/isconsin Free Library Commission Madison, Wisconsin Circular of Information, No. 6 Second Edition LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE DEPARTMENT MADISON, WISCONSIN January, 1911 5 F J54«,a Wl5f£ cop. \ LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE DEPARTMENT I LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE WORK The Legislative Reference Department of the Wiscon¬ sin Library Commission was established in a small way in 1901. It became apparent at once that the demands of this library were of a peculiar nature, which could not be readily met by the ordinary library methods or by the ordinary library material. A plan was devised which has been since carried out as far as the resources given by the legislature would permit. We found that there was no co-operation between the different states of this Union in the matter of getting the history of legislation. We found that there was a con¬ stant demand for a history of what had occurred in Europe or in any state of the Union, upon a certain sub¬ ject of interest to the people of this state. We tried to supply this demand by getting such indexes of up-to-date legislation as were published, by getting the bills from other states as well as the documents explanatory of legis¬ lative movements in other states, and arranging these under the subjects so they would be immediately at the 4 WISCONSIN FREE LIBRARY COMMISSION service of all who desired to see them. We soon found that even this material did not solve the problem. We found it necessary to clip newspapers from all over the country and to put the clippings in book form, to index them carefully and put them also with the subjects. We went over our own bills and carefully indexed them back for four sessions and by noting the subjects which were contained in those bills we anticipated the problems with which the legislature had to grapple. These problems or special subjects we carefully worked up through the most minute detail. It was comparatively easy to get laws and court cases, but it was a far harder job to find how those laws were administered and to find the weaknesses in them and to note as far as possible how they could be adapted to our use here. Our short experience has taught us many things. We have been convinced that there is a great opportunity to better legislation through work of this kind—that the best way to better legislation is to help directly the man who makes the laws. We bring home to him and near to him everything which will help him to grasp and under¬ stand the great economic problems of the day in their fullest significance and the legislative remedies which can be applied and the legislative limitations which exist. We must take the theory of the professors and simplify it so that the layman can grasp it immediately and with the greatest ease. The legislator has no time to read. His work is new to him, he is beset with routine work, he has to have conferences with his friends upon political matters, he is beset by office-seekers and lobbyists and he has no time to study. If he does not study or get his studying done for him he sometimes falls a prey to those LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE DEPARTMENT 5 who are looking out to better their own selfish ends. Therefore we must shorten and digest and make clear all information that we put within his reach. We must first of all get near to the legislator, even as the lobbyist does. I do not mean that we must use the evil methods of the lobbyist, but we must win the legislator’s confidence and his friendship and under¬ stand him and his prejudices. We must not be arro¬ gant, presumptive, opinionated or dogmatic. We are dealing with men who are as a rule keen and bright, who as a rule have made a success of business life. We must always remember that we are but clerks and servants who are helping these men to gather data upon things upon which we have worked as they have worked at their business. We must be careful to keep our private opin¬ ions to ourselves and let the evidence speak for itself. We are not doing this work to convert, but to help and to clear up. No busy man can keep track of legislation, and especially complex legislation of our modern times in one state, let alone half a hundred states. It is our work to do that—to find out the history of particular pieces of legislation, to find out how a law works, to get the opinions of just lawyers, professors, doctors, publicists upon these laws and to put their opinions well digested in such form that it can be readily used and understood by any legislator even in the whirl and confusion of the legislative session. Some essentials in carrying on this work may be sum¬ marized briefly: 1. The first essential is a selected library convenient to the legislative halls. This library should consist of well chosen and selected material. A large library is 6 WISCONSIN FREE LIBRARY COMMISSION apt to fail because of its too general nature and because it is liable to become cumbersome. This library should be a depository for documents of all descriptions relating to any phase of legislation from all states, federal gov¬ ernment and particularly from foreign countries like Eng¬ land, Australia, France, Germany and Canada. It should be a place where one can get a law upon any subject or a case upon any law very quickly. It is very convenient to have this room near a good law library. Books are gen¬ erally behind the times, and newspapers clippings from all over the country and magazines articles, courts briefs and letters must supplement this library and compose to a large extent its material. 