature. In each state the upper house is called the sen- ate. This is regarded as the more dignified of the two bodies, and membership in it is consid- ered superior to that in the lower house. The names given to the lower house vary in different states. Some call it the house of representatives, The State Legislature > 99 or house of delegates. Is* efch merely as the house, or the assembly. Two states, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, retain the name applied in colonial days, general court. Legislative Powers. In the wide latitude of its powers the legislature is the most important branch of the state government. It may act upon any matter not prohibited to it by the state con- stitution, the federal constitution and laws, acts of Congress, and United States treaties. The scope of its activities includes the grant- ing of charters to municipalities and the settle- ment of boundaries of counties, cities, towns and villages; the granting of charters to railroads, banks, educational and benevolent institutions, both public and private ; the regulation of taxes, licenses, and fees; the enactment of all criminal laws, including the punishment for treason, mur- der, arson, stealing, bribery, forgery, kidnapping, fraud, perjury; conditions for the ownership, sale, and use of all land, including mortgages and deeds ; provision for the making of wills, set- tlement of estates of bankrupts and deceased ; en- actment of laws controlling education, marriage and divorce, health restrictions, elections and vot- ing; methods of transportation for railroads and boats, methods of communication such as the telegraph and telephone; and contracts of trade, 10ft V /vjFA^ate Legislature , fishing, mining, manufacturing and trading. These are by no means all of the powers dele- gated to the legislature. A few instances of the proceedings of legislatures will indicate the tre- menduous right of dictation over municipal af- fairs accorded to it. Not long ago the people of Philadelphia were obliged by the state legislature to build a city hall which cost $20,000,000. The Ohio legislature voted a soldiers' monument which was built in Cleveland at the cost of $300,- 000. When New York City wanted to build its elevated railway system it was compelled to ask permission of the state legislature and the grant was made with the provision that a state commis- sion have authority and supervision over the work. When Chicago wanted to prescribe the width of wagon tires which could be used on its own streets, it had first to secure the consent of the Illinois legislature. The city of Buffalo in New York state has had a controversy extending over a considerable pe- riod of years as to whether it should continue the municipal government by a mayor and board of aldermen, or adopt the commission form of gov- ernment. Since the change affected the provi- sions in the city charter, it was necessary when a majority of the voters had decided upon the com- The State Legislature 101 mission form of government, to- appeal to. the legislature for a new charter. A spirited contest ensued before representatives from other coun- ties would grant the request. Now that the com- mission form of government has been in opera- tion in Buffalo for several years, its advocates have a constant battle against members of the legislature from other counties who desire to re- store the old system. There is an increasing sentiment in favor of curtailing the powers of the legislature, which has resulted in some states in amending the constitu- tion in such a way as to limit the legislative authority. Some have given to the people the power of direct legislation for themselves through the initiative, which enables the voters to propose a law to the legislature; and the referendum, which enables the voters to ballot upon a law which they have demanded be referred to them. Others have sought to regulate the legislature by limiting the length of its session, in order to prevent prolonged debate and delay in deciding important questions. This limitation has been evaded by interpreting the constitution to mean that the members shall be paid for the prescribed time only, but that if important business is still to be transacted they may remain in session at their discretion ; or by still other devices. CHAPTER II THE CONSTITUTION OF THE LEGISLATURE The Time of Legislative Sessions. Each state constitution prescribes the time at which the regular session of the legislature shall take place and in addition the governor of the state is given the right to call an extraordinary session in the event of an emergency. Alabama has a quad- rennial session; New York, New Jersey, Massa- chusetts, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Geor- gia have annual sessions. Other state legislatures meet biennially. Length of Terms. Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama elect the members of the lower house for terms of four years, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York for terms of one year, and all other states for two years. New Jersey elects senators for a period of one year ; Alabama, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illi- nois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisi- ana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, 102 The State Legislature 103 Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, for four years; and Arkansas, Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Vermont, for two years. Apportionment. The size of the legislature varies in the different states. The lower house is always the larger. Sometimes the proportion is one to two as in Delaware, where there are seven- teen senators and thirty-five assemblymen. More often the ratio is one to three. In the New England states the lower houses are of still greater size. New Hampshire has over four hun- dred assemblymen to twenty-four senators ; Con- necticut two hundred and fifty-eight assembly- men to thirty-five senators; Vermont two hun- dred and forty-six assemblymen to thirty sena- tors; Massachusetts