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PAGE TWO
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 1937
rl IrLYI I .± I YY _. 11
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
OffilJal Publication of the Summer Session
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How Nebraska's Experimental
Legislature Conducted Itself
By CURTIS A. BETTS
(From The St. Louis Post - Dispatch)
w
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NIGHT EDITOR: HORACE W. GILMORE
Life For
Popular Front ...
HE FINANCIAL CRISIS which
has just come to a head in France
and which seemed to momentarily imperil the
structure of the Popular Front appears to be on
the way toward settlement following parliamen-
tary approval of the plans of M. Bonnet, new
finance minister. The question of how far the
general policy of the Front will be affected by
the change in cabinets is, however, not yet en-
tirely apparent.
The government of Leon Blum, leader of the
Socialist party, largest group in the Chamber
of Deputies, which was forced from power after
more than a year's existence on the question of
enlarged fiscal powers to deal with the monetary
situation, was the first liberal government France
has enjoyed since the fall of the cabinet of
Edouard Herriot in 1932 on the question of the
payment of the war debts. Its record, in domes-
tic affairs at least, has been outstanding; its
achievements in the improvement of the condi-
tions of labor class in particular have been re-
markable.Nonetheless, a slight but steady move-
ment toward the -right has been discernible in
its general trend, due apparently to the increas-
ing realization on the part of the Radical So-
cialists, right wing of the Popular Front, of their
key position in the government. The shift in
premiers from Blum to the somewhat more con-
servative Radical Socialist Camille Chautemps
appears to be merely a further evidence of this
tendency. Blum was refused in the Senate the
same powers which Chautemps and Bonnet have
just succeeded in winning from the parliament.
The most important result of the cabinet
change from the world viewpoint will probably
be the continuation of the cautious foreign policy
which has been the main weakness of the Pop-
ular Front government in the eyes of most lib-
eral critics. The symbol of the continuation is
the re-appointment of Yvonne Delbos to the
post of foreign minister. Delbos has been the
object of repeated criticism from the left wing
of the government's adherents, especially the
Communists, who have long agitated for his
dismissal because of his handling of the Spanish
neutrality situation. His timidness, it is charged,
has resulted in the flagrant violation of the non-
intervention pact by the fascist nations who have
constantly supplied Gen. Franco with men and
munitions while France has remained helplessly
paralyzed in spite of her sympathy with the
Loyalist cause largely because of Delbos' insist-
ence upon close cooperation with the Tory gov-
ernment of Great Britain.
English policy has fluctuated pointlessly be-
tween negotiations for enforcement of neutrality
and tacit permission to Germany and Italy to
continue their activities in behalf of the rebel
cause. The true policy of France in this situa-
tion, it is claimed, should be an insistence upon
the strict enforcement of the pact, in which
the support of the League of Nations could be
gained, rather than a helpless drifting in the
wake of conservative and unreliable England.
The Chautemps appointment, while maintain-
ing the life of the Popular Front, thus appears to
have destroyed any hope for improvement in the
unsatisfactory neutrality situation.
DRAMA
By WENDELL COLE
The Michigan Reportory Players present:
The Path of Flowers; a new farce on the mar-
riage code in the U.S.S.R., by Valentine Katayev,
(Continued From This Column In Yesterday's
Michigan Daily)
The first political test which came before the
new Legislature was in the selection of a speaker.
The Democrats had a majority of one, and yet
the Legislature elected a Republican to the
Speakership, choosing Charles J. Warren of Wa-
verly. Warren received 23 votes, two more than
the total number of Republicans. He actually re-
ceived three Democratic votes, losing one Re-
publican, who joined with the 19 other Demo-
crats who divided their votes between three Dem-
ocratic candidates.
Without compass to chart the way, the new
Legislature was two weeks in adopting rules and
selecting committees, thus delaying the actual
legislative work, but that was less time than
the Missouri Legislature took in getting into
action.
When the rules were adopted, however, they
showed they had been carefully prepared with a
view to expediting business rathr than to aid in
delaying business, as do the rules of the Missouri
Legislature. They were designed to insure a
public hearing on every bill, prompt action, and
safeguards which would prevent the passage of
unconstitutional, conflicting or ambiguous legis-
lation. The utmost in publicity of all the actions
of the individual legislators was provided.
Instead of delegating the selection of standing
committees to the Speaker, the Legislature creat-
ed a Committee on Committees, consisting of 11
members, two from each of the five Congressional
districts, and one at large to be chairman. The
members of this committee were chosen by the
legislators residing in the several districts.
