Show LEGISLATIVU RUFFIANISM The scenes of violence which frequently fre-quently occur in legislative bodies are very disgraceful They are violations of law as well as decency What an example is set to the masses of the people in the spectacle of framers of the law bidding defiance to the law and letting loose to illtemper in deeds of violence The scrap in the Nevada Senate In which a number of not very potent po-tent grave and reverend seignors participated par-ticipated is but one of the shameful distrubances which have brought the legislatures of this country into disrepute dis-repute Ever the officer of the Senate required to preserve order and execute its decrees was resisted by force and the proceedings resolved into a kind of freeforall fight Such disturbances are dismissed after af-ter they have quieted down all too easily A verbal apology seems to be the extent of the requirement made of the rowdy and vulgar participants in the melee It is time that such bodies showed a little more selfre spect When the rules are trampled under foot and brute force takes the place of wordy contention the dignity of the assembly where the scene occurs oc-curs ought to be upheld by a sufficient suffi-cient penalty upon the transgressors So when debate degenerates into blackguardism and personal vituperation vitupera-tion examples ought to be made by presiding officers of persons who thus exhibit the qualities of the ruffian and the barroom bully in a deliberative assembly It is said a stream cannot rise higher than its fountain The source of power in this nation is in the people The men who are chosen to frame the laws ebulli are their representatives Such tions of ungovernable rage and vulgar pugnacity are reflections on the people peo-ple who select such persons to represent rep-resent them All due allowance should be made J for warmth of expression in animated debate but there is no valid excuse for the ruffianism of word and act which turns our legislative halls into political beargardens and pugilistic arenas The people should demand immediate im-mediate reform in these particulars and should drive some sense of decorum de-corum into the minds of their public servants if milder means will not effect ef-fect a change |