2. A trained librarian and indexer is absolutely essen¬ tial. The material is largely scrappy and hard to classify. We need a person with a liberal education, who is orginal, not stiff, who can meet an emergency, and who is tactful as well. 3. The material is arranged so that it is compact and accessible. Do not be afraid to tear up books, documents, pamphlets, clippings, letters, manuscripts or other ma¬ terial. Minutely index this material. Put it under the subjects. Legislators have no time to read large books. We have no time to hunt up many references in different parts of a library. They should be together as far as possible upon every subject of legislative importance. 4. Complete index of all bills which have not become laws in the past should be kept. This saves the drawing of new bills and makes the experience of the past cumu¬ lative. 5. Records of vetoes, special messages, political plat¬ forms, political literature, and other handy matter should LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE DEPARTMENT 7 be carefully noted and arranged. Our legislator often wants to get a bill through and we must remember that he often relies as much upon political or unscientific ar¬ guments as we do upon scientific work. He should be able to get hold of his political arguments if he wants, and the political literature from all parties upon all questions should be kept near at hand. 6. Digests of laws on every subject before the legisla¬ ture should be made and many copies kept. Leading cases on all these laws and opinions of public men and experts upon the working of these laws or upon the de¬ fects, technical or otherwise, should be carefully indexed and as far as possible published in pamphlet form, with short bibliographies of the subjects before the people. 7. The department must be entirely non-political and non-partisan or else it will be worse than useless. If you have the choice between establishing a political depart¬ ment and no department at all, take the latter. 8. The head of the department should be trained in economics, political science, and social science in general, and should have also a good knowledge of constitutional law. He should, above all, have tact and knowledge of human nature. 9. There should be a trained draftsman connected with the department—a man who is a good lawyer and some¬ thing more than a lawyer, a man who has studied legis¬ lative forms, who can draw a bill, revise a statute, and amend a bill when called upon to do so. Such a man working with this department and the critical data which it contains will be absolutely essential. 10. Methods—(a) Go to the legislator, make yourself acquainted with him, study him, find anything he wants 8 WISCONSIN FREE LIBRARY COMMISSION for him, never mind how trivial, accommodate him in every way. Advertise your department. Let everyone know where it is and what it does. Go to the committees and tell them what you can do for them, (b) It is abso¬ lutely essential that you get information ahead of time or else you will be of no use in the rush. Send a circular letter out to legislators and tell them you will get any material which will help them in their work before the session begins. The following is a sample of such a cir¬ cular: Madison, Wis., Nov.- Dear Sir:— The Wisconsin Legislature of 1901 authorized the Wisconsin Free Li¬ brary Commission to conduct a Legislative Reference Room, and to gath¬ er and index for the use of members of the legislature and the executive offi¬ cers of the state, such books, reports, bills, documents and other material from this and other states as would aid them in their official duties. We desire to make such material of the utmost use and wish you to call upon us for any aid we can give in your legislative duties. If you will inform us of any subjects you wish to investigate, as far as we have the material, time and means, we will tell you: 1. What states have passed laws on any particular subject. 2. Where bills for similar laws are under discussion. 3. What bills on any subject have been recently introduced in our legislature. 4. Where valuable discussions of any subject may be obtained. As far as possible with our force and means, we will send you abstracts of useful material and answer any questions pertaining to legislative matters. It is not our province to convince members of the legislature upon disputed points. We shall simply aid them to get material to study sub¬ jects in which they are interested as public officials. If desired, the drafting department will be glad to put your ideas into bill form. Definite detailed instructions must be given. Make your questions definite. Our work is entirely free, non-partisan , and non-political, and entirely confidential. Yours truly, WISCONSIN FREE LIBRARY COMMISSION, Charles McCarthy, Chief, Legislative Reference Department The replies to such a circular give you an idea of what is coming. Work for all you are worth on those LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE DEPARTMENT 9 topics, send out thousands of circular letters to experts on these topics, subscribe to clipping bureaus if necessary to secure critical data from the public at large. Gather statistics ahead. Carefully search books for significant and concise statements; if to the point, copy or cut them out and index them. Go through the court reports and get the best opinions, (c) Get hold of libraries or individ¬ uals or professors in other states with whom you can cor¬ respond. Speed in getting things to a committee or an individual is abslutely necessary. Do not fail to use the telegraph. Get material, facts, data, etc., and get it quickly and get it to the point, boil down and digest. I can say again, the legislator does not know much about technical terms; avoid them, make things simple and clear, (d) Employ if you can during the session a good statisti¬ cian. He can be of great service in dealing with finan¬ cial bills, in estimating accidents from machinery, or