CHAPTER XIX

MAKING THE LAWS

INTRODUCTORY LESSON PLAN

Have the class organize itself as the lower house of the state legislature, and elect a Speaker, who will appoint committees. Have the representatives draw up at least three bills, on subjects preferably relating to matters of school welfare. Put the bills through the house by the procedure followed in the lower house of your state legislature.

1. WHY LAWS ARE NECESSARY

Picture to yourself a school in which there are no rules of order or regulations of conduct. Every one could talk and laugh as he pleased, or move about from room to room at will interrupting classes, or play tag in the halls. Very little progress could be made in studies in such a school, and pretty soon everybody would become uncomfortable because of continued noise and disorder. Rules and regulations exist merely to give every individual an opportunity to do uninterrupted work, and to accomplish the things he came to school to do.

Laws to regulate community life are just as necessary as are rules to regulate school life and comfort. The object of our local, state, and national laws is to make all citizens free to pursue their lives and their work without interference. The purpose of laws is to bring about fair play for all, and to keep people from doing things that interfere with the rights of others.

2. WHY OUR REPRESENTATIVES MAKE OUR LAWS

The principle of democracy that forms the basis of our government is that the sovereignty, or in other words the ruling power, lies in the people themselves. This principle, if taken literally, would mean that the laws are made by the people.

In some small communities, like the New England townships, the people do make the laws. In these communities the people gather each year in an assembly, elect their important officials, and pass the local laws with regard to schools, roads, poor relief, the assessment and collection of taxes, and other matters of local control.* But in a large city like Boston, or Chicago, or New York, it is manifestly impossible for the million or more citizens to hold a popular assembly and make their laws. Much less could the people of the state or the nation legislate for themselves. Consequently, the people of these larger communities delegate their lawmaking power to representatives whom they elect by ballot. These representatives in the local, state, and national legislative bodies make our laws.

3. OUR STATE LAWS AFFECT US DAILY

The laws which come closest to every citizen in his daily life are those of his state. From the time he is born until he dies every individual is constantly safeguarded and controlled in his acts by the laws of his state. It is the state law which provides for the registration of his birth, for his schooling, for the purity of his food, and for the protection of his property, health, and life. If one of his parents should die without leaving a will, the state allots him a share in the property. He is married, divorced, and his business relations are regulated by the state. If he brings civil suit against a person for debt or for breach of contract, he does it under state law. If he commits murder and is convicted, in a state court and by state law, the state can even take his life. The policemen and the firemen that guard his property and his life, the local departments that control the streets and the highways which he uses and that provide him with lighting and water, all derive their powers from the state. His city has no legal powers other than those which are expressly conferred upon it by the state, either in the city charter or by special legislation.

*The New England townships are seldom over five square miles in area, and their population is not large.

In order to understand why the state and not the national government possesses these sweeping powers, we must look back a number of years to the period, just after the end of the Revolutionary War, when our nation's Constitution was formed. The thirteen states that fought and won that war were practically independent commonwealths. Each had its own executive officers, legislative bodies, and courts. At the Constitutional Convention of 1787-1789, when the nation was finally organized as a federal unit in place of the loose confederation of independent states which it had previously been, the states were very jealous of the new central power which they were creating, and they were loath to relinquish to it any of their rights. And so the federal Constitution specifies the powers which were delegated to the federal government, while all others were understood to belong to the states. Practically the only powers that were delegated to the federal government were: (1) The power to regulate all dealings with foreign nations; (2) Powers which can be exercised more effectively and more to the benefit of the people by one central government than by a number of separate state governments. The states retained their separate executive, legislative, and judicial systems, and a large measure of control over the lives and property of their citizens.

The State Constitution. Every state has a written constitution, which is the basis of its laws. A state constitution usually has four main divisions:

1. A statement of the rights of all citizens to security of life, liberty, and property.

2. A complete plan of organization of the state government into executive, legislative, and judicial departments.

3. Specific provisions in regard to local and city government, taxation, the militia, education, corporations, railways, labor questions, state prisons, hospitals, and other such institutions, banking, and agriculture.

4. Methods by which the constitution may be amended. The constitution also provides for a state legislature of two

houses, known as the Senate and the House of Representatives.*

Why the State Legislature Has Two Houses. The bi-cameral type of legislative body is in accord with the system of checks

and balances which the founders of our nation wished to establish. They had seen the evils that resulted when the legislative, executive, and judicial powers were all combined in one tyrannical ruler. They wished to separate these three functions of government and use each as a check against hasty and unwise action by the other two. And they took the added precaution of dividing their legislative bodies into two houses, each to act check upon

as

a

the other, fearing

that "a single chamber would be hasty, tyrannical, unscrupulous, or all three."

The Authority and the Organization of the Legislature. The state constitution clearly defines and limits the powers of the legislature. The bill of rights secures the rights of all citizens to suffrage, to petition, to trial by jury, to freedom of

* In 6 states, the lower house is known as the Assembly; in 3 states it is known as the House of Delegates.