two hundred and forty as- semblymen to forty senators. The intent in having such large assemblies is to give the most democratic representation pos- sible. Sometimes this results in the opposite ef- fect. Connecticut for instance gives representa- tion to each town, so that one thousand persons in one community may have two members in the 104 The State Legislature legislature and one hundred thousand persons in another community will also have just two mem- bers in the legislature. The more usual method of apportioning mem- bers is to divide the voters into groups of fairly equal size, allowing one representative for each unit of the voters. Some of the states have found it necessary to set up additional safeguards to this method. For instance New York State, with the tremendous population in the great city of New York, attempts to protect its rural voters by a law which declares that no one county in the state may have a greater number of representa- tives than one-third of the total number. Method of Election. However the appor- tionment varies, the general scheme of elections is the same, with each small assembly district or town choosing one representative to the lower house and several districts or towns combining to elect a senator to the upper house. The lines of districts are usually changed by the election officials when the number of voters in them becomes so large as to be out of propor- tion to the number of voters in the other dis- tricts. Thus one district may be made into two, or several districts may be changed so as to add one or two. When this process is done unfairly it is called gerrymandering. By gerrymander- The State Legislature 105 ing streets on which voters of one political party live may be assigned to another district, thus leaving control of the first district in the hands of the opposing political party. A little colony of voters of one party in a country district may be changed over to another district, not only with this result, but also making it necessary for them to travel miles to reach the polling place, often discouraging them from voting at all. Some- times districts are gerrymandered so that two members of the legislature from one party are placed in the same district, thus making it neces- sary for one to withdraw at the next election or to move his residence to another district where he will not be so sure of re-election. Sometimes the move is in favor of two men who live in the same district, a division making it possible for both to be elected to the legislature. In close elections where the two dominant political par- ties are struggling for supremacy gerrymander- ing in a very few districts may decide the victory for an entire state. The Members of the Legislature. In the East political party leaders in picking candi- dates have helped to create the popular belief that lawyers are especially equipped for legislative work. The pressure of business concerns that desire to have their special interests watched dur- 106 The State Legislature ing legislative sessions has also contributed to the selection of lawyers, who are by the nature of their regular occupations associated with rail- roads and manufacturing concerns and commer- cial institutions of all kinds. In the West, where there is more independence of party control, farmers and business men, as well as professional men, are more generally elected to legislatures. The individual voter who assumes the full re- sponsibility of citizenship must undertake to see that his representative does actually represent him and not a financial interest. To do this he must have personal knowledge of all the candi- dates, their qualifications, their supporters and their platforms. Salaries of Legislators. In every state the salaries of senators and members of the lower house is the same, but the amounts vary greatly in the various states. Some pay three dollars a day, a sum which legislators say does not pay their expenses at the state capitol. South Caro- lina and New Hampshire pay $200 a session, while New York and Pennsylvania pay $1,500 a year. Small salaries mean that competent men must make sacrifices in order to serve their states, while dishonest men are subjected to the con- stant temptation to supplement their salaries by accepting money for serving special interests. CHAPTER III THE ORGANIZATION OF THE LEGISLATURE The Election of Officers. Every legislature meets in the state capitol. Immediately upon the convening of the new session each house proceeds separately to organize for its work. In states where there is a lieutenant-governor that official is designated by the constitution as the presiding officer of the senate. In other states the presid- ing officer or president, as he is usually called, is elected by the senate from its own membership. The house elects its own presiding officer, or speaker, as he is ordinarily called. While tech- nically it is true that each house elects the pre- siding officer, actually he is chosen in a previous caucus or secret meeting of the legislators of the political party which has a majority of members in the house. When the house has been convened for organization, a leading member of the party caucus will rise and nominate the choice of the caucus. It is usual for the minority party to make a nomination from their ranks, also chosen 107 108 The State Legislature in caucus. The voting by the house is a mere matter of form, since the minority caucus nomi- nee is always defeated and the majority nominee always elected. It is considered courteous for the minority, after the defeat of its candidate, to withdraw any open opposition to the election of the majority nominee. In some cases of extreme bitterness, however, the minority party has been known by long speeches to delay the election until the people of the state have learned of the fight and the reasons for making it. The position of presiding officer carries with it great power. Not only does the presiding offi- cer have important appointments to make, but he can control debate to a large