another in; the institution of a state constabulary for the purpose of controlling the police of great cities for party or personal purposes; the tilting against opponents, a process common to many legislative bodies - all these are productive of such infinite. and far-reaching harm as to emphasize the doctrine that no partisan legislation, either proposed before the bodies themselves or pushed in their committees, or enacted into law, can be fair, just or enduring.

The forms of legislative waste here enumerated, and the causes Committees and logwhich promote them, serve to show why it is that an almost com- rolling. plete change has come over the character of our legislative bodies. Their presence gives the speaker almost arbitrary power, makes committees into a new form of tyrants, develops management and intrigue into fine arts, produces bosses as a natural result, and, while keeping the larger men out of legislative halls, puts small ones into their places. Log-rolling becomes a necessity, and mischievous or useless bills pass easily and almost by sufferance. The existence of these elements also promotes conflict between urban and rural interests in the hope that one or the other may escape a fair share of that taxation which always grows as a result of such a dangerous rivalry.

on the

It is not alone in the domain of law-making and the legislator The burden that these abuses are potent. They add to the labor of the judi- judiciary. ciary. Upon it is thrown for adjudication, year after year, a body of work absolutely unnecessary, and at great expense to the public · and often to private individuals. The constitutionality of much of this new legislation is continually questioned. So true is it that a substantial percentage of the questions brought before Appellate Courts are related to doubts of the validity of the laws under which actions are brought. Indeed, in the State of New York, in a period covering about twenty years, the constitutionality of over five hundred statutes was challenged in the Court of Appeals. The dovetailing of new legislation into existing law, and the cost of construing the possible meaning of a legislature, also enter into a considerable part of the annual output of twenty

Legislation in England and the United States compared.

thousand decisions rendered by Appellate Courts. Many of these mushroom enactments are permitted to slumber by common consent. But this is dangerous, because, in such cases, offensive laws remain upon the statute books, and may later be evoked for mischievous purposes.

...

With more than twenty-five thousand pages of new laws added to the statute books each year, it is apparent, if the suggestions so far made be well founded, that relief is absolutely necessary. During the years between 1899 and 1905, England's Parliament, legislating for the needs of forty-two millions of home population and millions of dependents, passed an average of only forty-six general and two hundred and forty-six special laws the number of the latter being swelled by the necessity for granting franchises for railways and charter amendments for cities. One of the potent elements in the working out of this to us most astonishing result has been the presence of a salaried draftsman lawyer of high repute, well paid for his services - whose duty it is, not only to study the phraseology of proposed laws, but also to make a thorough examination of existing legislation, for the benefit of Parliament and its committees. The publicity of all committee hearings and the report of their proceedings in the press have also contributed much to promote this result. While our complicated system of local government will account for a considerable part of our vast volume of legislation, the greater part of it is due to causes such as I have suggested.

188. Legislatures and Railways

a

The following letter from Mr. J. T. Brooks, of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, throws an interesting light on the relation of public officials to railway corporations:

Office of the Second Vice-President,

PITTSBURG, July 20, 1894.

Hon. Joseph H. Choate, President Constitutional Convention,

Albany, N.Y.:

very

The growth

in the

. . I have seen the evils of the pass system grow from small beginnings to what I regard as very great and deplorable demand for proportions. I have tried to persuade officials of other railway passes. companies to follow my example, and I have endeavored to persuade the Legislature of Ohio, in which State I have always lived, on different occasions, to pass prohibitory laws on this subject, but in each instance and always, without avail. There was a time when public officials were content to receive occasionally a trip pass for themselves. They have learned to ask for passes for themselves, for members of their families, and for political adherents and others. They not only ask for passes good over lines which are controlled by the officers to whom they apply, but they ask for passes over connecting lines to distant and remote parts of the country, good at all seasons of the year. They not only ask for trip passes for themselves and their friends, but they ask for annual passes for themselves and their friends; and no matter how many passes may be granted to a single individual, if a single request be refused, the enmity of that official is aroused, and his vengeance exercised if he has an opportunity so to do.

