Chapter X - Too Many Elections-Too Short Terms

No one who knew Marshall Field's good citizen ship, enormous executive force, and gift for finding able men, could doubt for a moment his entire seri ousness, or his ability to do exactly what he said. I thought a moment and answered, "I think I can guess one or two of those conditions you refer to." "What are they?" said he. I answered, "In the first place, you would wish to be one of a working majority [ 233 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation of men of your own kind; not checkmated by such a gang as has been passing boodle ordinances for the past two years." "Yes," he answered, "that would certainly be one condition." Then I went on: "You would wish a term of office long enough to enable you to accomplish something." "Yes," he said, "I think that is the other; and I :think that is about all that would be needed." In Chicago, then, and I suppose still, the city was governed by a board of aldermen, two from each of the 34 wards, one elected each year at the spring city election and the other the following year. The term was indeed too short in which to accomplish anything unless the man himself, and the working rna..

jority to which he belonged, were sure of re-election, which is seldom the case. Of course length of term becomes far more important in a great city like Chicago than in a small country village; for the rea son that the problems and projects passed upon by the board of aldermen are so much larger and must necessarily take account of growth and changing conditions for so much farther ahead than is the case in country towns. That old distrust and prejudice of our Pilgrim Fathers against anything like conti nuity in office, works overtime against all continuity in plan and execution; and is one large contribu .. tory cause of the makeshift and changing policy and equipment of our American cities; enormously expensive as they are. It is true that popular legisla· tive bodies should be keenly responsive to the move., ment of public opinion; and if that were the only way to secure this, the advantage would lie with annual elections. They work well with our great corpora tions, many of which have many, many thousands of stockholders. (The Steel Corporation, for instance, has about as many voters as the city of Indianapolis.) [ 234] Too Many Elections-Too Short Terms The same men are usually reelected year after year; which would tend to be the case in legislative elec tions. But a far greater objection to the old New England love of annual elections is that they mini mize too much their·own importance. If you think you can turn the rascals out once a year you don't care so much whether they get in as you would if their election meant a term of several years. Short terms hurt quality.

The reader will recognize that our Congressional and local elections are not taken seriously enough by the average voter. Once in four years we get "all het up," as the Vermont Yankees say, over a Presidential election; but in the intermediate years, the local and by-elections hardly attract notice at all, especially in the large cities. Nobody can per sonally know the candidates on a huge ballot, such as that just heretofore instanced. Candidates are put up by party organizations; largely by primaries which few attend. The whole matter of their nomination and election becomes a mere formality, which we turn over bodily to the professionals whom collectively we denounce as "the machine"; yet with out its hard work these elections would go begging for lack of voters; the offices, the terms, and the candidates are too trivial, or so we think them, to take any trouble about. If an honest young fellow wants to do his civic duty and go into politics, and if he has the means to pay a party assessment, he be gins his political career by running for alderman, or the lower house of the state legislature; or for county commissioner, or for some other so-called minor office. If, on the other hand, a crooked grafter wants to work one office or the other for his own benefit, or for that of his friends, he, too, after establishing his place and learning how to "control" a following of [ 235 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation a few votes, also becomes a candidate for one of these minor offices. What average voter among us knows or cares whether the man is a grafter, or merely an honest ignoramus? . Yet the city council, or the state legislature, to which he aspires, is sure to vote the expenditure of a great many millions of taxes during the year; and the men who do the voting ought to be, for the good of the community, the ablest and the most disinterested men we have. Per sonal character, mental equipment, and broad ex perience are the essential qualifications for legisla tive office. Yet manipulation of, and selection by, party machinery are the only requisites to-day to qualify for control of local government (which comes nearest to our daily lives and our pocketbooks), a group of second-or third-rate grafters, and ignor amuses; with rarely an accidental, honest,. and able man, if providence is good to us. Such politics is not democracy-it is merely stupidity; it is a patent blunder that intelligent voters should correct-thus to make a "Kindergarten" for youthful politicians out of our local law-making and taxing bodies!