In selecting the members by Congressional dis-
tricts, the Legislature merely used that as a
convenient means of creating a committee of
11 members, which is the largest number which
may be on any committee under the rules.
New Pan Of Apportionment
In Missouri the president pro tem of the Sen-
ate and the Speaker of the House make the
committee assignments, and are subject to high
pressure from lobbyists who know the value of
controlling committees, and by members who
seek the opportunity to trade their votes on the
election of a president pro tem and Speaker for
promises of desirable committee assignments.
In arriving at a total membership of 43, the
Nebraska Legislature of 1936 inaugurated a plan
of legislative apportionment new to the United
States. It abandoned the heretofore universal
practice of making population the sole determin-
ing rule.
The eastern one-third of Nebraska contains
the larger part of the population of the State,
being more closely settled and having the larger
cities of Omaha and Lincoln. The western two-
thirds is sparsely settled, but for a number of
years there has been a westward trend to the
population. Under the constitutional amend-
ment the new Legislature could not contain more
than 50 members nor less than 30. It was found
by Dr. Senning in a careful analysis that taking
into consideration population of districts, com-
munity of interest between the counties, means
of communication and common economic inter-
ests, with 50 members from 50 districts the east'
ern one-third of the State would have 18 more
legislators than the western two-thirds, and that
as the number of districts was decreased this ex-
cess of representation for the eastern part of
the state diminished until the excess was.only 13
when the figure of 43 districts was reached, but
that as the number went lower than that the
excess for the eastern part of the state gradually
increased. It was decided, therefore, that, tak-
ing into consideration all of the factors of pop-
ulation, trend of population, ease of communica-
tion and common economic interests, 43 was the
equitable number of districts, each to be rep-
resented by one legislator.
An important feature of the rules adopted by
the new Legislature was a requirement that when
a committee reported a' bill back to the Leg-
islature it must submit with the bill an analysis
of its provisions and a written statement of the
committee's reasons for its recommendations on
the bill. In the Missouri Legislature no member
except those on a committee has any means of
knowing the motives which actuated a commit-
tee's action.
The secret, or "executive session," committee
meeting, common to bicameral legislatures, in
which most of the skullduggery of legislation is
perpetrated, was abolished. Provision was made
for a record vote in the committee when passing
on bills, and newspaper reporters, barred from
sohn Theatre last night. The mad antics of
Charles Harrell as the lover and Edward Jurist,
the prudent husband, as they haggle over the
fur coat of the eloping wife, Virginia Frink, con-
vulsed the first night audience.
Katayev is known chiefly for his ability to sa-
tirize Soviet manners and customs without in-
curring the wrath of the Communist leaders. The
Path of Flowers, unlike last season's successful
farce by the same author, is much of the time
domestic comedy in a serio-comic vein. This does
not mean, however, that there are not many
farcical moments and much laugh-provoking
dialogue. As Ivan Zavyalov, the young lecturer
with a handsome profile and Utopian ideas of
love that make him the Don Juan of Moscow,
acquires a new soul mate in each of the acts,
the audience is introduced to their three respec-
tive families in a series of humorous portraits
of Communist and proletarian types.
Charles Harrell in the exacting and unsympa-
thetic role of Zavyalov often finds himself plav-
executive sessions of committees in the Missouri
Legislature, were admitted and were free to pub-
lish the details of discussion on bills, the votes
of members and anything that transpired in the
committee meeting.
Under that system, there could be no star-
chamber trading. A member had to act in the
open and his constituents had ample means to
know at any time just how he was performing.
Under the discredited bicameral system, as
followed in Missouri and most of the other
states having it, there is no constructive effort
to have legislation in good shape when it is
passed. Preparation of a bill is more or less hap-
hazard. It may be good, if the author is compe-
tent. It most likely is bad if the author is in-
experienced or slipshod in his work, as many of
them are.
Thoroughness In Writing Bills
But in Nebraska, the unicameral Legislature
settled down to its job as a business to be done
in the best possible way. It had the services of
an official bill drafter, an experienced lawyer at-
tached to the Legislative Reference Bureau, to
draw bills. It employed three disinterested law-
yers, one of them the dean of the Law School
of Creighton University of Omaha, to pass on
the constitutionality of all bills, and paid them
$25 a day each.
It had a special committee to pass on the
phraseology of bills.
The Missouri Legislature has none of these,
and not infrequently the wording of bills is so in-
volved as to be almost unintelligible, a condition
which leads to much litigation which could be
avoided if the laws were carefully written.
In preparation for the future, the unicameral
Legislature created a Legislative Council of 15
of its members, to make a continuing study of
the state government, and with full power to
examine books and take testimony of witnesses
under oath. This council is required to submit
a program for needed legislation at the beginning
of each session of the Legislature.
