6 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 
LENGTH OF SESSIONS AND NUMBER OF ACTS IN 1gor 
States Length in Days ae oe bP re se 
Alabama s i. sictsctete nts et lche 113 1,132 
Connechicube sees ctente er 160 750 
KANSAS) cot eereeereie ee nee 61 425 
Maines. tse c/a ta son le 80 574 
Massachusetts........... 169 652 
Michigan ial. wiccyectaie cs 156 517 
Wiintesptaliersetelee cients s 95 407 
INorth?@arolinay 3...%..,.. « 86 1,265 
Pennsybvanidirncs <i <1 5) +1 178 582 
BRENIMIESSEE LI sicilets xis) eee ei 79 630 
IW ISCONSEN ostersetesi a ota c.5 Ns 126 482 
The above table shows clearly the enormous amount of work required 
of the legislator. In Alabama, the average output was ten laws a day, 
and in North Carolina, almost fifteen. To vote intelligently on so many 
diverse measures in so short a time, even the wisest man would require 
unusual assistance. 
The average legislator is not a person who has been a special student 
of the science of legislation. He has been devoting his energies to his 
business or profession, and because of his ability and good judgment and 
also perhaps because of his public spirit, tact, personal address and 
straightforward dealing, is elected and sent to the legislature and intrusted 
with the responsibility of making laws for his state. He is supposed to do 
a great amount of work. He is appointed to many committees, and if 
he attends the meetings of each of his committees and attends the ses- 
sions of the legislature, he has no time to do anything else. In the New 
York legislature, nearly two thousand bills are introduced in each session 
of the senate and about thirty-six hundred in the assembly. The legis- 
lator is obliged if a conscientious man—and no other should be sent to 
the legislature—to form an opinion as to the merits of a large number of 
these bills. He needs accurate information on the various matters treated 
of in these proposed laws and he needs this information quickly. Failure 
to get it delays law-making and there is already too much delay in this 
work—at least this seems to be the opinion of the voters. 
Lack of experience increases the handicap under which the modern 
legislator suffers. He is usually unfamiliar with parliamentary procedure 
