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Sacramento at their own expense, to promote the passage of measures, the passage of which they deemed necessary for the best interests of the State, or opposing measures which they considered bad. Barclay McCowan of Bakersfield remained at Sacramento at his own expense, from the beginning to the end of the session, working for the passage of measures for the benefit of his home county, Kern. These measures, because of McCowan's efforts, became laws.

But the continued efforts of paid lobby, reactionary newspapers, and misinformed or self-interested constituents were having their effect nevertheless. The Legislature continued in session week after week, with the important measures apparently no nearer passage than when the session opened. Several good measures, such as the Insurance Supervision bill, were defeated. And finally, when adjournment could not much longer be delayed, the Legislature found itself with hundreds of bills upon its hands to which committees had devoted months of labor, but upon which neither House

Nelson, Peairs, Polsley, Roberts, Shartel, Simpson, Slater, Smith, Strine, Stuckenbruck, Tulloch, Weisel, Weldon, Woodley, Wyllie and Young-41.

Bohnett, who had changed his vote from aye to no to give notice that he would move to reconsider the vote by which the measure had been defeated, on the following day secured reconsideration. But the bill was defeated for the second time, the vote being:

For the Bill-Assemblymen Bagby, Beck, Bohnett, Bowman, Bush, Byrnes, Canepa, Cary, Chandler, Clarke, Geo. A.; Gabbert, Gates, Gelder, Guiberson, Hinkle, Inman, Johnson, Geo. H.: Johnston, T. D.; Johnstone, W. A.; Judson, Killingsworth, Morgenstern, Mouser, Murray, Nolan, Palmer, Richardson, Ryan. Schmitt, Scott, Shannon, Shearer, Sutherland, Wall, Walsh and White-36. Against the Bill-Assemblymen Alexander, Ambrose, Benedict, Bloodgood, Bradford, Brown, Collins, Cram, Ellis, Farwell, Ferguson, Finnegan, Fish, Fitzgerald, Green, Guill, Hayes, Kingsley, Libby. McCarthy, McDonald, Moorhouse, Nelson, Peairs, Polsley, Roberts, Simpson, Slater, Smith, Strine, Stuckenbruck, Tulloch, Weisel, Weldon, Woodley, Wyllie, Young-37.

had taken action. Both Houses were obliged to decide for or against those bills as fast as rolls could be called, or adjourn with the session's work unfinished.

The first course was followed. Hundreds of bills were rushed through, the constitutional requirements for their passage being barely observed. In the Senate, for example, on the afternoon of May 6, seventy-one bills were passed in seventy minutes.117 Records as suggestive of the breaking down of the "checks and balances" of a two-house Legislature were made in the Assembly. The attaches in both houses were, during

117 A number of the measures contained urgency clauses, which necessitated two roll-calls for their passage. To pass those seventy-one bills 105 roll-calls were required.

Seventy-one bills in seventy minutes, is a trifle more than a bill a minute. One hundred and five roll-calls in seventy minutes is a roll-call every 40 seconds or every two-thirds of a minute.

The Senate consists of forty members. The name of each Senator must be called on each roll-call. One hundred and five roll-calls, therefore, necessitated the pronunciation of 4,200 names -all in one hour and ten minutes.

In every

In one hour and ten minutes there are 4,200 seconds. one of those 4,200 seconds a name had to be called to complete the 105 roll-calls. To appreciate what this means the reader might set himself to calling sixty names in sixty seconds, and speculate on what it means to keep up the rate for 4,200 seconds. But in those seventy minutes of 105 roll-calls and the passage of seventy-one bills more was required than the calling of rolls. Each bill, under the Constitutional requirement, had to be "read.' This wise provision of the Constitution is intended to prevent unseemly haste on the part of the Legislature when engaged in enacting laws.

The 4,200 names had to be called, because the journal must show how each Senator voted.

The matter of the "reading" is merely recorded in the journal by the more or less truthful statement that the bill was "read the third time."

The reading of seventy-one bills in seventy minutes, especially when the name of a Senator had to be pronounced every second during those seventy minutes, is a task in itself.

But another formality is required. After the passage of each bill its title must be read and approved.

