ratified by a majority of those voting therefor, shall be
valid as a part of the Constitution.

Sec. 2. Section 7 of Article V of the Constitution
of the State of Colorado shall be amended so as to read
as follows:

"Sec. 7. The general assembly shall meet at 12 o'clock, noon, on the first Wednesday of January of the year A. D. 1917, and of each alternate year thereafter, and at other times when convened by the Governor. When first convened, sessions, other than extraordinary, shall continue for a period of not exceeding thirty days; whereupon a recess of both houses shall be taken for not less than thirty days. On the reassembling of the legislature after recess, no bill except the general appropriation bill shall be introduced in either house. The term of service of the members of the general assembly shall begin on the first Wednesday of November next after their election, until otherwise provided by law."

Sec. 3. Each elector voting at such election and desirous of voting for or against said amendment shall deposit in the ballot box his ticket whereon shall be printed the words "For the Amendment Concerning the Sessions of the General Assembly" and "Against the Amendment Concerning the Sessions of the General Assembly", and shall indicate his choice by placing a cross opposite one or the other of said groups of words.

Sec. 4. The votes cast for the adoption or rejection of said amendment shall be canvassed and the result be determined by the laws of the State for the canvass of votes for representatives in congress.

Also the following bill, creating the office of Superintendent of the Legislative Reference and Bill-drafting Department:

A BILL FOR AN ACT

TO CREATE A STATE LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE AND BILLDRAFTING DEPARTMENT AND TO REPEAL SECTIONS 3951 AND 5876 REVISED STATUTES, 1908.

Be It Enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Colorado:

Section 1. There is hereby created a legislative reference and bill-drafting department, which shall be in charge of some competent person, learned in the law, who shall be appointed by the Governor for a term of six years and until his successor shall be appointed and qualified, and shall be known as "The Superintendent of the Legislative Reference and Bill-Drafting Department". The superintendent shall receive a salary of two thousand four hundred dollars ($2,400.00) per annum and shall be entitled to the assistance of a stenographer when needed, who shall receive a salary of one hundred dollars. ($100.00) per month for time actually employed.

Sec. 2. The superintendent of the legislative reference and bill-drafting department shall investigate and give information to the members of the legislature, the officials of the State, counties and municipalities, and the public in general, on all legislative matters in this and other States and the acts of Congress whenever request is made therefor. He shall also assist in the drafting, for introduction in the legislature, of any bills which may be brought to him for that purpose by any interested parties; and shall edit the texts of all proposed initiative measures, before the circulation of petitions therefor, whenever his services are requested by the party or parties interested in the circulation of any such petitions.

See 3. The office of the legislative reference and bill-drafting department shall be kept in the Capitol Building and suitable rooms shall be provided therefor.

It shall be the duty of the superintendent to keep said
rooms open on each day throughout the year, Sundays
and holidays excepted.

Sec. 4. All acts and parts of acts in conflict here-
with are hereby repealed.

These two bills are submitted without recommendation from this committee.

The Legislative Reference and Bill-Drafting Department plan has been adopted in several States and was carefully considered by a special committee of the American Bar Association. The report of that committee is found in the Annual Report of the American Bar Association for the year 1913, on page 622. This report is voluminous and very comprehensive. We respectfully direct the attention of members of this Association to it if they are further interested in this subject.

Your committee believes that a forceful objection to such a plan at the present time in this State is the expense involved in maintaining such a department. The State of Colorado is already top-heavy with boards and bureaus, and the machinery of government has, of late years, been complicated by the multiplication of departments. It is true that there has been some amelioration of this condition since the last regular session of the legislature, but the fact remains that the number of boards and bureaus existing in this State is, today, entirely disproportionate to the population and financial resources of the State.

Your committee endeavored to devise a plan that would utilize some existing office, thereby saving the expense and machinery of a new department, and, while the bill we submit herewith does not utilize any such plan, nevertheless it occurs to us that such an arrangement is possible. There exists in the State of Colorado, an institution known as the State Library. This is not the law library, and, doubtless, the information that such an institution. exists is news to many members of this Association. yet to hear of any practical benefit from this library.

We have

The Constitution, Article IV, Section 20, provides that, "The

superintendent of public instruction shall be er officio state librarian", and under authority of the statutes of the State, the superintendent of public instruction appoints an assistant, who is practically the state librarian. The committee believes that the state library and also the state librarian might be made of practical benefit along the lines of the subject under discussion, and we suggest for the consideration of the Association that the constitution and statutes of the State be so amended that the Governor be given power to appoint the state librarian and that that officer should have he qualifications necessary and be required to perform the services which it is proposed to devolve upon the legislative reference and bill-drafting department.

The present condition of the state library has caused some to suggest that it be abandoned and the books and documents be given to the public library of the City of Denver in order that whatever value they have be made available to the public, and also that the unnecessary expense of maintaining it be discontinued. Some objection, both legal and sentimental, was raised to this plan and it occurs to us that the method which we have suggested might make of the state library a working factor for the benefit of the State. We invite the attention of the members of the Association to this plan.

ture.

Referring now to the division of the sessions of the legislaWe have approached this work with some hesitation. The committee feels that the time is not far distant when a constitutional convention will be called. We believe that it is the concensus of opinion of the Bar that a re-vamping of our constitution will soon be necessary, particularly in view of the numerous amendments which have been made within recent years. Probably the time is not opportune for such a movement at this time, but when it arrives, there are so many changes which will demand attention, we are inclined to suggest that the matter of the division of the sessions be left awaiting such a general movement.

In the same connection, we desire to direct the attention of

the Association to the desirability of changing the date upon which the general assembly convenes at its regular sessions. The Constitution, Article V, Section 7, provides, among other things, that the general assembly shall convene on the first Wednesday of January of each alternate year, and Article IV, Section 1, provides that the term of office of the executive department of the State shall begin upon the second Tuesday of the same year in which the general assembly convenes in regular session. The executive officers of the State are inaugurated a few days after the general assembly begins its session. When the Governor assumes his office, he is entirely new to the work, and, except in a general way, unacquainted with the various duties which devolve upon him. Bills, with the exception of the general appropriation bill, can be introduced only during the first thirty days of the session. The result is that a novitiate in the office of governor is precluded from getting to the legislature his ideas concerning the details of the work of the administration, and it occurs to the committee that it would be far better for the State if the legislature were to be convened a short time after the Governor is inaugurated.

A suggestion has been made that the sessions of the legislature should be set back one year, so that the Governor would have the experience of one year in the office before the regular meeting of the general assembly. This plan, however, is subject to the criticism that it delays the administration for a year in the initiation of any legislation which it may desire to have enacted, and the policies of any administration would be tested only for the short period of the term remaining after the laws went into effect.

Your committee believes that if the regular sessions of the general assembly could be fixed for the early part of March following the inauguration of the Governor, that it would give a sufficient opportunity for the Governor to familiarize himself with the details of the work pertaining to his administration, and at the same time, afford him an opportunity to secure such legisla