extent. He has an important part in determining the decisions of the house by recognizing some men and re- fusing to recognize others who desire to speak; also by allowing motions which block free and independent discussion or even by shutting off speeches entirely. As soon as the presiding officer has been chosen, the house selects its business organization, clerk, sergeant-at-arms, door-keepers, messen- gers and other minor officials. The Permanent Committees. When that is accomplished the presiding officer makes the an- nouncement of the committee memberships, the The State Legislature 109 most important of which are those on finance, cor- porations, municipalities, judiciary, appropria- tions, elections, education, labor, manufacturers, agriculture, and railroads. Membership on these committees is, of course, especially desirable, and it is likewise decided in caucus. The party having the majority in the house will take the larger proportion of committee places, the smaller num- ber going to the minority. Those legislators who have been re-elected to office ordinarily have the choicest places, and the new men receive the less desirable appointments. Unofficial Appointments These are the of- ficial appointments of the house, but in addition there are unofficial ones which carry with them much power. Each caucus chooses a floor leader and usually a steering committee. These men have much the same kind of control as that of the presiding officer. They manage floor tactics, and during a close debate are the ones recognized by the presiding officer and permitted to make motions. They decide to a large degree in what order bills shall come up and what the party stand upon them will be. They direct the fight which is always conducted against any member who op- poses the control of the party leaders. In all of these appointments made by the cau- cus it is customary for the party leaders to take 110 The State Legislature a part. It is not uncommon for the state political party chairman and others high in party councils to attend a caucus and to declare themselves con- cerning appointments or even with regard to pending legislation, matters which are popularly supposed to be managed entirely by the members of the legislature. CHAPTER IV THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS The Introduction of Bills. The passage of bills is the most important duty of the legislature and here the power of committees is strongly felt. A bill may be the result of the individual obser- vation of a legislator, it may represent the thought of a community or an organization of citizens interested in the common good, or it may be instigated by some private corporation which expects personal gain thereby. Whether it is actually drafted by a legislator or by some in- terested outside group, it must be introduced by a legislator and thereafter is known by his name. It may be brought forward in both houses on the same day; or, in controversial cases, it may be introduced at first only into one house, the one in which it will receive most support, in order that its friends may control it. The Bill in Committee. After the bill has been read in the house, it is referred to the com- mittee having general jurisdiction over matters 111 112 The State Legislature to which it pertains. Since the speaker has the authority to refer the bill, its friends usually con- sult him first, endeavoring to influence him to refer it to a committee which will act favorably, rather than one which is known to be hostik to it. Here may come the first clash. The speaker may yield to the entreaties of friends of the bill, while the opponents are sure to protest over the refer- ence of the bill and to urge reasons why it should be sent to another committee. Here may come a test vote on the bill, for the opposition may prove itself so strong that the speaker will feel obliged to ask the house to sustain or overthrow his ruling. Committees are often referred to as 'grave- yards of legislative hopes.' In the secrecy of executive sessions a committee discusses a bill and determines whether or not it shall ever again see the light of day. It may pigeonhole the bill and never report it; although under certain condi- tions the house may by a majority vote order the bill from committee. The committee may decide to hold hearings on the bill or it may refuse to grant hearings. It may report the bill with a recommendation for its rejection or its accept- ance. When the bill is returned to the house, it goes to the calendar, has a second reading, is sub- ject to general discussion and amendment, and The State Legislature 113 then proceeds to a third reading and passage or defeat. The Power of the Opposition. Through all of these steps the opponents and proponents of a bill may have a running fight. The opponents have several weapons to use. They may try to talk a bill down, delaying the proceedings of the house to such a degree that other legislation is imperiled and the particular bill may be dropped for a time or laid on the table temporarily. A motion to lay the bill on the table is another means of defeating it ; and, on such a motion, the opponents are sure to be able to get the votes of weak members who can be swayed to voting with them on a technicality of this kind, when they would not dare vote openly against the bill itself. The opposition is certain also to suggest amend- ments, which would tend to nullify or alter the original intent of the bill. For every one of these moves the friends of the bill must be prepared. Often a bill has been lost when there were enough votes to insure its passage, solely because its friends were not alert to the meaning of techni- calities, In one legislature in which there was a clear majority for a bill, the chairman of the commit- tee to which it was entrusted did not realize the importance of making sure of the attendance of 114 The State Legislature all friendly committee members at the meeting at which it was to be considered. As a result the enemies of the bill on the committee voted by a majority of one to report it unfavorably. The bill thus went to the house with an undeserved handicap. Throughout the entire debate on the bill, lasting for a week, the enemies were con- stantly interposing parliamentary objections which made friends of the bill lose the floor for discussion and motions, adjournments come at most unfortunate times and a final week-end re- cess possible. The week-end was fatal to the bill. Thousands of dollars were spent sending tele- grams and delegations to the legislators in their homes and from a majority of fifteen in its favor, the bill slipped back to defeat by four votes. There are cases of unwise proposals where such a .delay might work to the advantage of the peo- ple, but in this case popular sentiment was strongly in favor of the bill, and its defeat was a sore blow to public welfare. Technical Motions.