92 State Legislation 



well-meaning, weak young fellows of some shallow 

 brightness, who expect to make names for them- 

 selves; perhaps they are young lawyers, or real- 

 estate brokers, or small shopkeepers; they achieve 

 but little success; they gradually become conscious 

 that their business is broken up, and that they have 

 not enough ability to warrant any expectation of 

 their continuing in public life; some great tempta- 

 tion comes in their way (a corporation which es- 

 pects to be relieved of perhaps a million dollars 

 of taxes by the passage of a bill can afford to pay 

 'high for voters) ; they fall, and that is the end of 

 them. Indeed, legislative life has temptations enough 

 to make it unadvisable for any weak man, whether 

 young or old, to enter it. 



ALLIES OF VICIOUS LEGISLATORS 

 THE array of vicious legislators is swelled by 

 a number of men who really at bottom are not 

 bad. Foremost among these are those most hope- 

 less of beings who are handicapped by having 

 some measure which they consider it absolutely 

 necessary for the sake of their own future to "get 

 through." One of these men will have a bill, for 

 instance, appropriating a sum of money from the 

 State Treasury to clear out a river, dam the out- 

 let of a lake, or drain a marsh ; it may be, although 

 not usually so, proper enough" in itself, but it is 

 drawn up primarily in the interest of a certain 

 set of his constituents who have given him clearly 

 to understand that his continuance in their good 



