ATTITUDE OF THE PEOPLE TOWARD THEIR LEGISLATURES

In view of this importance, it would seem that the people would have the keenest interest in their state legislatures and the greatest respect for them.  This has not always been the case.  As one writer says, “it has become almost fashionable” to speak slightingly of legislatures and their members, and to talk of them as if they were wholly corrupt and dishonorable.  If the very best men the community affords are not always chosen for the difficult and responsible work of lawmaking, the people have no one to blame but themselves.  Moreover, the members of our legislatures average up very much like their neighbors, and most of them are sincerely desirous of serving their state and do so to the fullest extent possible under the conditions that exist.

It is indeed time that a different attitude should be assumed toward these bodies. ...  Acquaintance with actual legislatures will immediately reveal the fact that they are fairly representative of the American people, and that there is in them, a great deal of honest effort to grapple with the difficult problems of legislation. ...  Before all, there ought to be a sustained effort to support the men who are with honest purpose struggling for equitable and effective legislation. ...[Footnote:  Paul S. Reinsch, American Legislatures and Legislative Methods, p. 126.]

 Difficulties of wise legislation

Most of the unwise and harmful legislation has been due, not to wrong intentions on the part of legislators, but to the difficulty encountered by a body of men of average intelligence and of little experience in dealing with public questions, in getting information necessary to enable them to decide wisely with respect to the multitude of complicated problems that come before them during the brief session of the legislature.

In the lower house of one typical legislature only 19 out of the 252 members had ever been members of a legislature before, 123 were farmers, 6 lawyers, 10 physicians, 48 merchants and manufacturers, 3 bankers, 5 preachers, 6 insurance men, 2 hotel proprietors, 3 liverymen, 14 laborers or artisans, 6 “apparently with no occupation except that of general politician and office-seeker.”

Of the thirty members of the senate of the same legislature, 9 were farmers, 4 lawyers, 4 physicians, and 13 merchants.  Seven of these had completed their education in “academies,” while 13 had never got beyond the public schools.

These men had to decide, in the course of a few weeks, upon an astonishing variety of problems, some of them of the greatest complexity, and all of them affecting the lives of the citizens of the state in a multitude of ways.  It is not surprising that serious mistakes are sometimes made. [Footnote:  C. A. Beard, American Government and Politics, p. 525 (from S. P. Orth, “Our State Legislatures,” Atlantic Monthly, vol. xciv, pp. 728 ff.)]