The state legislature and its work under the party stystem

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

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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-

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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,

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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-

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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-

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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

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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

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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

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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