SCIENTIFIC ASSISTANCE IN LAW-MAKING BY JOHN BURTON PHILLIPS Among the conspicuous features in modern progress none is more important than specialization. This is the era of specialists. In all lines of activity success comes to the man who has had the benefit of special training and has attained excellence in his line of work. Division of labor, which has created specialists, can be employed to some extent in all industries. It has been adopted more generally in industrial affairs than in government, yet there is a pronounced tendency to secure the services of specialists in the administration of the government of the United States. The report of the Industrial Commission was very largely the work of men specially trained in the subjects investigated by that body. This is what gives it its great authority and impartial tone. One of the largest fields for the effective service of the specialist is in the assistance he can render to the men charged with making a state's or nation's laws. With the increase in the activities of government, both state and national, the difficulties that beset the lawmaker tend greatly to increase. Formerly the legislator had to be posted on a few fundamental subjects only; there was not much wealth, and what there was was more or less uniformly distributed, so that taxation was a simple matter; corporations had not been born; there was no labor problem. All this is changed. Government must now concern itself with minute and detailed social, economic and industrial affairs. Laws must be passed to regulate the quality of food, to prevent child labor and to prohibit the manipulation of our credit institutions. A legislator must be well-nigh omniscient to have an intelligent opinion on all of these subjects. The biennial output of state legislation alone in the United States exceeds twelve thousand acts. Fourteen thousand one hundred and ninety laws and resolutions were enacted in 1901. Several state legislatures pass more than five hundred laws at a session and the average legislative session is not over ninety days in length. How can any man vote intelligently on the passage of so many laws in so short a time? The above table shows clearly the enormous amount of work required of the legislator. In Alabama, the average output was ten laws a day, and in North Carolina, almost fifteen. To vote intelligently on so many diverse measures in so short a time, even the wisest man would require unusual assistance. The average legislator is not a person who has been a special student of the science of legislation. He has been devoting his energies to his business or profession, and because of his ability and good judgment and also perhaps because of his public spirit, tact, personal address and straightforward dealing, is elected and sent to the legislature and intrusted with the responsibility of making laws for his state. He is supposed to do a great amount of work. He is appointed to many committees, and if he attends the meetings of each of his committees and attends the sessions of the legislature, he has no time to do anything else. In the New York legislature, nearly two thousand bills are introduced in each session of the senate and about thirty-six hundred in the assembly. The legislator is obliged if a conscientious man-and no other should be sent to the legislature—to form an opinion as to the merits of a large number of these bills. He needs accurate information on the various matters treated of in these proposed laws and he needs this information quickly. Failure to get it delays law-making and there is already too much delay in this work-at least this seems to be the opinion of the voters. Lack of experience increases the handicap under which the modern legislator suffers. He is usually unfamiliar with parliamentary procedure and the preparation of bills. He serves for one or two terms only and, therefore, does not have the opportunity to become familiar with the work of legislation nor to fortify himself against the ingenuity of the lobbyists. This is one of the greatest causes of the inferior legislation of the American states. In many districts the idea that a member shall not serve more than two terms has become firmly established. The ambition to serve a term in the legislature is quite common; such service guarantees high social standing; it also helps one's business or profession. Then, too, it is thought by the politicians that peace and harmony in the organization can be more easily maintained if the legislative ambitions of a large number of aspiring statesmen are gratified with an office that does not bring large monetary returns. Hence, the two-term rule, and hence, also, inferior legislation by inexperienced men. Few persons have an adequate idea of the extent to which this practice of granting short terms of service to the members of the legislature is carried. In the house of representatives of the state of Michigan are one hundred members. The legislature meets every two years. In the session of 1899, of these one hundred members of the house, only four had served in the same body four years previous. Similar examples might be found in other states. The results of this custom are that the new member of the legislature is very much in need of assistance if he is to accomplish anything. Imbued with the American idea that law is a remedy for all things, the new members are anxious to get through some piece of legislation. They must have help in the preparation of their bills and the material for their arguments before the committees. This assistance they will secure from someone, and if the state does not provide it for them, those interests seeking favorable legislation will be only too glad of this opportunity to put the unwary legislator under obligations to them. One of the primary duties of the state is to shield as far as possible its representatives in the legislature from the pressure brought to bear upon them by the agents of interests which desire to secure special legislation or to prevent the passage of laws that will curtail their privileges. Numerous lobbyists are present at each session and the so-called "third house" has become well known in American legislative procedure. |