nsent.

Such an analysis of the causes of legislative corruption and
incompetence is not as correct as it is obvious. It is based upon the
old and baleful democratic tendency of always seeking the reason for the
failure of a democratic enterprise in some personal betrayal of trust.
It is never the people who are at fault. Neither is the betrayal
attributed to some defect of organization, which neglects to give the
representative individual a sufficient chance. The responsibility for
the failure is fastened on the selected individual himself, and the
conclusion is drawn that the people cannot trust representatives to
serve them honestly and efficiently. The course of reasoning is
precisely the same as that which prompted the Athenian democracy to
order the execution of an unsuccessful general. In the case of our state
legislatures, a most flagrant betrayal of trust has assuredly occurred,
but before inferring from this betrayal that selected individuals cannot
be trusted to legislate properly on behalf of their constituents, it
would be just as well to inquire whether individual incompetence and
turpitude are any sufficient reason for this particular failure of
representative institutions.

As a matter of fact they are no sufficient reason. When a large number
of individuals to whom authority is delegated exercise that authority
improperly, one may safely infer that the system is at fault as much as
the individual. Local American legislative organization has courted
failure. Both the system of representation and functions of the
representative body have been admirably calculated to debase the quality
of the representatives and to nullify the value of their work. American
state legislatures have really never had a fair opportunity. They have
almost from the beginning been deprived of any effective responsibility.
The state constitutions have gradually hedged them in with so many
restrictions, have gone so much into detail in respect to state
organization and policy that the legislatures really had comparatively
little to do, except to deal with matters of current business. They
offered no opportunity for a man of ability and public spirit. When such
men drifted into a local legislature, they naturally escaped as soon as
they could to some larger and less obstructed field of action. If the
American people want better legislatures, they must adopt one of two
courses. Either they must give their legislative bodies something