Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/231

 The Wisconsin legislature meets biennially. The amount of work involved has been so great that the writer believes it will not be long until some kind of annual session will be necessary if hasty legislation is to be avoided. In those states which have sessions limited to sixty or ninety days by their constitutions, there is an excellent opportunity for "jockeying" and great inducements for delay, as all bills not previously disposed of must either be passed or killed in the last few hours. Nothing more disastrous to good legislation can well be imagined and the session laws of those states bear out this statement.

The study of legislative machinery has been of special interest to the author because of his duties as chief of the Wisconsin legislative reference department. Because of many questions from various parts of the country, the following description of the department and its purposes is included. Much of the following has been digested from previous statements but there are occasional digressions to show the actual conditions of legislation and the need of a department of this kind.

We are all aware of the stupendous changes in our economic and industrial conditions which this country has undergone since the constitution was adopted. To meet these conditions our whole theory of government has been strained.