UNTIL the recent special session of the general assembly, social legislation in Indiana had lagged for many years. There had been no serious and thoroughgoing official effort made for a generation to reorganize the public welfare and social security laws of the state. The drive, which culminated in the recent legislation, began with the emergency relief legislation in 1933, received added force when the report of the State Committee on Governmental Economy was published in February, 1935, and was assured of at least partial success when the Federal Social Security Act was passed and implemented by the recent federal appropriation for this Act. As soon as the federal appropriation was assured, Governor Paul V. McNutt appointed a committee to make the original drafts of public welfare and social security bills. 1 After about a month this committee completed drafts of bills for public health, public welfare, and unemployment compensation. The governor, in consultation with the president of the senate and the speaker of the house of representatives, then appointed a legislative committee, consisting of twelve members from each house, of which Senator Walter S. Chambers was designated as chariman. The legislative committee spent another month studying and revising the draft bills. Two days after their draft bills were handed to the governor, the general assembly was called into special session. Exactly two weeks after it convened, the three bills were passed and signed by the governor, and the general assembly went home. Although there is much yet to be done in social legislation in Indiana, the enactment of these laws is a long step forward.