Chapter XVI.

How the Change of Venue Bill Was Passed.

Slipped Through the Assembly Without Serious Opposition in Closing Days
of the Session - Passed by Trick in the Senate Although a Majority of
That Body Were Opposed to Its Passage - Typical Case of Machine
"Generalship."



Given the presiding officers of the Senate and Assembly and the
appointment of the Committees of both bodies, the machine minority in
the Legislature had comparatively little difficulty in preventing the
passage of desirable measures. Thus, the Commonwealth Club bills to
simplify and expedite proceedings in criminal cases, or, if you like, to
prevent quackery in the practice of the criminal law, were, by clever
manipulation, defeated, although if fairly presented to Senate and
Assembly they undoubtedly would have become laws[74].

But when it came to passing vicious measures in the face of the
opposition of the unorganized majority of both Houses, the machine had a
harder job on its hands. A majority vote of each House is required for
the passage of a measure. To get through its bills, then, the machine
had to create a situation in which vicious measures could be rushed
through without the unorganized reformers knowing what was being done.
By preventing action on a large majority of the measures pending before
the Legislature until the end of the session, such a situation was
created. In the confusion of the closing days of the session, not only
were good bills denied passage, but vicious bills, in spite of the