The Short-Lived Biennial Legislative Session System in Massachusetts

If you’re familiar with Massachusetts legislative research materials such as the Acts and Resolves, the Legislative Documents series, and the House and Senate Journals, you will notice one strange similarity among them: volumes are missing for the years 1940 and 1942.  Here’s why: During the 1918 session of the 1917 Constitutional Convention there was discussion among members of the MA General Court to change the election system from annual to biennial.  Some of the main supporting arguments were that biennial elections would save money all around and allow elected officials more time to fulfill the duties of their offices.  Others considered annual elections as “safeguards of the Republic.”  The legislature voted in favor of this amendment, and it was subsequently ratified by the people of the Commonwealth.  Holding biennial legislative sessions was considered a “logical corollary” to biennial elections, and many felt that a shift would filter out unnecessary legislation in an “over-legislated” state.  In 1938 an initiative petition for such sessions was approved by the legislature and ratified by the people as Amendment LXXII in the MA Constitution.

1939 was the first year the General Court began meeting every other year instead of annually (they met in 1939, 1941, and 1943).  In 1942 (for six days) and 1944 (for 15 days) they held two special sessions that resulted in a handful of acts and resolves on particular subjects that required urgent attention.  However, no session was held in 1940 and no legislation or other materials relating thereof was published during that year.  The biennial session system was short-lived and in 1945, after a referendum vote, the General Court abandoned biennial sessions and once again began convening annually.

Much of this information, as well an overall history of the Massachusetts General Court, can be found in the title Leading the Way: a History of the Massachusetts General Court, 1629-1980 by Cornelius Dalton, et al., which is available in the State Library.


Kaitlin Connolly
Reference Department

Noted Author to Speak about the Federal Stimulus Act and Jobs

UMass Boston Offers First Demographic Analysis of Recovery Act Jobs

Carol Hardy-Fanta, Executive Director of the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy, will speak on March 1 at noon in the State Library about the recently completed study examining which racial, ethnic, and gender groups have benefited from Recovery Act-supported jobs during the first two quarters of 2010.

The study found that 90 percent of communities in Massachusetts have at least someone whose job was created or retained by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds. According to the report, people of color constituted more than 10 percent of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act job holders in the state in both quarters, while women held just over 55 percent of ARRA positions in the first quarter, and 49 percent in the second.

The report is based on Recovery and Reinvestment Act demographic data collected quarterly by the Massachusetts Recovery & Reinvestment Office (MRRO). It was conducted at the request of the MRRO by the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy and the Collins Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston and appears to be the first attempt in the nation to analyze the impact of ARRA jobs on racial, ethnic, and gender groups. The study was written by Carol Hardy-Fanta, Paige Ransford and Christian Weller.

The event will take place in Room 442 of the State House from noon until 1:00 and is open to the public. To register, please call 617.727.2590 or email reference.department@state.ma.us.

This program is sponsored by the Friends of the State Library.

More Interesting Laws: Acts of 1954

The Massachusetts Acts and Resolves were scanned as one large file. In order to save time retrieving a particular act, we are breaking them up into individual files. While searching the Acts of 1954, these acts were found to be of interest:

1. Chapter 361 changed the General Edward Lawrence Logan Airport to Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport. It was on June 13, 1923 that Boston's first aircraft touched down on a 1,500 foot cinder runway (piloted by Lt. Kitchell Snow) on a tiny airfield known as Boston Airport built by the U.S. Army on 189 acres of tidal flats.

2. Chapter 408, Sections 2 and 3 restricts dental advertising. Dentists cannot advertise in any newspaper, on the radio, or sign "to deceive or mislead the public...or claiming professional superiority."

3. Chapter 590. This 38-page act revises the military laws of the Commonwealth. The militia and the national guard are discussed with references to the National Defense Act.

Naomi Allen
Reference Librarian