Specifically, the law directs that it shall give
study to all subjects which go toward better
government, to possible consolidations in the
state administration, to simplification of govern-
ment, the merit system, law enforcement and the
whole problem of taxation on the state, counties
and cities.
How different from the politically controlled
Missouri Legislature. The same bill was intro-
duced at the last session in Jefferson City by Sen-
ator McMillan Lewis of St. Louis. Such a coun-
cil might, probably would, make recommenda-
On The Level
By WRAG
JJARY FRAN BROWN, Lu Kentfield, Grete
Hoist, and Cy Sturgis, started off Monday
night by taking pot shots at bottles with long .22
bullets. They were way out in the country with
the bottles stuck on fence-posts, and they didn't
think they were bothering anyone with their fun
except for the fact that an occasional groan
would follow some of the shots that missed the
mark. At length, a rather irate farmer inter-
rupted their play, and shooed them back to Ann
Arbor. It turned out that many of the bullets
were ricocheting off the bottles and fence posts.
and landing in the midst of some very sensitive
dairy cows in the pasture beyond.
T MAY NOT BE very original, but we still
get a kick out of a sign in one of the South
University drug stores. Some clever artist,
while waiting for his coke and sandwich,
has inserted an "R" into the word "PAY"
to make the placard read, "Please Pray When
Served."
k* 3
JACK COLLINS' true marksmanship with
pebbles at windows and his ability to whistle
so that a housemother couldn't- hear it, saved a
young thing at a certain Hill Street sorority a lot
of time to be made up, the other night. The
girl he took to a picnic was leaving for Geog-
raphy camp the next day, so she didn't mind
especially what time she arrived back at her
temporary domicile, but the girls on the inside
became plenty worried when midnight arrived
without Jack and the girl. The anxious girls tel-
ephoned and waited, and then telephoned some
more, but to no avail. Then came the pebbles and
the whistling, and the hour and a half late girl
was spirited into the house while the sororima-
tron slept on. Collins' only excuse was that his
watch had stopped.
* $ *
POOR POLLY POWER ! Sometimes a car can
be a lot of bother. Polly Power, who resides
at the "Fee" House, went through a lot of official
red tape to get permission for an automobile this
summer, and after filling out all the blanks neces-
sary, her mother came up yesterday with a brand
new car. Now Polly has to return to the Dean's
office and rewrite all the blanks for her new car.
Poor Polly Power!
WE ADD A SORRY TEAR for Charles
Frederick Peterson, Laporte (Ind.) law-
ver-to-he. "C. F." as he is affectionately
tions which would seriously interfere
with the expeni Sve system of govern-
mentA it might abolish the useless AILY OFFICIAL BULLETIN
political jabs, with which the capitol
is overrun, but which are considered Publication in the Bulletin is constructive notiee to nil members oft2#
Vaiversity. Copy received at the offo. ca the Assiqtant to tho Preident
necessary to keep the party workers unto 3:30; 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.
in line. It might reveal that politics__
wtas an extremely costly thing in the
Missouri government. Circulation Notice: Due to the fact comprises all streets between Main
So the Senate deleted from the that several students made out their St., east to the city limits. In case
Lewis bill everything which would registration cards improperly, sev- you are living outside of this zone,
make the Council effective and which eral subscriptions cannot be de- either west of Main St., or outside
w.ould give it power to make detailed livered until those entitled to them of Ann Arbor, please call at the Daily
investigation, and then the skeleton call at The Daily offices. If you are not offices and give an address within the
bill that was left was permitted to receiving your Michigan Daily, please above zone at which your copy can
die, even as innocuous as it was after present your University Treasurer's; be delivered. In case this absolutely
amendment. receipt for the Summer Session at cannot be arranged, a mailing charge
The Nebraska Legislature, realizing Daily offices on Maynard St., to- must be paid at the Daily offices be-
the advisability in the interests of ef- gether with your full name and ad- fore your Daily will be delivered.
ficiency of having some sort of con- dress. The Michigan Daily, Circula-
tinning organization, made the job The area in which The Michigan tion Dept., J. C. Hall.
