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First test of the new system came in last year's election. An average of seven candidates filed for each seat. The primary reduced this to two a seat, or 86, of whom 60 were survivors of the old 133-member Legislature. Of the 43 elected 32 are former legislators. The 43 include n lawyers, n farmers, i farmer-lawyer, 3 ranchers, 5 merchants, 3 workers, i physician, i veterinarian, i editor, i insurance man, i capitalist, 2 bankers, i power plant operator, i high school football coach. One member from Omaha is a negro. Most of them are college graduates and it is generally agreed that only the best members of the former Legislature were elected to the new, not one notorious crackpot. All were elected without party labels, but the proportion of Republicans and Democrats is about equal, although the Democrats have had big majorities in recent Legislatures.
First real test will come when the new Legislature adopts its rules of procedure. Last week those rules remained a big unknown. Professors at the State university prepared a set of suggestions but whether the Legislature would adopt them was another matter. Several legislators have made pilgrimages to McCook in recent weeks to get Senator Norris' idieas but he refused to sponsor anything except general suggestions that all proceedings should be completely open & aboveboard.
The unicameral body also posed a problem for the press: what short words could be used to describe it in headlines? Only "the Legislature" is referred to in the law, no name whatever given to its members. Sophisticated newshawks now dislike "solons" and "Unicam" has little favor. One suggestion going the rounds of newspaper offices on the eve of the unicameral's meeting was that its members be called "eunuchs."
"Maybe I am wrong/' "If I were a citizen of Nebraska, regardless of what party I belonged to, I would not allow George Norris to retire from the U. S. Senate," said Franklin Roosevelt over a year ago. This was not mere political persiflage. George Norris is one of the few men in public life for whom the President has an almost reverential respect. That respect is shared by the great majority of Congressmen, by almost all newshawks in Washington and in every election by a majority of the citizens of Nebraska.
Chief cause of that respect is that no one who knows him ever doubts George Norris' 100% integrity. Frankness is almost a fetish with him. He carries it to such a point that he even tells the press what goes on in the secret sessions of committees. When he says that he is for the Common Man and against the Special Interests, it takes a double-doubting Thomas to disbelieve him, for his record backs him up at every point.