two branches,-an upper house, or Senate, and a lower house, or House of Representatives. In some States the lower house is called the Assembly, in others it is called the House of Delegates, in New Jersey it is called the General Assembly. In many of the States General Assembly is a name for the whole Legislature.

Election of Members of the Legislature.-Both the lower house and the Senate are representative bodies, that is, the members of both are sent to the capital to act in the place of the people.

The counties (or towns) and cities are represented in the House of Representatives according to population. A county (or town), if it is small, may have but one representative, while a county with a large population may have two, or three, or four. In the same way a city may be represented by one, two, or more representatives, according as it is small or large.

How is the number of representatives for a county or city determined? Every five or ten years a census of the people is taken, that is, the people are counted,—and from this census it can be determined how many representatives a county or city is entitled to. If it is the law that there should be at least one representative for 10,000 people, then a county with a population of 10,000 or under would be entitled to one representative; a county with a population of more than 10,000 and less than 20,000 would have two representatives; a city of 50,000 people, according to this rule, would have five representatives. But a lawmaking body should not be so large as to make it difficult to trans

act business in a quiet and deliberate manner. A State with 1,000,000 inhabitants, represented by one representative for every 10,000 people, would have a House of Representatives consisting of 100 members. If the population of the State increases to 2,000,000, how would the law have to be changed so that the number of representatives would still be 100?

A senator represents a larger number of people than is represented by a member of the House. The State is divided into senatorial districts, and from each of these districts one senator is elected. A senatorial district may include several counties, or several senators may represent one county. It is generally provided by law that senators shall be older than representatives, and for this reason they are supposed to be wiser than members of the lower house. They are elected to serve for longer terms than representatives, and they usually are men who have had more experience in matters of government.

Organization. After a roll call of the members, the first thing that is done in the newly elected House of Representatives is to choose a presiding officer, called a Speaker. The Speaker takes the chair, and then the House proceeds to elect some one who is not a member, as its Clerk or Secretary. The duty of this official is to write out in a large book, called the Journal, a full account of everything that takes place in the House. The House next elects a Sergeant-at-Arms, an officer whose duty it is to keep order in the House, and to bring absent members to their seats when their presence is needed to

make a quorum, that is, a sufficient number of members to do business.

When the clerk and sergeant-at-arms, and such minor officials as messengers and doorkeepers, have been chosen by the vote of the House, the Speaker announces the Committees of the House.

A committee of the House consists of a small number of members-three, or five, or seven, or nine-who have charge of some particular branch of legislative business. Thus if the Speaker appoints five members as the Committee on Education, all matters coming up in the House relating to education are first referred to this committee. There are a great many committees. The most important are those on Finance, Corporations, the Judiciary, Elections, Appropriations, Education, Labor, Manufactures, Agriculture, Public Buildings.

If we had remained in the Senate during its opening hour, we should have seen almost the same things that we saw in the House. There might have been some difference in the matter of the presiding officer. Most of the States have a Lieutenant Governor, and when this is the case, this officer, by virtue of his office, acts as President or Chairman of the Senate. Yet even where there is a Lieutenant Governor, the Senate elects a President pro tempore, who serves in the absence of that officer. So we may say that the Senate is organized in the same way that we saw the House of Representatives organized. It elects its Clerk, its Sergeant-at-Arms, its messengers and doorkeepers, and the President announces just such committees

F. Civil Govt.-9

as are announced in the House. After the two houses have been organized as described, the Legislature is ready to begin its work, to make laws for the welfare of the people.

QUESTIONS FOR ORIGINAL WORK

(Answers to a number of these questions can be found in the constitution of the State.)

1. Is the capital of your State situated in the most suitable place? Are the citizens of the State proud of their Statehouse?

2. What is the name of the lower house of the Legislature of your State? What is the name of the Legislature taken as a whole? When does the Legislature meet? How long may it continue in session?

3. What are the qualifications for a senator in your State? For a representative? Do you know the name of the senator that represents you in the Senate? How many representatives in your Legislature? How many senators?

4. What is the method of representation in your State? Is it generally regarded as a just method?

5. Is there a Lieutenant Governor in your State?

6. What is the compensation of a senator? Of a representative? 7. What is "mileage"? What is regarded as a quorum in the Legislature of your State?

XXIV. THE STATE LEGISLATURE (Continued)

"The convention, the campaign, the election, the division of the powers of government, the exercise of political rights, are merely for the purpose of making a law."-F. N. Thorpe.

How a Law is Made.-Let us now see how a law is passed in the Legislature. We will suppose that many people in the State wish a law to be passed, compelling railroad companies to run their tracks, wherever there is a road or street crossing, either above or below the road or street, so that the lives of pedestrians or those riding in vehicles may not be endangered. How will they get the law passed? They will get one of their representatives in the Legislature to take up their cause for them. A member, let us say, of the House, will prepare a bill, that is, the draft of a law, which compels railroads to lay their tracks either above or below grade at all public crossings. When the day arrives for introducing the bill, the member gives it to the Clerk of the House to read. This is called the first reading.1

After it is read the Speaker immediately refers the bill to the proper committee, which, in this case, is the Committee on Railroads. In a few days the con.mittee in its private room will give attention to the bill. Friends of the bill will appear before the committee and speak in

1 The "first reading" often consists only of the reading of the title of the bill.