of clerk of the Legislature a perma- Daily is delivered by carrier service --
nent one. He will have an office in ----- - __Excursion No. 1: Tour of the Cam-
the Capitol, which will be open }has worked out satisfactorily so far. pus: The students who will make an
throughout the year, and there any Its future will depend largely on the inspection of the Cook Legal Re-
pcrson may have access to any legis- type of members who are elected. search Library, Law Quadrangle,
lat ive records and receive informa- 1"You can change the system but Michigan Union, General Library,
tion on any legislative matter. you cannot change human nature. 1 Clements Library, Aeronautical Lab-
; Personally I believe that party re- oratory, and Naval Tank. Those who
Working Syst nt sponsibility is desirable in a legislative wish to attend should meet in the
A striking example of the working { body. Members elected on non-polit- lobby of Angell Hall, Thursday, July 1
of the system under which the actions ical ballots make up a Legislature of at 2 p.m. There is no charge for this
of every member are constantly under 43 individuals without responsible excursion.
public view arose in this first session. party leadership and there is a lack of
The question of ratification of the co-operation. Without leadership it Mr. Wilfred B. Shaw, Director of
Federal child labor amendment was is impossible to get done some things Alumni Relations, will lecture this
up. Women's clubs and labor oigani- that should be done. I afternoon at 4:05 p.m. in the Univer-
rations favored it. Farmers organmza- "The big change is not from two i sity High School Auditorium on the
tions opposed it. Politically it was a 1 houses to one house. It is the elec~ subject "The Significance of the Re-
tough spot for a legislator, and the Ibil of members on the non-political cent Centenlal of the University of
uature of the politician showed itself. ballot. That is a revolution in stateMIchtgen ilete is open to
The question in the committee of the government and I am inclined to be- Michigan." This lecture is opento
whole was on indefinite postpone- lieve it is a mistake." The 5 o'clock lecture today
ment, or in effect defeat of the pro-Tol,
posal. It was killed without a roll Couldn't Use 'Whip' Natural Science Auditorium will be
call, and though one was required if The Governor, of course, was look- given by Prof. Arthur S. Aiton on the
one member asked for it, none was ing at the matter from a political subject "The Present Situation in
demanded. standpoint. He is a Democrat, elect-.Spam.
Immediately there was a storm of ed on the Democratic ticket, and he
protest throughout the State. Labor had on his hands a Legislature with a Graduate Students in all depart-
organizations adopted resolutions de- slender and undependable Democratic ments who during the Summer Ses-
nouncing the "cowardly" Legislature majority of one. Neither the gov- sion wish to take the German reading
for its refusal to have a roll call and ernor nor the chairman of the Demo- examination required for the doctor-
disclose how the members voted. So cratic State Committee could crack ate and those in the exact and na-
strong was the protest that the meas- the party whip and obtain obedience tural sciences who wish to take both
ure was called up again, and a roll 'o orders. the French and German examina-
call had. The result was not changed, The conclusion of the writer after tions are requested to consult with
but the people had demanded and had an extensive study of the unicameral Professor Lee Thursday of this week
received the knowledge of just how Legislature and the results of its first between 4 and 5 p.m. in Room 3, East
each member voted. session is that it provides the system, Hall.
Some may say that the special in-jpossible in any state, under which C. S. Yoakum, Dean.
terests lobbyists should find their ; there can be intelligent lawmaking
work much easier under the unicam- without interference of political bosses Student Mail: Students expecting
eral system; that the lobbyists can and special interest lobbyists. mail addressed in care of the Univer-
woi k more effectively with 43 mem- The three outstanding reasons why sity should call at the Business of-
bers of one house than with 33 sen- it is far superior to the bicameral sys- fice, Room 1, University Hall.
ators and 100 representatives, can get tem are:
"closer" to the individuals. The an- Every individual member is con- Summer Session Orchestra: Open
swer to this is that under the rules stantly in the public spot light, with to all students who play. Perry School,
the lobbyist can do nothing now with- his every official action open to public Division and Packard Streets, Wed-
out exposing his friends, that pub- view. nesday, Thursday, Friday 1 to 2:30
licity has destroyed the power of the Evasion of responsibility, "buck p m
lobbyist. passing," is not possible as under the
Gov. Cochran, who during his terms bicameral system.
has dealt with both bicameral and Election of members on non-polit- Summer Session Chorus: Open to
unicameral legislatures, told the ical ballots makes those elected re- all who care to sing. Morris Hall,
writer that he still considered the sponsible directlyto the people and every Tuesday evening, 7 to 8 °p.m.
one house an experiment, not the political bosses.
"It will be impossible to tell until If Missouri would have a business- Archery: A class in archery will be
several sessions have been held whe- like Legislature and destroy the costly organized for women students Who
ther it is better than the old way," control of its lawmaking by machine- wish instruction in this sport. Regis-
he said. "However, judging from re- politics and special interests, the way tration must be made in Barbour
stilts I can say that I feel the plan is simple to follow the Nebraska lead. t (Continued on Page 3)
_ _ _ __~ ~- ~
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