in gathering statistical data of any kind. He should be a man who can work rapidly, accurately and to the point. Throughout all of this work it is absolutely necessary to get all material absolutely upon the points at issue, (e) Make arrangements with all libraries in your city and li¬ braries elsewhere for the loan of books or other material. You should have every sort of an index in your library as well as catalogues of the libraries with which you are cor¬ responding. (f) A correspondence clerk and some helper to paste clippings, mount letters, etc., are necessary, es¬ pecially during the legislative session, (g) Keep your place open from early in the morning till late at night. Do everything in your power to accommodate those for whom you work. I believe that every such library established should try 10 WISCONSIN FREE LIBRARY COMMISSION to specialize on one great division of legislation. If one place studies municipal government especially and anoth¬ er labor legislation, it would be a very useful arrangment, as one could go directly to that library having the most expert knowledge on one subject. Of course a journal of comparative legislation is necessary to bring this work in¬ to co-ordination in the future. This Department in Wis¬ consin cost $1,500 for the first year and $4,500 a year for the next two years, and now has an appropriation of $15,000 a year. The cost is not large because documents are on the whole very cheap, and especially because we are near the State Law Library and the State Historical Society, which kindly lend us much of their material. In Wisconsin the work is divided into three main divi¬ sions: (l) The “comparative,” which includes the gather¬ ing of laws and cases from all over the world upon the legislative subjects, ( 2 ) the “critical,” which is especially charged with the duty of gathering critical data upon the kworing of laws, and ( 3 ) the “constructive,” for the pur¬ pose of assisting in the work of drafting legislation, with evidence already mentioned at hand for referance. II SCOPE AND METHODS Will such a department help in the betterment of leg- lislation? Let us consider for a moment how a law is actually made. John Jones comes to the legislature. He is a good citizen, a man of hard sense, well respected in his com¬ munity. He enters suddenly from the quiet of his native LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE DEPARTMENT 11 village into a new life. He comes to live in a new com¬ munity. He is dogged about and worried by office seek¬ ers. His old friends and advisers are not around to help him. He finds that it is necessary for him to learn the ropes. He finds that if he is to represent his district he must introduce bills, and that he must in some way get those bills through the legislature. He must first of all get those bills drawn, and never having drawn a bill in his life, and not knowing how such things should be done, it is very hard work for him. He is confronted with two thousand bills on two thousands subjects, legal and economic. Complex questions which are not settled by the greatest thinkers of to-day are hurled at his head. Even scientific subjects that the chemist or the physician or the man of science has had a hard time to deal with must be met by our John Jones, and that in the hurry and rush of committee work, and of his efforts to take care of the multitudinous duties placed upon him. If he is honest, he will try to draw his bills himself, or else he pays somebody to do it for him; but the easiest way is to consult somebody else. He finds around him bright men, well paid lawyers, men of legal standing, who are willing to help him in every way. It is easier to consult these bright men; and often, if he does it, he is lost. It is sel¬ dom that he finds a true friend. They are there to look out for their own interests, and John Jones is legitimate prey. To get hold of him is their business. If he is hon¬ est and by persistent courage and sterling honesty fights his way through, pushes his bills on to become laws, those bills, having to do often with complex, technical subjects, and being drawn by a man unskilled in law, are thrown out by the courts. 12 WISCONSIN FREE LIBRARY COMMISSION Here then is the situation. We see the farmer, our good groceryman, even our small country lawyer, our successful manufacturer, our man of business, grappling at once, entirely unprepared, with the problem of making laws that represent every phase of industrial life. A few years ago the simple legislation could be more easily handled by these men; but now the great problems of the railroads, the telegraphs, the telephones, insurance, the vast com¬ plex things of our modern life, make it simply impossible for one man however bright or educated he may be, to act intelligently upon one-tenth of the subjects which come before the legislature. When some new invention comes into being, legislation must deal with it; when some new situation comes up through the growth of new indus¬ tries, then some new law must be made restraining or encouraging or in some way regulating these new con¬ ditions. It all goes to show how unfitted our old repre¬ sentative government is to meet the conditions today, and how utterly helpless any one man is when he has to meet these complex problems. Besides all these difficulties which I have named, we must not forget that there are other difficulties. The fed- aral constitution was in a way a simple instrument when it was made compared to what it is now. The unwritten constitution of the country, the many decisions made by our courts, have tended to bind the action of the state and the legislators of the state hand and foot. Again, the increasing distrust of our legislatures by our citizens has resulted in immense state constitu¬ tions which are nothing more