BREVIER
LEGISLATIVE REPORTS,
OF THE INDIANA
LEGISLATURE.
PROSPECTUS-To the 53rd General Assembly:
The undersigned proprietor of the BREVIER LEGISLATIVE REPORTS respectfully represents That twenty-five years ago we organized and executed a plan of independent unpartizan Legislative Reporting (the first ever attempted west of the Alleghanies having regard to fullness and completeness as to the matter and the parliamentary forms) upon which we have printed our Reports at a cost to the State less by one-half than any similar job of the State's printing: That our work proved acceptable to the General Assembly and received acts for authorization and pay; That it has been maintained and has received similar acts of endorsement by every assembly except three; and we respectfully submit that under this usage of the General Assembly we have a fair constructive permission and invitation to continue our independent work of elaborating and offering the BREVIER REPORTS.
The twenty-first volume of the BREVIER LEGISLATIVE REPORTS of the Proceedings and Debates of the Indiana Legislature will embrace reliable short-hand sketches of the Journals, Proceedings and Debates of both Houses of the Fifty-3rd General Assembly of the State of Indiana, convened at Indianapolis city, in regular session, the 4th day of January, A. D. 1883. It will contain important motions, messages, resolutions and committee reports, that shall be made and submitted; it will describe or copy at length bills and weighty propositions that shall be presented and considered ; and it will afford liberal and verbatim sketches of the Debates,-presenting without partizan bias the position of every member on the floor, with the yeas and nays in every question of moment on which they shall be ordered and taken.
The coming session will without doubt, be usually interesting, and the BREVIER REPORTS will be, as it has been for 25 years the only source from which reliable reports of the Debates of the Legislature can be obtained. This has been found to be the best and most economical means of presenting to the people an intelligible journal not only of what is done, but of
page: 304[View Page 304]what is said in the General Assembly, together with a reliable account, in proper legislative forms, of the order of the doings and sayings of the representatives of the people.
The undersigned submit that these Reports are indispensable to the history of legislation in the State, of great value to the people at large, especially to politicians, and every public man; and that their value is increased by time.
We propose to pursue the publication of our BREVIER LEGISLATIVE REPORTS. But there is now this difficulty about our work: we are unable to contract with either of the morning papers in this city for the daily printing of our Reports of the Session in their newspaper. Therefore, since our Reports of the present Session cannot appear in the papers as heretofore, and to provide against the restrictions of space in the daily papers by which the reports are marred and excluded, we pro- pose to contract for printing outside of the daily press, so as to insure a complete and satisfactory record. These contracts involve an inevitable expense of money on our part, which is barely justified by the State's authorization of the purchase of the number of copies of the Reports which has been accord- ed for nineteen years in the Specific Bill or resolution nearly every Assembly since 1857-. The price is less than one-third which is paid by the States for the work of the Reporter of the Supreme Court.
The past, we think, teaches plainly enough, that unless the General Assembly were to establish a special Bureau for Reporting and Printing, involving new offices and additional public expensivenesss, which should be avoided by all means consistent with reasonable carefulness for the information and welfare of the supervising people, our proposition, which has been accepted by the General Assembly for twenty-five years is the best, and certainly it is by very much the cheapest way to escape the evils of partial Reporting in the interest of rings and factions. We think, also, that the general acceptance of our Reports twenty-five years justifies the expectation that the Legislature will not now forego the advantages of these contributions to the history of its work.
So, pledging diligence and fidelity for completeness and impartiality, larger space and improved facilities for printing, we hope you will regard it as respectful, and but the part of common prudence for us to ask of the present General Assembly for some expression, in advance, in favor of the continuance: of these Reports, upon which we may proceed with the printing of another-the 21st-volume of our Reports.
W. H. DRAPIER, Indianapolis, Indiana.