- In order that friends of a bill may not be mistakenly led to voting on the wrong side in moot questions, it is usually arranged among the friends of the bill that one man whose support is certain and whose name comes well up to the top of the alphabet will give the signal. The leaders for the bill will gather The State Legislature 115 at his seat for conference when a vote is to be taken and as he votes so all friends of the bill are expected to do. In one bitter legislative fight recently, the speaker ordered all members into their seats. As a consequence the first seven votes of friends of the bill were scattered, none of these particular members being certain of the parliamentary question involved. It was not until the name of the strongest supporter of the bill was reached that members were sure how they ought to vote and the spectators were amused at the promptness with which the A's and B's sprang to their feet and demanded to change their votes. One of the most unfair practices of legislators is to trade votes with each other in such instances as this. A man who desires to have his own bills advanced will agree to vote for another bill, pro- vided the friends of that bill will promise to give him a certain number of votes for his bills. In this way members have been known to secure ap- propriations and special favors for their districts which would never have been granted had they been considered on their merits. The Bill Before the Second House. Once passed in one house, the bill goes to the other house for action. Here it may encounter honest opposition or competition, due to the desire of 116 The State Legislature an individual member or of a majority of the house to be its originator. Deadlocks of this kind are not frequent, but they are by no means rare, and they point a lesson to the voter who has a keen interest in a certain bill to see that its friends in both houses agree upon the tactics to be pursued. If a bill is amended in the second house, it is returned to the house where it originated for con- currence. If the amendments are refused by the first house, a conference committee is usually ap- pointed by the two houses to consider and recom- mend a compromise. A conference committee has greater power than any other, for its report is not subject to amendment and friends of a bill are thus often forced to accept very objectionable amendments or else lose a bill altogether. The Final Step.- After a bill has been passed it is sent to the governor of the state, whose sig- nature is required before the bill can become law, except in North Carolina. The governor may veto a bill, which then requires a majority, or a two-thirds or a three-fifths vote in both houses to be passed over his veto. Checks on Legislators. In the belief that legislators have not been sufficiently guided by the wishes of their constituents and have either impeded bills or hurried through unwise legisla- The State Legislature 117 tion, some states now require that all bills be in- troduced during a stated term at the opening of each session. At the conclusion of the appointed time a recess is declared and the members are expected to devote themselves to studying the bills and to hearing the wishes of their constituents with regard to them. At the expiration of the recess, they return to the capitol for a second limited period at which these bills and no others may be passed. All action by the legislature is recorded by the clerks or secretaries in the journal, and the jour- nal should always be open to voters who seek to know the exact attitude of their legislators on the questions submitted to them. CHAPTER V LEGISLATIVE ABUSES The Legislative Joker. One of the evils arising in connection with the passage of bills is the introduction of what are termed "jokers." Perhaps an entire committee or an individual member of a committee or perhaps a legislator during discussion on the floor will add to a bill a phrase whose real meaning is not clear to the rest of the body. Or if clear to them, its purport may be concealed from the public until after the adjournment of the body. Such a phrase some- times renders a bill unconstitutional. Sometimes it constitutes a new ruling on a matter entirely foreign to the main bill. In any event months of delay must intervene before a new legislature can correct the bill. Committee Room Secrecy Another abuse comes from the transaction of much of the busi- ness relating to bills in a committee room. Pri- vacy enshrouds the real backers and opponents of 118 The State Legislature 119 bills, making it difficult for the public to deter- mine the exact issues involved. Bi-partisan Combinations. One of the greatest evils arises from the fact that our politi- cal system is so organized that the entire respon- sibility for the failure or passage of a bill cannot be laid upon any one political group. On the surface there is much opposition between parties. Their representatives attack each other in public. As an actual fact bipartisan combinations are a very common thing. It is often arranged be- tween the leaders of the parties that each will give a certain percentage of the votes needed to carry a piece of legislation, but that the necessary