than compiled statutes, filled with innumerable restrictions upon the action of the legislator. He is restrained in every way by the federal LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE DEPARTMENT 13 constitution, and by his state constitution, and by the hundreds and hundreds of cases interpreting nearly every word and nearly every phrase in every law. Is it any wonder then that there is a cry that the supreme court is usurping legislative functions and is defeating the will of the people? Does it seem right that our legislative opinion should be molded by private interests because private interests alone know how to present their case? Does it seem right that the only help which the legislator gets in his great need is that of the people, who are seeking gain from the very laws he is making, or who are trying to prevent the making of effective law? A committee is often a judicial body. It sits in judg¬ ment upon private bills. It gives rights and franchises that make men wealthy or deprive men of their property. Yet this court hears often but one side of an argument, and has no means of investigating the truth or untruth of one statement made. Not only that, but it is subjected in its determinations to a hundred influences to which no judge is subjected. Would we allow such a state of affairs in our private business? Would we tolerate it in our judiciary? How are we prepared to make that still greater activity of government which some call “paternalism?” Why, the powerful interests do not have to resort to bribery! Their experts can win by the irresistible force of argument alone. They must hold the balance, for they have the brains of the land and pay well for them. Is it any wonder that many good people throw up their hands with joy and say, “Thank God the legislature is over?” Is it not a thing to be joked about. Our papers make fun of the legislature and its “freak” legis- 14 WISCONSIN FREE LIBRARY COMMISSION lation, but it is a mighty serious state of affairs when a people lose confidence in its governing body. The revelations of graft and corruption of the last four years should convince us all that we are up against a serious condition, and that we must seek a positive remedy of a more fundamental kind than has yet been proposed. If these are the conditions under which our legislative opinion is formed, is it any wonder that the will of the people is constantly defeated? Is it any wonder that our laws are poor? Is it any wonder that the clamor of public opinion fails to be heard within our legislative halls? Is it any wonder that the making of needed laws goes on so slow¬ ly? Now what is the remedy for all this? We look around about us and find our judiciary composed of the high men of the state. We have the most profound respect for our judiciary. We are satisfied with it. Our administrative bodies have not yet reached that high standard, but we are every day developing administrative bodies which are, notwithstanding recent revelations, becoming more and more fit to take charge of the business of the state, but how about the legislature? Does it not seem reasonable that the law, which is the expression of the will of the people and upon which good administration is founded, should be scientific—should be based upon the best ex¬ perience of all mankind? If our administration is to be good administration, does it not seem ridiculous that the supreme court, the highest legal talent in the state, should go on day after day, year after year, turning out decision after decision upon laws which are made often by men who have never seen a law book? Does that seem like busi¬ ness? Does it seem right that our fundamental law should be left to these haphazard conditions? Does it seem reas- LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE DEPARTMENT 15 onable that all the talent should be used in interpreting laws, in curing their defects, and that absolutely nothing should be done in a scientific way in the making of these laws? Why, in building any kind of a structure to-day we use an architect! The construction of a law is a far harder task than the criticism of it, or even the interpreta- of it. It involves the interpretation of it. It involves a knowledge of the theory of government. It involves, be¬ cause of the enlarged sphere of government to-day a sound knowledge of economic conditions. We have heard a great deal of condemnation of the legis¬ lature. It is easy and popular, too, to sneer and censure and to criticise—but we have heard very few suggestions as to a remedy put forth. If private forces maintain bureaus of information for representatives, let us have public information bureaus, open to private and public interests alike. If it is hard to get information because of the great variety of subjects now coming before our legislators, the only sensible thing to do is to get experts to gather this material. If business interests have good lawyers to look after their legislation, the people should secure the same kind of men to help their representatives. If the business interests secure statisticians, engineers, and scientific men, then the public should do likewise. If great judges and great lawyers are constantly working upon the problems of interpretion of laws, then, surely, men of equal ability should be consulted while those laws are being constructed. This work is now going forward with great strides, and state after state is taking it up. The legislators give it the most enthusiastic support. In this work is the great future of the state library—because the state librar- 16 WISCONSIN FREE LIBRARY COMMISSION aries are the legal store houses of knowledge for our state officers and legislators. The basis of the work is essen¬ tially the storing and keeping of knowledge ready for use, and is not that the