The reading of the titles of seventy-one bills in seventy minutes will tax the average man. But when in addition a bill must be "read" every minute during the time in which the titles are read, while in addition the name of a Senator must be pronounced for every second of that time, the reader can form some idea of the feat accomplished by the 1913 Senate in its record-breaking accomplishment of May 6, when that deliberative body passed seventy-one bills in seventy minutes.

the last days of the session, held at their desks for fifty, sixty and even seventy hours at a time. Secretary Walter Parrish of the Senate kept at his work for seventy-eight consecutive hours, taking time only for light lunches and cups of coffee which he had assistants bring to his desk. It was only by such constant application during the last hours of the session that bills could be kept going through their proper channels.

Chief Clerk Mallory of the Assembly had much the same experience as Secretary Parrish. The clerks under Parrish and Mallory were subjected to the same grueling grind. In the important Enrolling and Engrossing Committees, where bills are finally read and compared to detect errors, clerks were found asleep at their desks. On the last legislative day J. O. Hestwood, Enrolling and Engrossing Clerk of the Assembly, reported upon 377 bills. Not only did the measures have to be read and compared by Hestwood or his assistants, but the signatures of the Speaker of the Assembly, the President of the Senate, the Clerk of the Assembly, the Secretary of the Senate, and the Private Secretary to the Governor had to be secured to six copies of each bill, before Hestwood could file his final report with the Assembly. On the Senate side Frank J. Walter, Enrolling and Engrossing Clerk of that body, had practically the same work to do. But Hestwood's task shows the situation. Before either House could adjourn its Enrolling and Engrossing Clerk had to make his final report, which he could not make until his work was done.

The six copies each of the 377 bills which Hest

wood handled on that last legislative day, made 2262 copies. Five signatures on each of the 2262 copies meant 11,310 signatures from men harassed to the breaking point with multitudinous duties of their own. Speaker and President were presiding over bodies of worn-out, nerve-wracked men; Clerk and Secretary were held to their desk with their regular routine. The Secretary to the Governor was as occupied. And yet, the Assembly Enrolling and Engrossing Clerk had to force, in one way or another, 2262 signatures from each of these men. The Senate Clerk, it must be remembered, had practically the same demand upon them.

But before the bills could be signed by these officials, six copies of them, after their passage, had to be printed. In those last hours, literally hundreds of bills were sent to the printer for reprinting. In the printing office the grind of the Enrolling and Engrossing room was repeated.

As for the members of Senate and Assembly, the amount of work completed by individual members during the last days of the session was almost unbelievable. The day's work of Assemblyman W. F. Chandler of Fresno was typical, and shows that of many other members.

Chandler was chairman of the important Ways and Means Committee. But Chandler was also a member of the Special Committee named to investigate the affairs of the Secretary of State's office.

The investigating committee began its labors every afternoon at 4 o'clock. At 6, an hour was taken for

supper. The Committee reconvened at about 7, and continued in session until after 10 o'clock; sometimes until after midnight. The Assembly was in session from 9:30 a. m. until 4 p. m. Chandler was expected to keep in touch with the Assembly work.

When did he get time for his duties as Chairman of the important Committee on Ways and Means?

He had his breakfast at 6:30 a. m. He was at his Ways and Means Committee work before 8. The Committee did what it could before the Assembly convened. After the Assembly was in session, the Committee limped along as best it could for an hour or so. In addition to Ways and Means Committee work, and Secretary of State Investigating Committee work, Chandler had to keep in touch with the provisions of a dozen big measures-"Blue Sky," "Conservation," "Workmen's Compensation," and what not.

And Chandler's case was but example of the position in which every Progressive member of this Legislature found himself.

But the lobby found no such demand upon it. To begin with, the lobby was absolutely irresponsible. All that it had to do was to work confusion. That did not take much time. An anarchist, by the trifling exertion of touching the lighted end of his cigar to a fuse, can wreck the results of the labor of years.

The lobbyist, by inveigling a legislator to insert a two-line amendment into a measure, could defeat the conscientious effort of weeks of committee work.

So, in the contest of lobby vs. Legislature, the lobby had all the better of it.

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