HEPPNER GAZETTE TIMES, HEPPNER, OREGON, THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 1935.
PAGE FIVE
Life of a
Legislator
By CLINTON P. HAIGHT,
Editor, Blue Mountain Eagle, Can
yon City. Representative, Grant
and Harney Counties.
Pout Mortem on Legislature
Canyon City, Oregon. After we
play a hand at pinochle or bridge,
we hold a post mortem, and then
play the hand over again. We argue
the rules of the game and still no
one is convinced, and so, we play
another hand, and then, go into a
bigger and better argument than
ever. It is from the post mortems
that we hold over the hands, from
which we learn the technique and
the rules of the game.
For the past 60 days we have been
playing the game of law-making;
the cards have all been dealt, the
hands have been played, and now
it is time for the post mortem. We
have the corpse of the legislature
before us. What did it die of?
What was the malady? Why are
legislatures what they are and will
they ever be better or worse and
why does the man down on the
street say that the legislature is all
the bunk? We are told that the leg
islature does not do anything, and
in the same breath, condemn it for
doing too much.
We sat in a swivel chair, in the
front row of the house of represen
tatives at Salem for the past 60
days and watched the parade of
1000 bills and laws go by, and that
will make a big book for nobody to
read and on an infinite variety of
subjects of no particular conse
quence Just laws, blundering con
fusion, correcting, amending, re
pealing, struggling with the imper
fections of government and trying
to correct the Inherent faults, evils,
errors and general cussedness of
man, who is the integral part of the
composite whole, which we call gov
ernment. Government is an evil,
reflecting all of the errors of us all.
Perfect men would need no govern
ment and no laws. They would need
no legislature; no regulation, no
courts, no police and no administra
tive direction.
But ah, there is the rub.
Men are not perfect; they must
be restrained and therefore we have
legislative bodies to blunder and
stumble along with the rest of blun
dering humanity, and so we would
say that the chief value of a legis
lature lies in its faults. A perfect
legislature to regulate Imperfect
man would be a failure, for after
all, it is only imperfect men who
are capable of regulating imperfect
men, and so let us repeat that the
prime value of a legislature lies in
its faults. It is men, humanity,
democracy, America.
If you believe in democracy you
will believe in the legislative branch
of democracy, which functions just
as well as tho judicial branch of a
democracy and better than the ad
ministrative or executive depart
ments. The house of representatives at
Salem, composed of 60 members,
was a cross section of the men and
women who are In the last analysis
America. They came direct from
the busy marts of men. They bring
into legislative halls your ideas,
your notions, your likes and dis
likes, your prejudices, your inter
ests and they mix them all up with
selfish interests, false reasoning,
good intentions, parliamentary
trickery, cunning lobbies with the
commercial clubs and all of the or
ganizations and varied Interests
back home, wiring, writing, phoning
and sending delegations down,
pleading, demanding, threatening,
promising, scheming, jobbing, plan
ning and that Is America, Democ
racy, legislatures. The legislature
of Oregon is no better and no worse
than you are for it Is you.
Out of the' 60 members in the
house some 45 were never in a leg
islature before. They did not know
whether Roberts' Rules of Order
was a song or something to eat
They were fresh from the people;
right from the soil Democracy.
They stumbled and blundered along
just like a good legislator snouia
do, guided by the notions of the
people back home, reflecting the
farm, the field, the office and the
shop. The house of representatives
should be kept close to the people,
and elected every two years, and It
is our opinion that more than half
of the membership should be new
or raw hands each session. Don't
let them stay too long or long
enough to become sophisticated and
so smart that they become adept at
parliamentary trickery and legisla
te legerdemain, and with too long
a service, the tendency is to lose the
common touch. Keep them fresh
from the soil and they will reflect
Democracy, with all of Its errors,
evils and blundering and vain efforts
to restrain the strong and protect
the weak. If legislatures are a fail
ure it is because men are a failure
and If men are a failure, then De
mocracy is futile, and what you
need is a Dictator a Hitler, a Mus
solini, a master or an overlord.