Too Many Laws. The natural result of filling local and state legislative bodies with second-or third-rate men of small experience and limited educa tion, who go there to make what they can out of the job; especially when coupled, as it is in most states, with the practice of paying them a per-diem allow ance for time spent in session, is a flood of perfectly useless legislation. Each alderman, representative, or senator feels, of course, that he is there to legis late, and that he ought to do something himselfin that direction. Some bill must be introduced and passed that bears his name. The most enticing proposition to him is apt to be one involving the expenditure of public money in his district; or perhaps the regulating [23 6 ] Too Many Elections-Too Short ·Terms or controlling some other fellow whose ways he does not like; or per contra the throwing of something in the way of someone whom he does like. If he thinks, as many do, that his per-diem allowance is not large pay for his distinguished services, he is very apt to contrive things so that some man whom he does not like shall pay him a little something for staving off the passage of an unpleasant bill; or perhaps so that some man he does like will recognize legislation in his interest with a comfortable quid pro quo. The legislator himself is seldom rich; few politicians save, though they have to take in money enough to control a political following. A politician has to be a good fellow and payout his money liberally. He is not beyond the reach of temptation; and a few dollars picked up quietly on the side look very large to him.

Or perhaps he is, or has a friend who is, a reformer or a theorist, inspired with the conviction that ma ternity, or aviation, or good roads need state aid; or that a new street must be cut through, or a new' bridge built. There are a thousand reasons for in troducing a thousand or more bills; and introduced they certainly are. In farmer states the session drags along till seeding-time comes, and then the farmers adjourn in a hurry. Till.then it is pleasant to remain at the state capital, draw a good per-diem allowance, and get one's name in the papers. At the city hall, where one is not chased out by spring planting, it is pleasant to remain in session until hot weather and summer vacations. Of course when it pays legislators to burn time, legislatures burn it. Economy of time, speeding up legislation, are things quite unknown. Parliamen tary proceeding seems ingeniously contrived to waste most days in futile speeches, with nothing done; and then crowd closing sessions desperately. Here is the [ 237 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation record of one such meeting of the Common Council of the city of Chicago on the 21st day of April, 1902.

It covered 143 pages of fine print, and recorded consideration (so called) of no less than 296 different subjects. About one hundred of these were private or special ordinances for erection of signs, barber poles, scales, bow-windows, etc., contrary to general ordinances. Another big lot were for petty claims and rebates. A third large batch were ordinances for paving specific streets and alleys, with detailed paving specifications; and for water mains and ser vice 'pipes, with specifications again. Undoubtedly all had been through Committee; but only eight or ten of all these 296 documents, which the record avers were received, filed, referred, considered, amended, passed, or defeated in a session of about three hours, were such as would ever have come be fore the board· of directors of any large corporation at all. They should have been purely administrative matters, each one acted upon affirmatively or nega tively by a single responsible administrative officer, in accordance with the general law governing the case. What sense is there, for instance, in requiring the action of 68 aldermen of Chicago to permit the erection of a single lamp-post in front of a certain house? Is it not idiotic to subject such a' trifling matter to costly consideration by so ponderous a body?

At the time this record came to my attention I contrasted the legislative methods of the city of Chicago with those of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway. The budget of the city was then about sixty-five millions a year; which was just about the same as the gross turnover of that great railroad. The making of the general laws of the latter was handled by its Board of Directors, then consisting, [23 8 ] Too Many Elections-Too Short Terms I think, of I I men, who met about once a month, except during· the hot we,ather, in the city of New York. Their meetings were usually short; their deliberations confined to. important general proposi tions; and such a thing, for instance, as submitting to the Board of Directors the question whether a small shipper, a flour mill, let us say at Ottumwa, la., should or should not have a side-track put in, would have been laughed to scorn by the able and busy gentlemen who constituted the Board of Directors.