highest aim of a library? Already the Carnegie Library at Pittsburgh has a specialist to an¬ swer questions upon scientific subiects. All the state lib¬ rary needs is specialists of a like nature for legislative sub¬ jects. Again the state library is within the legislative cir¬ cle of which I have spoken. It is now doing this work to some extent, and will have only to change its methods and get specialists to accomplish the full work. Again, the organization of a new department in the state house, and the duplication of books and other material should be avoided in the interest of economy. The state library is established, has the material, and, what is better, is generally out of politics. An extension of the functions of the state library is all that is necessary in most cases. Now, what do we expect from the successful operation of a system like this? We hope that all legislation can be made better and be put upon a more scientific basis. We look upon this as simply a pure business operation. No one here would buy land in Texas without ever having seen the land. You might buy land in a lake or in the bed of a river, if you should use such a process as that; you would at least get someone to look up your title. But we leave our legislators to copy a Texas statute that may be twenty years of age, may have been modified twenty-five times, may be entirely unsuited to our conditions, and which may be in the end unconstitutional—we let our leg¬ islators incorporate such statutes in our statute books without a protest. It seems merely common sense that LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE DEPARTMENT 17 we should get all possible knowledge relating to that stat¬ ute for the use of our legislators. In this way legislation cannot help being bettered; in this way the dearly bought experience of one state is used for the betterment of con¬ ditions in another state. In this way the best there is can be culled out from the statutes throughout the country and used for the benefit of our people. There is a great cry against our overloaded constitu¬ tions. Our constitutions have been purposely overloaded, because the people who made these constitutions wished to put certain things in them which could not be over¬ turned by the caprice or corruption of legislators. As time goes on and people find that there is a scientific de¬ partment working with the legislature, then the people will gain gain confidence in the legislature and will again trust the legislature. There is a widespread agitation at the present time for centralization and nationalization—a movement which strives to have one after another of the state functions taken over by the national government. We hear agita¬ tion about federal life insurance, we hear agitation about national incorproation acts, federal food acts and various forms of federal supervision of one thing or another. I only want to point out to you that as our laws are made better in any way these movements will stop. This great danger will be overcome. The best laws are those laws which are near to the people who make the laws and the only means for saving our local option system of state government—the only means of keeping the federal government at Washington from controlling our affairs— is to make our state laws better and better, and the only way in which they can be made better is to have scientific 18 WISCONSIN FREE LIBRARY COMMISSION / method in the making* of them. Every business method should be used and technical clerical help should be se¬ cured in order that the man who passes the laws can have the knowledge before him necessary to make laws good and to make laws just, and to make laws stand for all time. If our state legislature gains in the confidence of the people, so will our supreme court and our judicial bodies gain in the confidence of the people. Our courts will not be called upon to make decisions which apparently defeat time and time again the will of the people. They will not be called upon to turn down law after law which has been put upon our statute books often by prolonged and patient struggle. The laws will be better before they come to the courts. Prevention is better than cure, and every effort we can put into prevention in this case will make our laws better and will make it easier for our courts to decide upon the true merits of the laws. De¬ cisions based upon technicalities will be less in number. Our judiciary will continue to be respected and honored. Says the Montana Bar Association in a recent report: “The time of the court is consumed in hearing discussions upon statutory enactments and determining what law is in force and what has been repealed. Litigation is thus de¬ layed, additional expense engendered and private rights rendered insecure.” What is the remedy for such con¬ ditions? Do these conditions not demand that the same skill used in interpreting the law should be used in its construction? We have recently seen the work of the Armstrong In¬ vestigating Committee in New York. No insurance law ever passed in this country had so much effect upon in- LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE DEPARTMENT 19 surance regulation. That report was made by legislators and not by state officials. We are constantly crying out today against the innumerable state boards that are being created. Boards have been created licensing barbers, and licensing every trade and occupation. We object to the increase of commission government, and yet commission government has increased because it has been felt for some time that the only way of enforcing laws, the only way of doing special duties, was to do them by the cre¬ ation of new boards. And yet this Armstrong Committee shows us a way of making laws and enforcing laws, which is better than boards and commissions. If