I2 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 
Corrupt Practices at Elections. Contributions and Expenditures 
Exemption of wages ° 
Municipal Electric Lighting 
Trust Company Reserves 
Taxation of Trust Companies 
These are comparative legislation bulletins and contain references 
to the literature, definitions, a history and digest of the legislation on 
the subject and compilations of the laws of the various states, with judi- 
cial decisions. 
In the establishment of such a department in other states, it will not 
be necessary to duplicate all the work that has been done in New York 
or Wisconsin. Much of the work of the Sociology Librarian in these 
states has been published and comparatively small expense would be 
incurred in arranging a consolidated index of all the laws passed in any 
state since 1890. This index could easily be prepared from the annual 
bulletins issued by the State Library at Albany. The business of such a 
librarian would be to make this information accessible to the members 
of the legislature. He should keep track of the new legislation and keep 
on file the session laws of the various states. No small part of his energies 
will be required to collect these laws. The states are painfully slow in 
printing their session laws and still more painfully slow in their distribu- 
tion. The legislative reference librarian should also collect assiduously 
all the pamphlets and other material which he can get track of on the 
various subjects concerning which there is likely to be legislation in the 
near future. A classified collection of material of this sort is of inestim- 
able value to the legislator. 
There might also be combined with the duties of Sociology Librarian 
the work of drafting bills. This is such an important function that some 
provision should be made to insure that the bills be properly drafted 
before they are introduced into the legislature. It is unsafe and very 
expensive to leave the drafting of bills to the individual members. Con- 
fused, verbose, and unconstitutional legislation is very apt to result, and 
this entails needless labor on the courts, and delays the progress of 
needed reforms. In Connecticut, New York and South Carolina there 
are bill-drafting commissions. There is a supervisor of bills in New 
Jersey,’ and a legislative reference librarian in Wisconsin. 
t REINSCH, OP. cit., p. 328. 
