Logrolling

a system of giving help. In clearing up the heavily timbered portions of the country each settler was accustomed to work independently during the winter. He felled trees and piled up the brush and small branches himself, but cut the trunks into lengths and left them lying on the ground. In the spring the men of the settlement combined with their teams and helped each other to draw these large logs together and to roll them up into heaps to be burned. Each settler invited his neighbors to his "logrolling" and made it a day of general jollification. No account was kept of whether one gave more help than he received. Everybody was expected to turn out to a logrolling. Of late, the term has been applied to legislative matters. A member having a bill in charge, possibly an objectionable one, which he is unable to have carried by his own efforts, invites other legislators to assist him in putting his measure through, with the understanding that he will turn out and help them "logroll" their pet bills when the time comes. While carried on under the guise of good fellowship, and not subject to the charge of bribery, logrolling is really one of the most dangerous features of modern legislation.