Much of their work was put through by a much smaller Executive Committee; which met more fre quently, thrashed out smaller matters, and prepared larger ones for the meeting of the full Board. Little time was wasted in speech-making, at the meetings either of the Board or of the Executive Commit tee. When general policies had heen adopted, in the form of Resolutions, they became the law of the corporation, to be applied by its executive offi cers, each in his own department who were given power to act, and made responsible for the exercise of that power. The reason for such swift and efficient· transaction of business by the Northwestern Directors, in a few hours of a few sessions, as compared with some 40 to 45 Monday-night sessions of the City Council of Chicago in each year; and the serious character of the business done, as contrasted with the mass of triviali ties which so often encumbered the records at the City Hall, came from but one cause, namely, the calibre of the men in session. The Northwestern Directors were mainly New York and Chicago rail way men and financiers of the highest character and widest experience; and themselves of ample fortune, who had no time to waste in trivialities. Matters that ought to be decided by a district superintendent [ 239 ] Too Much Government-Too Much· Taxation or traffic manager were left to that man with power to act. For themselves were reserved merely the matters of broadest general policy. In the case of the City Council, on the other hand, there were representatives of 34 wards, 6 of them along the Lake Front, known as "silk-stocking" wards-"vhere great business was concentrated, or well-to-do men resided; the other 28 included the manufacturing institutions, the river with its docks and shipping, and the dwellings of the great middle and lower classes. Hardly a man of these last two classes had or ever could, in the course of his daily life, have had to deal with any project of city size; or any annual expenditures larger than those of his own little trade or family . For it is rare indeed that a man of ability sufficient to handle large affairs does not, in so doing, acquire a larger income; and thereupon promptly move out of the middle and lower class wards in any city, to take up his resid~nce in one of the silk-stocking wards. That is human nature.

The result is, however, to leave most of the wards in every city quite destitute of suitable timber for the city councils. Yet always, under the old New England town-meeting system, the wards must be represented by men who live within their borders. But to come back to my theme and give an idea of the Niagara of legislation that whelms us every year -pouring over with tremendous fuss, only to flow away and spread out entirely forgotten, its force wasted below the fall-I refer to the tabulation aforesaid. I· have tabulated as well as possible from the replies of the Secretaries of State, the Acts of general application separately from those of private application; the last named comprising special Acts for the relief or benefit of exceptional cases. The reader will note that the latter comprise 58! per cent. [ 24°] Too Many Elections-Too Short Terms of the total; while the proportion would be much greater if the classification were more accurate; for many acts, though generally worded, are intended for specific application.

Now, there should be no such thing as a special act of the legislature for the relief or benefit of a partic ular case. Exceptions to general laws must, of course occur; but they should be provided for in ad vance under discretionary power conferred by the statute upon the administrative officer charged with enforcement of the law; and such officer should be made specifically responsible for excepting specific cases. The result of such. specific responsibility, im posed upon an administrative officer, would be the exercise of far greater care, and the far more fre quent doing of justice, than is possible of attain ment under specific acts subject to log-rolling, and the pressure of more important general legislative business. The whole principle of special legislation is inherently vicious, and should be tabooed. So do ing would enormously simplify and facilitate the work of legislation.

I have heretofore roughly estimated the number of laws placed upon the statute books of our forty eight state legislatures at the huge total of 23,000 per annum. Mr. H. F. Atwood, in his book "Back to the Republic," gives the number of statutes en acted during five years, 1909 to 1913, as over 62,000. By far the greater part of this enormous mass of legislation was, as lawyers say of testimony, "super fluous, irrelevant, and incompetent." Any reader can verify this drastic statement for himself by running over the session laws of his own state for a single year. I have glanced over those of several states, intending to tabulate them for the benefit of the reader; but the task proved greater than it was [ 241 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation worth. It will be quite sufficient, I think (and I will forgive the readerwho skips to the endof this chapter), to take at random the first twenty-five Acts of the Massachusetts session laws of 1919, and say twenty more at random, commencing with Act 200, as fair samples of the whole grist of that year. Their sub stance may be briefed as follows: ACT 2.

ACT 3. ACT 4. ACT 5. ACT 6. ACT 7. ACTS. ACT 9. ACT 10. ACT II. ACT 12. Authorizes paying market rates of interest on certain state bond issues. Authorizes payment of market rates on metropolitan waterworks bonds. Authorizes payment of market rates of interest on Neponset Valley bonds. Authorizes cities and towns to spend money to celebrate the return of soldiers. Postpones taking effect of a prior act to more convenient date. Authorizes paying market rate of interest on Belmont and Watertown water bonds. Repeals act ordering Middlesex County Probate Court to hold certain sessions in Framingham. Prohibits fishing for alewives in Wee weeantit River for 5 years. Exempts soldiers from poll tax. Limits liquor licenses to the first half of 1919, on account of the Volstead Act. Increases maximum lawful savings bank deposits permitted from $2,000 to $4,000. Makes signature of delinquent warrants by fac-simile rubber-stamp signature valid.