But we love humanity; we believe
in men and in him is our faith, and
upon this faith we base democracy
with its blundering, struggling,
striving legislative bodies, whose
life Impulse is to restrain the strong
and protect the weak. Don't take
your legislative bodies too lightly
for when you accept them as an evil
or a joke, you are indicting your
selves, and you are confessing that
you are incapable of self-government
and that you are by nature, a
slave, seeking some master, whom
you would adorn with a jeweled
crown the symbol of severeighnty.
You are king and the legislature is
your fingers and toes.
In this post mortem we shall not
attempt to analyze any of the 1000
bills that passed into legislative re
view. But we will show you how
royalty still aspires and how the
fundamentals of a democracy are
in constant danger from sinister,
cunning and designing influences
that lie dormant, slumbering in the
legend of petit princes and bejew
eled grand dames ever eager to as
cend the dais of a royal throne. In
this session there was an attempt
to place qualifications upon the
voter. Make property rights a
qualification. That strikes at de
mocracy. The jury system was at
tacked, free press, free speech, elec
tions, circulating petitions, the right
to organize, the use of the police,
which In a degree is part of the mil
itary branch of the government, so
closely and so carefully guarded in
our constitution. Don't be alarmed.
These attacks were of minor con
sequence, but enough to emphasize
the fact that you and your legisla
tors, must guard by day, and in the
vigil of the night be ever supersen
sitive at the slightest infringement
of any of these God-given rights,
that are vouchsafed to men in our
bill of rights, our constitution, the
framework of democracy, which is
you, represented at Salem, in your
legislature.
In the last few years there has
been a new problem that legislators
have had to face. That is group in
terests. And this was most mani
fest at Salem. It predominated the
session. Group legislation. Men
group themselves for their demands
and seek to do collectively what
they can not do individually. A few
years back the legislature would en
act a law. They now enact a code,
and that is wholesaling legislation
mass production of laws. In the
administration of a code, there may
be 500 regulations, and each of these
regulations have the force and ef
fect of a law. With the adoption of
about 50 state codes and the NRA,
by the house, there were approxi
mately 600 codes approved, and if
they only averaged 200 regulations
each, that would amount to 120,000
laws, or regulations wholesaled,
which leads us to the statement
that this country is overorganized
and no one is more appreciative of
this fact than legislators who were
besieged with groups throughout
the session. There was the fish men,
the milk men, booze men, the egg
men, the plumbers, doctors, cosmet
icians, barbers, lawyers, electricians,
hop men, bankers, railroaders, the
old, the young, and say, we shall
never forget the night that 400 or
500 cosmeticians, beauty doctors,
stormed the capitol. How would
you like to go against 500 beauty
doctors, the sweet lassies, who de
manded their code in a public hear
ing before a committee? Would
U. 0. Again Selected As Carnegie Art Center
For the tlxth consecutive year
the University of Oregon tchool
of art has been designated as the
Western center for teaching of
rt appreciation, by the Carnegie
Corporation of New York. Art
Teachert, eelected from the west
ern atates, are given a. aummer
of Initructlon with all expenses
paid by the corporation. Harvard
; aervea aa the Eaitern center.
Above view of the University art
building. Right Ellis F. Lawrence,
dean of the achool of art and
architecture.
11
f S3T I
you have the heart to resist them?
And nearly every night there were
public hearings In nearly every
room of the capitol, and by the hun
dreds, they would come, urging their
demands through lawyers and or
ganizers and men and women, hu
manity, stumbling, blundering,
seeking, striving, urging their group
thought upon legislative commit
tees; the members, tired, worn,
staggering through a day that would
start at 8 o'clock a. m. and maybe
end at midnight All milling around
and about, arguing, talking, and
that is democracy; with its faults,
which are its virtues, and which
make America, where the sover
eignty, or the right to rule, was
taken from the self-annointed few,
and with the ballot placed in the
hands of 126 million people who
elect legislators to stumble and
blunder along with them, and as
the symbol of the sovereignty, we
chose the red, white and blue, the
stars and stripes, which mean that
men shall rule and rule through
themselves, in legislative sessions,
and In the Congress of the United
States assembled.
But groups are selfish. They make
a strong lobby. They hit you hard.
They are hard to resist and they
never quit And the folks back
home lobby their legislator, they
wire him, they write him, they
phone him to put over this, or stop
that one group against the other
group, the people, democracy, Am
erica. When the legislature meets
all of Oregon is a lobby. Letters
pour in by the thousands, and when
some large group-measure is up for
passage, the telegrams will come In
from the four corners of the state,
and maybe just as many telegrams
on one side as there are on the oth
er. And the committee has to grind
it out and amend to suit this group,
to alter in order to satisfy another
group, and then after the bill runs
the parliamentary gauntlet, it Anal
ly reaches the floor of the house,
where it is a target for every other
group and there it is amended some
more, and then is sent to the senate
where it goes through the same
course of public hearings, commit
tees, and then out into the senate
and amended again, and sent back
to the house, and maybe amended
again, and in the last act just be
fore the curtain goes down, it
reaches the governor and if he feels
a little grouchy, he vetoes it, and
pack it comes into the house and
(hen another battle, and they pass
it over his head or it goes to the
graveyard and sleeps for two years,
and then gets up out of its grave
and comes walking into the next
legislative session, backed by a big
ger and better group. That is de
mocracy, that is you; that is your
legislature.
When we think of the lobby, we
think of the boys who infest the
legislative halls lots of them and
yet not so many, compared with
the folks back home; for remem
ber, when the Oregon legislature
meets, all of Oregon is a lobby. If
a member lacks the courage, lacks
the Intelligence, lacks the tact, lacks
the ability to withstand this state
wide lobby, he has no place in legis
lative halls. One must do his own
thinking and be able to value and
interpret the demands, the inter
ests, the ways, the means and the
methods of the lobby which ilneets
one in the halls of the state capitol
and extends out into the country
side and to the commercial clubs
at home, and to the farmers, the
soldiers, the rich, the poor man,
beggar and Indian chief, for each
and all, are a group and that group
wants to whisper in the legislator's
ear. And we say that the legisla
ture does not do anything, or that
it does too much, and it ought to go
.home, and mind its own business,
but bless your heart, it has no bus
iness of its own, and the 1000 bills
.that pass in parade came from the
people with the hundreds of groups
demanding that they do pass.
But we would not change it. Let
us blunder along, just like human
beings, correcting today the errors
of yesterday. That is what a de
mocracy does and it does it through
,its legislature.
I am that coyote fellow. I am that
fellow who wanted to go back to
Grant county the first day of the
session. Back where I could hear
the coyote howl. And now, after 60
days listening to the arguments
and demands of groups of overor
ganized America, I am returning to
my home in Canyon City, Grant
county, to hear my constituency
howl.
. I enjoyed serving the legislature.
I enjoyed it, because I love human
ity; men, democracy, America, and
long may it blunder along, striving,
struggling, seeking to restrain the
strong and protect the weak, and
over the imperfections of all may
the stars and stripes be the emblem
of hope for that more perfect day
when men will need no law and leg
islatures will be no more, and until
then, let us, your legislators, with
their constituency, all howl like the
coyote whose home is on the broad
fields of freedom that stretch out
Into the vast empire of Eastern Or
egon. Enterprise Probably the largest
herd of cattle so far found free of
Bang's disease by government test
ers in Oregon is that owned by W.
E. Chapman of Wallowa county.
Although Mr. Chapman's 430 head
of registered Herefords had never
been tested for this disease before,
the laboratory reports returned to
the office of County Agent Garnet
Best showed not a single reactor
for this herd.
Home Extension Program
Help to Oregon Women
Oregon women, always interest
ed in making their homes more
comfortable and attractive, and in
having their families better fed,
clothed and cared for, are coming
more and more to rely on the home
economics staff of the Oregon Ex
tension service for information and
assistance in making these things
possible.
A total of 30,367 homemakers
were given assistance during the
past year through individual letters,
office calls, telephone calls or per
sonal home visits, while thousands
more have been reached through
circular letters, news articles, bul
letins, radio programs, meetings
and other contacts, the annual re
port filed by Miss Claribel Nye,
state leader of home economics ex
tension, shows.
' An increasing desire on the part
of women throughout the state to
help extend the home economics ex
tension program by acting as local
leaders for definite projects in their
communities is also reported by
Miss Nye. In addition to increas
ing the effectiveness of the work in
those counties having home dem
onstration agents, it has been possi
ble this year for the first time to
provide one or more projects for
every county in the state, largely
through the voluntary cooperation
of these local leaders, Miss Nye
says.
Among the projects available dur
ing the year have been child care
and parent education, home food
preservation, meal planning and ta
ble service, vegetable cookery, low
cost meals, use of eggs, milk and
cheese products, bread making, rec
reational leadership training, reno
vating and remodelling, economy
buying, economy dressmaking, gar-
ment finishing, care and use of sow
ing machines, coat making and
home crafts. An unusually large
number of requests for help with
housing problems were also han
dled. In addition, the report shows that
homemakers' vacation campa were
conducted in eight counties with 291
women attending; county - wide
homemakers' conferences were held
in 14 counties without home demon
stration agents; 1900 women from
116 communities participated In the
annual program planning days in
the six counties having agents; and
329 homemakers attended the an
nual Home Interests conference at
the state college.
State and county extension work
ers also directed the county relief
canning projects in which 636,565
cans were filled, conducted the rural
housing survey of 5473 farm homes
in six counties, and assisted in oth
er emergency relief projects.
C7.1B WORK RATED HIGHLY.
Lane county, second highest scor
ing county in the United States and
first in the 11 western states in the
recent National 4-H County Prog
ress contest, ranked but a fraction
of a point lower than St Louis
county, Minn., winner of the na
tional award, H. C. Seymour, state
club leader, reports.
As winner in the western division,
Lane county 4-H clubs will receive
$1000 in cash. The national award
was a $10,000 4-H club building.
Mr. Seymour was one of four state
club leaders who, with a represen
tative of the national 4-H club de
partment, made up the national
committee of judges for scoring the
contest entries. He expressed a
great deal of pride in the develop
ment of 4-H club work in Lane
county, as shown by the report pre
pared by R. C. Kuehner, county
club agent
Pioneer Service Company Is Not a Collection Agency
OOD CR
is a
o
to'
IF you abuse it, you lose something you may never recover
The Pioneer Service Company! Inc., operates County Credit Boards in every County in Oregon and 22
other states. . No honest man need fear our organization.
We are at war against the wilfully delinquent debtor -the man who asks for credit and never intends to pay.
GUARD YOUR GOOD NAME
Do not allow your name to appear on the delinquent lists we issue regularly for the benefit and protection
of our members. You can avoid this unpleasant publicity by paying promptly when notified on a letter
bearing our registered trademark.
We trail delinquent debtors from county to county and from state to state. We never quit until the account
is paid or is advertised and sold to the highest bidder.
WE ARE NOT OPERATING A COLLECTION AGENCY - DEBTORS MUST PAY THEIR
ACCOUNTS DIRECT TO THEIR CREDITORS
Watch for the green and black hand bills with accounts for sale. , .
PIONEER SERVICE COMPANY, Inc.
State Office Eugene, Ore.
National Office Hastings, Nebraska
J