" Still that is just between
ourselves. The point is that when we have a _consensus_ of opinion, when
we have this common counsel, then the legislative processes of this
Government will be infinitely illuminated.
I used to wonder when I was Governor of one of the States of this great
country where all the bills came from. Some of them had a very private
complexion. I found upon inquiry--it was easy to find--that practically
nine-tenths of the bills that were introduced had been handed to the
members who introduced them by some constituent of theirs, had been
drawn up by some lawyer whom they might or might not know, and were
intended to do something that would be beneficial to a particular set of
persons. I do not mean, necessarily, beneficial in a way that would be
hurtful to the rest; they may have been perfectly honest, but they came
out of cubby-holes all over the State. They did not come out of public
places where men had got together and compared views. They were not the
products of common counsel, but the products of private counsel, a very
necessary process if there is no other, but a process which it would be
a very happy thing to dispense with if we could get another.
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