in 1887: "As with the city's representatives of 1886, the chief objects
of most of the New York members were to make money in the 'legislative
business,' to advance their own political fortunes, and to promote the
interests of their factions." And where is the state legislature of
which much the same things cannot be said?

The conservative objector may not know how the most important bills are
often passed in Congress. He may not know that until toward the close
of a session the business of Congress is political in the party sense
rather than in the governing sense; that on the floor the play is
usually conducted for effect on the public; that in committees, measures
into which politics enter are made up either on compromise or for
partisan purposes; that, finally, in the last days of a session, the
work of legislation is a scramble. The second day before the adjournment
of the last Congress was thus described in a New York daily paper:
"Congress has been working like a gigantic threshing machine all day
long, and at this hour there is every prospect of an all-night session
of both houses. Helter-skelter, pell-mell, the 'unfinished business' has
been poured into the big hopper, and in less time than it takes to tell
it, it has come out at the other end completed legislation, lacking only
the President's signature to fit it for the statute books. Public bills
providing for the necessary expenses of the government, private bills
galore having as their beneficiaries favored individuals, jobbery in the
way of unnecessary public buildings, railroad charters, and bridge
construction--all have been rushed through at lightning speed, and the
end is not yet. A majority of the House members, desperate because their
power and influence terminate with the end of this brief session, and a
partisan Speaker, whose autocratic rule will prevail but thirty-six
short hours longer, have left nothing unattempted whereby party friends
and protégés might be benefited. It is safe to say that aside from a