[ 242 ] Too Many Elections-Too Short Terms ACT 13. Railroad bonds not to become illegal invest ments for savings bank by reason of government operation, of railroads. ACT 14. Reinstates discharged soldiers in Classified Civil Service. ACT 15. Permits the Department for Education of the Blind to spend more than $7,000 a year, with approval of Governor and Council. ACT 16. Repeals the requiring of certain statements from savings banks. ACT 17. Decrees that appeals must be filed in Probate Court cases within 20 days. ACT 18. Makes State Adjutant General rank as Brigadier instead of Colonel. ACT 19. Amendment constitutes insurance brokers agents of companies with penalty for false representation. ACT 20. Authorizes Departments to continue expenditures on basis of previous year until Appropriation is passed for cur rent year. ACT 21. Pensions laborers in service of cities and towns after 25 years' service, at half pay.

ACT 22. Gives crippled soldiers peddler's licenses without fee. ACT 23. Orders cities, towns, and districts to notify Bureau of Statistics of all loans, bond issues, etc. ACT 24. Discontinues printing Book of Rules for members of legislature. ACT 25. Authorizes Governor to appoint Private Secretary, Assistant Private Secretary, and other Assistants at salaries ap proved by Council. [ 243 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation ACT 200. ACT 201. ACT 202. ACT 203. ACT 204. ACT 205. ACT 206. ACT 207. ACT 208. ACT 209. ACT 210. ACT 211. Offers bounty on seals killed in State of Massachusetts, at $2 per head. Raises salaries of Assistant Engineers at State House to $1,820; firemen, $1,456; helper to steam-fitter, $1,4°0; all other helpers, $I,200. Raises salary of watchman to $1500; Assistant Watchman, $1,4°0. Raises salary of Elevator Operators to $1,4° 0 . Amends Workmen's Compensation Act to cover weekly payment to injured em ployee partially incapacitated of two thirds of the difference between wage before and after injury, not to exceed $16 per week, or $4,000 in all.

Amends Workmen's Compensation Act to include dependent child incapable, or under 16 years of age, though living apart from parent. Increases Payroll Clerk's salary from $1,600 to $1,900. Amends license to carry weapons. Provides for settlement by Public Ad ministrator of estates where no heirs are found. Regulating traveling expenses of Clerks and Assistant Clerks of Courts in the town of Bristol. Amends prior act by authorizing Auditor to appoint Supervisor of Accounts with salary approved by Governor and Council. City of Worcester authorized to borrow $75,000 instead of $25,000 for a bridge over Lake Quinsigamond. [ 244] Too Many Elections-. Too Short Terms ACT 212. Amends Automobile Act by requiring mir rors on autos and prohibiting spotlights which point two feet above the road bed. ACT 2I 3. Raises salaries of Turnkeys and Watch men in State Prison and Reformatory to $980 the first year; after that $120 a year increase until maximum of $1,700 is reached.

ACT 214. Amends Act by defining a "dealer" in motor cars. ACT 215. Raises salaries of Porters at State House; Chief, $1,200; Assistants $1,150. ACT 216. Fixes salary of Medical Examiner in the . County of Suffolk at $5,000. His As sistants, $833 each for two months; proportionately increased for more than two months, increase to come out of the Examiner's salary. Examiner allowed expenses not over $6,000 per annum; Assistants not over $1,000 per annum. ACT 217. Amend Act authorizing cities and towns to provide for public playgrounds at discretion of Park Commissioners or Recreation Commissioners, or School Commissioners. ' ACT 218. Permits Essex County Commissioners to· layout highway between Rockport and Gloucester and borrow for the same. ACT 219. Provides additional clerks for the Police Courts of the City of Lowell. ACT 220. Provides additional 2nd Assistant Dis trict Attorney for the Western District.

I would comment on these 46 sample acts as follows: ACT I authorizes State Officers to pay market [ 245 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation rates of interest in floating new bond issues. This appears to correct some previous act fixing rates of interest at figures no longer acceptable to the bankers. The blunder in the previous legislation consisted in attempting to limit rates of interest, which should have been left to the finance officers of the state to negotiate with bankers, upon the most favorable terms, merely charging these officers with direct responsibility for protecting the interest of the state. That course would have been followed originally by the Board of Directors of any large corpora tion; and the necessity of further legislation would have been entirely avoided. This same criticism applies to ACTS 2, 3, 6-a total of 4. All were sim ply stupid. ACT 4 authorizes towns and cities to spend money to celebrate the return of soldiers from the war. What business was it of the General Court of Massachusetts whether this or that city spent money to celebrate the return of the soldiers? Why should not such expenditures be left entirely to the city councils that pay the cost without requiring an Act of the Legislature of the whole state? The same criticism applies to ACTS 3, 6, 209, 21 I, 216, 217, 219, 22o-a total of 9.