majority will be withheld. Thus a bill may fail by one or two votes. Sometimes it is agreed that a bill will be passed in one house and that the other house will assume the responsibility for voting it down, or delaying it in committee, or prolonging debate on the floor so that an ad- journment of the session comes before the bill can possibly be passed. Recently the failure to pass a certain bill was charged against the majority party in one state legislature. As a fact the majority party would have been obliged to give practically a unani- mous vote of its members in both houses in order to secure the required number of votes to pass 120 The State Legislature the bill. The minority party gave just one vote to the bill in each of the two houses. Failure of Attempts to Regulate Legis- latures. Attempts to regulate the legislature in its conduct have not been very successful. During an attempt to prevent bipartisan agree- ments in one legislature recently, nearly half the members struck. Day after day they sat in their seats, refusing to answer to roll call, declining to participate in debate, refraining from voting on bills. After two weeks of this impasse the re- formers gave in, and the strikers jubilantly cele- brated their victory. In another state it has become a habit for legis- lators who are outvoted to run away, thus break- ing a quorum and making any action by the body impossible. Under ordinary circumstances, when a quorum of the membership is not present, the presiding officer may be empowered to ask the sergeant-at-arms to find the absentees and bring them to their seats. In this situation the legislators remove themselves from the jurisdic- tion of the state entirely by going over the border into the next state and remaining until terms are negotiated or the session automatically ends. It has been charged that they have even taken this trip on passes from a railroad, whose interest in the legislation of the state is very great. CHAPTER VI THE THIRD HOUSE The Lobby. The greatest of all legislative abuses is the control over it exercised by those who are entirely outside of the membership of the legislature, the 'third house/ that body of repre- sentatives or 'lobbyists' who are present in every state capitol urging the members of the legiti- mate two houses of the legislature to pass or de- feat bills according to the wishes of private interests instead of the public interest. Some- times the lobbyist is a quiet, unobtrusive traveler who has "just happened" to be in the city and is interested in watching the legislature at work. Sometimes he is himself a resident of the state, a lawyer, a claim agent for a railroad, or a repre- sentative of a merchant or manufacturer. Be- cause of the very difficulty of determining whether a lobbyist is serving the honest purpose of letting a legislator know the desires of a ma- jority of his constituents, or whether he is rep- resenting a minority of entrenched financial 121 122 The State Legislature interests, there is a present effort to secure legis- lation requiring the registration of all lobbyists, the names of their employers and the amount of money which they spend during the session. It does the citizen little good to be able to re- peat by rote the powers and duties of his state legislature unless he has at least equal knowl- edge of these sinister influences of invisible gov- ernment which attempt to pervert the system. Although stories of corruption and intimida- tion due to the activities of the 'third house' are current in nearly every session of every state leg- islature, the facts rarely come to public knowl- edge. Where they are exposed the insidious forces crumble, for invisible government made visible loses its power. The Tennessee Lobby. One of the most glaring instances of attempted political sabotage exposed in recent years was the extra session of the Tennessee legislature of 1920, when the fate of the thirty-sixth ratification of the federal woman suffrage amendment hung in the balance and the most skillful lobbyists were gathered from all over the country in an unsuccessful at- tempt to debauch the handful of men who had gone from the cotton plantations and the cotton mills into the state legislature. All the state knew that, prior to the opening The State Legislature 128 of the session, a majority of the legislators had pledged themselves to their constituents to pass the ratification resolution and it soon became clear that the fight to make these men repudiate their pledges was a fight not only for and against woman suffrage, but a struggle between the 'third house,' collected from all over the country, and the two houses of Tennesseans, elected by the people of Tennessee as their legislators. As such the story has an important place in the history of American government. Charges against the 'third house' were made openly on the floor. One member of the legis- lature said, "What is a greater crime than for the interests from New York to San Francisco to send lobbyists here to ask you to break your pledges, or for certain newspapers connected with railroads to threaten you as they have been do- ing for days?" Another member opened his speech with these words, "When the special in- terests made an attack on this legislature last January they had a gang of lobbyists to put over their infamous bills. I recognize in the lobbies these same special interest servers. You have an opportunity on this occasion to rid this state of an incubus that has laid its claws in this legislature for fifty years. Let us show by our votes that the special interests are done in Tennessee." 