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ESTIMATES OF THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF
THE LEGISLATURE.-FROM THE NEW YORK NEWS-
PAPERS,

MAP, SHOWING SENATE, ASSEMBLY AND ALDERMANIO DIS-
TRICTS OF NEW YORK CITY.

70

NOTE.--The Legislature of 1886 convened 5th of January, and adjourned finally 20th May.

*Elected in place of William Hall, who died after his election and before the legislature met.

OFFICE OF THE CITY REFORM CLUB,

60 WALL ST., NEW YORK,

5th October, 1886.

This record presents to the public, information as to the representatives of New York City in Albany during the last session of the legislature. The record is made up from official sources,-the printed journals of the assembly and the senate, and the printed files of bills introduced in the two houses. The sole purpose of the City Reform Club in printing this pamphlet is to aid the citizen to form intelligent opinions as to the manner in which the assemblymen and the senators from this city performed their duties. The City Reform Club, being connected with no party, has no partisan ends in view, and aims only at such good results as will spring naturally from giving publicity to the facts here presented.

It is the intention of the City Reform Club to publish every year a record similar to this. The legislature of 1887 will be watched more closely than the last, in order that the next record may be fuller and more valuable.

With the exception of the men as to whom some special comment is made in the following pages, the representatives of New York City in the legislature of 1886 were nearly all devoid of the qualifications of lawmakers. The body of them may be divided into two classes, those whose first object was to make money out of the "legislative business," and those whose first object was to serve their political factions. The members of

both classes were industrious and unscrupulous throughout the session. The most outrageous betrayals of their trust were of such a character that they do not appear in any official records, and can not be specified in the first issue of this annual publication. The "liquor interest," the schemes for "milking" New York City to the cost of the citizens and the enrichment of the schemers, and the division of patronage among the factions, were constantly the objects of the solicitous care of the New York members. Their ability to cope intelligently with questions of state or city government was almost as small as their desire to act honestly and to earn their pay. The very low average of mental ability makes it difficult to draw distinctions among the body of the city's representatives. Possibly they could not have done better, had they tried. The fault is not with them so much as with the constituencies which confide the vast interests of the state and the city to men whose training in affairs has consisted in managing the finances of corner groggeries.

EXPLANATION OF THE COURSE OF BILLS IN THE LEGISLATURE.

When a bill is introduced in the assembly, it is read the first time, and is also read immediately the second time. The "first reading" is merely the recital by the clerk of the enacting clause of the bill, and the "second reading" is a hurried announcement by the clerk of the title. The bill is then referred by the presiding officer to the standing committee having charge of legislation on the subject upon which the bill bears. The fate of

most bills is decided in committee. A determination upon the part of the committee to smother or to kill a bill will commonly decide its fate. The standing committee may give notice that at certain times it will hear arguments for or against the bill; and at such times any advocates or opponents of the bill may speak. The committee may report the bill to the assembly with or without amendments.

If a bill is reported favorably to the assembly by a standing committee, and the report is accepted, it is then printed. A disagreement with a favorable report sends the bill back to the committee. If it is reported unfavorably, and the report is accepted, it is dropped, and may be brought up for consideration only by a vote of the assembly.

As a rule, the contents of a bill are not known to the members generally until it is favorably reported, printed, and distributed.

The bill is then considered in committee of the whole. In that committee the bill may be amended, or another bill upon the same subject may be substituted. No record of the votes in committee of the whole is kept, and the proceedings are not published in the journals. That this is so, is to be regretted; for the committee of the whole, while a committee in name, is in fact and effect the assembly itself. Thus the committee of the whole may be used by dishonest members as a screen for crookedness.

If the bill is reported favorably by the committee of the whole, and the report is accepted by the assembly, the bill is placed on the order of third reading. If the assembly disagrees with a favorable report, or agrees to

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