I have known a member of the Supreme Court of the United States to apply for free transportation the money value of which, in a single instance, was between two and three hundred dollars. Governors of States, United States Senators, Members of the House of Representatives, members of every department of State Government, from the Governor to the janitor ask and expect to receive these favors.

Denial of

favors

leads to

In consequence of the position I have taken, and persisted in on this subject for several years, I have seen county auditors and State boards of equalization who hold the power of taxation retaliation. over us, exercise it tyrannically and unjustly to the detriment of the companies I represent. I have known of the chiefs of the executive departments in the State government combining in the Capitol during sessions of the Legislature and at other times, to wreak their vengeance upon our company because they were not served with annual passes by our company, as by other

Favors for ax officials.

Giving basses is giving money.

companies. I have known of the passage of resolutions in state legislatures, made against the companies I represent, accompanied by suppressed howls of delight, for the reason that the members had not been served with passes according to their wishes and requests. I have received offers from men in public station to serve our company in their official capacity, if I would give them passes and I have received threats from the chiefs of executive departments of State because I declined to give them annual passes as other railroads have done. I have seen other railroad companies issue these passes without stint to all persons in all grades and stages of public life, and receive a direct pecuniary benefit therefrom, and have seen those benefits withheld from our company because I did not do as other men did in the granting of passes.

An officer of a rival railroad company recently told me that he had taken the entire Board of Tax Commissioners of a certain State, with their families and certain friends, from a large inland city to Fortress Monroe and Washington and back home, furnishing the comforts of a Pullman car, free transportation, and all expenses of the journey, and receiving, as he said, as a direct reward thereof, a reduction in the appraisement of the property he represented, equivalent to many thousands of dollars a year. . . .

A pass over a railroad is the equivalent of money and few men in civilized society are above the temptation of receiving it. In very many instances railroad companies receive a direct and pecuniary equivalent of the pass which they give. In other cases the public officials who receive passes quietly enjoy the saving of money, which the passes afford them, and discharge their duties impartially as between the railroad company and the public precisely as if the passes had not been given. I regard the tendency of the system pernicious in the extreme. The difference between giving the thing of money value and the money itself, to a public official, is slight. If railroad officials and public officials become accustomed to the giving and receiving of things of value, the official character of the recipient being the only

consideration thereof, the conscience of both railroad and other officials becomes demoralised and corrupted, and men on both sides soon learn that money might as well be given as passes for the purpose of controlling the action of public servants.

distrust of

corporations

I have always thought that the practice of railroad companies in A source of giving these passes to servants of the public was, and is, one important factor of the distrust and denunciation in which the common people indulge against railway corporations. It certainly needs no argument to prove that free transportation is a thing of money value and that these passes, given to men in public life, who, in the exercise of their public functions, are required to passupon the rights of railroad companies, as between railroad companies and the public, are given for a consideration, and, no matter what the forms or terms of courtesy on which those passes are given, the selfish and improper motive is always apparent. The present is a good time for law-makers and officials of railroad companies to take heed of the signs of the times, and regulate their conduct according to the ancient principles of justice and patriotism.

I hope the Constitutional Convention will enact a thorough provision on this subject. It is imperative that the Convention shall find some way, if possible, by which Constitutional provision may enforce itself, for I have no hope that any Legislature may be found to be unselfish and patriotic enough to deny themselves the privileges of free transportation for themselves and friends. . . .

Within the last few years blackmailing legislators have been introducing bills for the taxation of sleeping-car companies, express companies and telegraph companies. The result is that passes are being issued by these various organisations, in greater or less number, and telegraph passes can now be found in the pockets of nearly all members of the Legislature in all the important States. I hope the Constitutional Convention of the great State of New York will set a noble example on this subject. . . . Yours respectfully,

J. T. BROOKS.

Recent

examples of

blackmail.