124 The State Legislature Methods of the Lobbyists. How did the 'third house' attempt to influence the legislators? Two men were given the third degree, heing called to the telephone every few hours day and night, so that sleepless and worn, they might the easier yield to the promises and threats which were made them. Not only were the two men told that they would be defeated in the next elec- tion, but one of them was warned that if he stood by his pledge to vote for ratification he would lose the little district school where he was teach- ing. Positions in the internal revenue service were promised some of the legislators, until an appeal was taken to the President of the United States. Frequent attempts were made to get friendly legislators so drunk that they would perforce be absent when the vote was taken and two men were actually taken captive in an automobile and driven miles from town until one of them forced the abductor at the point of a pistol to return to the capitol. Affidavits against the moral charac- ter of one legislator were shown to him and he was told that secrecy was the price of his vote. In previous campaigns such as this both in Tennessee and in other states, good citizens had retreated when they saw the lengths to which the opposition was prepared to go, but in this case The State Legislature 125 the battle was fought to a finish, the legislators kept the pledges they had made to their con- stituents and the 'third house' received one of the most thorough beatings in history. Good government would be tremendously helped if every voter understood that such ef- forts are made to prevent legislators from serv- ing their own consciences and the desires of their constituents. A legislator may be assured that invisible gov- ernment has already secured so strong a hold that if he fails to serve it, he will be made a 'horrible example/ Other horrible examples are pointed out to him, men who never get appointments on good committees, whose bills are always defeated, who cannot secure patronage which their con- stituents expect. Perhaps he is told that he will be helped or opposed at the next election by in- visible government. He is handicapped in telling the truth back home. Such charges are never popular and invisible government makes severe reprisals. Will his constituents, who want hon- est government, understand the situation? Will they show sufficient interest to help re-elect him if he stands for what they want? The often- quoted indifference of good voters may make the legislator hesitate. Pernicious Propaganda. Another powerful 126 The State Legislature agency for deceiving the voter and keeping him from realizing the significance of what is going on in the legislature is the ally which the 'third house' most frequently employs, propaganda. This may be compared to the third ring of the political circus, which distracts the attention of the voter from the two rings which he should be watching. Propaganda may be useful in creating public opinion for a good bill, but it is often used to con- ceal the real purpose of a bad bill or to discredit a good one. In a recent state campaign against a strong lobby of the 'third house/ the following statement was made regarding propaganda: "We have found that there exists in our state a dangerous subversion not only of legislative opinions, but of public opinions as well. We have found a condi- tion by virtue of which it is evident that it has been made exceedingly difficult for any constructive or industrial measure to get adequate and un- biased consideration before either the public or the legislative opinion of the state, and we have found that the influences at work, far from being invisible, are flagrantly and cynically open, and are rapidly becoming notorious. We call the at- tention of our legislators and of the public gen- erally to the fact that propagandism as created and financed by certain powerful, vested inter- The State Legislature 127 ests is assuming a highly potent, though unregu- lated, political and governmental function. Propagandism would seem, in fact, to be taking the place of political 'bossism' such as ruled the state ten or twenty years ago. Since the people now have more or less direct control of political party machinery it has become impossible for one or two or three 'bosses' at the top to command legislative action at will without regard for the possible resentment of the people. For the sup- port of various little 'bosses/ in or out of the legis- lature, certain special interests have inaugurated a campaign of pseudo-patriotic propaganda which has been used to confuse the people as a whole with regard to the real nature of such legis- lation as these particular interests may choose to consider 'undesirable.' ' The Lobby and the Newspaper. The news- papers of several large eastern cities recently dis- covered that a correspondent whom they had been paying for supposedly unbiased stories about a legislative fight was receiving a large salary as publicity representative for one of the important interests involved. They immediately sent staff writers to gather the real facts, but the correc- tions never caught up with the first stories which undoubtedly had a big part in defeating legisla- tion desired by the people of the state. 128 The State Legislature In another case a lecturer was engaged to make a series of addresses on American ideals. After he had appeared in a dozen cities he learned that he was the 'dust thrower' for men who were following to organize against certain bills which were pending before the legislature and a state- ment was promptly made to that effect. That the 'third house' is responsible for many more instances than these is certain. A great American statesman recently said, "This is the real urge in American politics. Invisible govern- ment is the foe of all right-thinking people and unless we can oust its agencies we shall not be able, no matter who is elected, to have good gov- ernment. I wish all the people of America could see the danger from this slimy thing which is re- sponsible for most of the bad laws and the bad execution of those laws." Surely each citizen must learn to know the 'third house' as well as the authorized two houses of the legislature if he is to do his part that "gov- ernment of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth." LD21-loOm-7,'39(402s) Pamphlet Binder Gaylord Bros. Makers Syracuse, N. Y. PAT. JAN 21, 1908 520899 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY