CALIFORNIA. 



tion of a resolution to proceed to the election 

 of officers for the session, by a vote of 19 to 

 14. The House assembled at the same time, 

 and the Speaker chosen at the previous session 

 took the chair. A point of order was raised, 

 that the House was not organized. The Chair 

 held the House to be regularly organized by its 

 officers all being in place as elected at the open- 

 ing of the regular session. A motion was made 

 to notify the Senate of the organization of the 

 House. A substitute was offered to this mo- 

 tion, that the House proceed to organize by 

 electing certain officers. On a point of order 

 raised, the Chair ruled the motion by way of 

 substitute out of order. The House, if not or- 

 ganized, can not entertain the motion under 

 the prevailing organization. If the House had 

 desired to organize over, it could have done so 

 at twelve o'clock, and, if it should have done so 

 then, the Speaker is a usurper. However, by 

 consent, debate would be heard on the resolu- 

 tion. The following proceedings then took 

 place : 



Mr. Kellogg argued that the officers do not hold 

 over ; that an extra session, so far as officers are con- 

 cerned, is a new Legislature, as they are elected not 

 for a legislative term, but for the session. 



Mr. May held that the officers hold over ? and 

 thought there could be no doubt of it. This is the 

 twenty-fourth, not the twenty-firth Legislature. There 

 is no precedent that the officers lose place by ad- 

 journment sine die, except at the end of the term. 

 The Senate re-elected this year, but it was a new 

 Senate, although composed of the same men as in the 

 twenty-third Senate. 



Mr. Freer held to the same views, and said the ad- 

 journment sine die was adjournment without day, but 

 that did not cut off the terms when a day is given for 

 reassembling. He read from Cushing's " Elements " 

 in support, and additional sections, showing that the 

 clerks hold (until removed by resolution) for the en- 

 tire term for which the Legislature is elected. He 

 opposed reorganization because it would cause delay 

 and be revolutionary in character. 



Mr. Griffiths favored reorganization. He cited the 

 journal of the House of Louisiana. March, 1878, then 

 convened in extra session, where the officials were re- 

 tained by resolution regularly passed. Also journal 

 of the Iowa House, Januarv, 1862, in extra session, 

 where, by resolution, the old officers, so far as deemed 

 necessary, were reappointed. Also journal of the 

 Senate of Illinois, 1867, in extra session, when by 

 resolution certain officers were chosen. Also journal 

 of the House of Indiana, 1872, extra session, when the 

 House entered into a new election. He said if any 

 doubt was left as to the matter, it might involve the 

 laws passed, and so a reorganization had better be had. 

 There might also be officers who can be dispensed with. 



^Mr. Young had at first thought adjournment sine 

 die dissolved the organization, but on examining the 

 law he had come to the settled conviction that he had 

 been in error. Adjournment is a term somewhat con- 

 fused in some minds ; adjournment is not prorogation, 

 not dissolution. The members-elect constitute the 

 Legislature, even when not in session, and hence the 

 power given in the Constitution to call the Legislature 

 together after adjournment, thus recognizing the ex- 

 istence of the body, though not in session, lie cited 

 Cushing's " Law and Practice," section 196, in sup- 

 port. 



The motion by way of a substitute was lost, 

 yeas 17, nays 47 ; and the original motion to 

 notify the Senate of the organization of the 

 House was adopted, yeas 36, nays 28. 



This extra session continued until May 14th. 

 The bill for the apportionment of the State into 

 election districts failed to pass. Many efforts 

 were made to legislate on subjects not embraced 

 in the proclamation of the Governor calling the 

 session. The time of the Legislature was thus 

 unnecessarily occupied, and some important 

 measures failed to pass. 



The report of the Railroad Commissioners 

 was a clear statement of the difficulties encoun- 

 tered by them, and of the conclusions forced 

 upon them by the study of the transportation 

 question. They discovered, before they had 

 been at work long, that it was impossible to 

 regulate freights and fares in an arbitrary and 

 sweeping way without producing far greater 

 evils than any heretofore alleged to exist. 

 They found also that to regulate transporta- 

 tion charges on any other principles than those 

 which were already in operation, would neces- 

 sitate an entire reorganization of the whole 

 business, and would demand a knowledge and 

 a capacity such as that business has never de- 

 veloped yet in any country, notwithstanding 

 its employment of the most acute intelligences. 

 There were but two methods of procedure 

 open to them. They might pander to the un- 

 reasoning demand for a sweeping reduction of 

 charges, with the certainty that in so doing 

 they must injure the public quite as much as 

 the railroads ; or they might follow out the 

 principles already established, and endeavor, 

 through them, to reach results which would 

 benefit the public without injuring the corpo- 

 rations. They have chosen the second of these 

 courses. 



They point out, in vindication of their de- 

 cision, that no commission appointed for sim- 

 ilar purposes has ever yet been able to arrive 

 at any other general conclusion ; that every 

 attempt to deal violently with the problem, 

 and to adjust it by sheer force, has failed 

 disastrously; that every such failure has in- 

 volved serious injury to the public interests; 

 and that the unavoidable deduction from all 

 existing experience in this direction is, that 

 equitable and reasonable methods are the only 

 ones which can produce beneficial results. The 

 commissioners dwell upon the importance of 

 understanding the principle of the maximum 

 in transportation. They quote the maxim that 

 high maximum means low minimum; they 

 show that this is the secret of successful trans- 

 portation ; that, in fact, it is only possible to 

 provide for the carriage of low-priced staples 

 at minimum rates by fixing the rates on high- 

 class merchandise correspondingly high. 



The report of the Assembly Committee of 

 the Legislature on Prisons is more of a gener- 

 al survey of the most important conclusions 

 reached by experiment in all parts of the 

 country, than a presentation of the features of 

 the system in California. It shows that the 

 question of the disposition and treatment of 

 convicts is undergoing more and more radical 

 changes, and that the old views and ways are 