ACT 7 repeals an Act requiring the Probate Court of Middlesex County to sit occasionally in Framingham. Evidently the prior act was un necessary. Framingham is only 20 to 25 miles away from the regular Probate Court; and the prior act must have been passed for some small, local purpose that would never have commended itself to men of large affairs. The same criticism applies to ACTS I I, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 204, and 214-total 9. ACT 8 prohibits fishing for alewives in Wee weeantit River for 5 years. A prohibition so purely [ 246 ] Too Many Elections-· Too Short Terms. local and trivial that to submit it to the Legislature of the great State of Massachusetts was an absurdity. Such prohibition doubtless should have been effected; but by a responsible executive officer of the state at his discretion, in performance of a general Game Law. The same criticism applies toACTS 12, 18, 200, and 209-3 total of 5. All were trivial.

ACT 9 is legitimate legislation. Also ACTS 10, 17, 20, 22,23, 24, 207, 208, 212, and 218-a total of II. ACT 1I increases the maximum lawful Savings Bank deposit permitted from $2,000 to $4,000. There may be a better reason than appears on the surface for fixing any maximum to savings deposits by state enactment. If it is worth while for the state to protect savings of $2,000, it should be still more worth while to protect· $4,000. The only apparent value of state regulation of Savings Banks is to protect the very poor from spoliation by fake bankers; it is not or should not be to limit either savings or their protection. The passion for useless limitation is characteristic of inexperience, and frequently works out in necessity for amendment, as in this case. Like ACT 7, this Act is unnecessary. ACT 19, Amendment, constitutes insurance brokers agents of company with penalty for false represen tation. Unnecessary, as a remedy must exist at the Common Law. The title reads like "spite work"

of some disgruntled Solon. ACT 21 pensioning laborers; also the series of Salary Acts, commencing with 201. Good examples of voting away public funds by practically irrespon sible majorities, rather than concentrating credit for economy and blame for waste upon a single responsible Department Head. Very likely salaries had to be increased, but boards of directors of great railways, and other corporations, almost never fix I 247] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation salaries of individual employees, which are left to be determined by the law of supply and demand, at the discretion of some responsible officer charged with hiring. The practice of lobbying through a legislative body the increase of particular salaries is fundamentally vicious. This criticism covers ACTS 202, 203, 206, 213, 215, as well-a total of 7. ACT 204 amends Workmen's Compensation Act to cover weekly payment to injured employee, partially incapacitated. Looks like a disguised Special Act, though it may be legitimate.

ACT 216 regulates the salary and expenses of the Medical Examiner of Suffolk County and his Assistants. Should have been left to the discretion of a responsible executive officer of Suffolk County, under a General Act. Same as to ACTS 25 and 210. SUMMARY OF ABOVE COMMENTS . 19 Acts should have been left to the discretion of Executive officers. 9 Acts should have been left to local councils. 9 Acts were amendments due to sloppy prior acts. 35 Acts were too limited-uselessly so. I I Acts only, out of 46 here considered, were really legitimate enactments, fit for the attention of the General Court of the State of Massachusetts. The Session of 1919 passed 364 General Acts (of which the 46 cited above are part); 253 Special Acts, con cerning more or less individ ual cases; and 78 Reso lutions. The Acts cited were fairly representative of the general run of legislation accomplished; three quarters of them should never have been passed at all.

The same thing is. true of every state in the Union. As to Congress, no reader needs to have his attention called by me to the waste of time and the· futile enactments of that body. [ 248 ] CHAPTER XI PRINCIPLES THAT SHOULD LIMIT LEGISLATION BEFORE going on to suggest remedial laws, it seems to me that a few simple general principles should be laid down as guides to thought and legislation. Laws creating government must contemplate: First: the purpose and scope of government; to wit, its reaction on and value to the governed. Second: the framework of government; to wit, its design as machinery, the cost and extent of service, its efficiency and its reaction upon the governors. In considering the relations of governed and governors, let me lay down two simple guiding principles; the first, that of "Least Strain on Human Nature," and the second, that of "Least Govern ment," which follows as a corollary to the first.