appropriations necessary for their support. The San Jose Normal School,
for example, and the Agnew Asylum for the Insane, are situated in Santa
Clara County. They are no more Santa Clara County institutions than they
are Del Norte or San Diego institutions, but the Senators and
Assemblymen from Santa Clara County are held responsible for the passage
of the appropriation bills affecting them. Too often, the ability of the
Assemblyman or Senator is measured, not by his real work in the
Legislature, but by the size of the appropriations which he manages to
secure for his district. Under the present system by which the machine
organizes the Legislature, it is in a position to defeat or materially
reduce practically any appropriation bill. The member of the Legislature
who would oppose the machine thus finds himself between the constituents
at home, who demand that he secure generous appropriations for his
district, and the machine, which he understands very well requires
support of its policies as one of the prices of the constituent-demanded
appropriations. Thus those who would have opposed the machine in the
organization of the Assembly realized that failure would probably mean a
hammering of their appropriation bills, which would result in their
political undoing at home. So the independent movement to organize the
Assembly came to a sorry ending.

Stanton was elected Speaker without opposition. The "defeated" Beardslee
placed him in nomination. Complete harmony prevailed. Stanton started
proceedings by appointing the Committee on Rules. This committee was
charged with drafting rules for the government of the Assembly during
the session. It was made up of Assemblymen Johnston of Contra Costa,
Transue, Johnson of Sacramento, Beardslee and Stanton.

Without the people knowing much about what is going on, the rules
governing legislative bodies are being amended from time to time, so