Breaking Ground.

Although the Reform Element had a Majority in Both Senate and Assembly,
Good Bills Were Defeated, and Vicious Measures Passed - Three Reasons for
This: (1) Reform Element Was Without Plan of Action, (2) Was Without
Organization; (3) The Machine Was Permitted to Organize Both Senate and
Assembly.



The personnel of the California Legislature of 1909, was, all things
considered, better than that of any other Legislature that has assembled
in California in a decade or more. There were, to be sure, in both
Senate and Assembly men who were constantly on the wrong side of every
question affecting the moral, political or industrial well-being of the
State, but a majority of each House labored for the passage of good
laws, laws which would not only silence and satisfy constituents, but
prove effective and accomplish the purpose for which they had been
drawn. Just as earnestly as they worked for the passage of good laws, a
majority of the members of the Senate as well as a majority of the
members of the Assembly opposed the passage of vicious measures, and of
measures ostensibly introduced to work needed reform but drawn in such a
manner as to be, from a practical standpoint, ineffective.

And yet, regardless of the purpose of this majority, the so-called
"Change of Venue" [1] bill was passed, and the "Judicial Column" bill,
intended to take the Judiciary out of politics, was denied passage. The
infamous "Wheelan bills," aimed at the complication of the Grand jury