The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1884-07-08
Qualifications Of Lawmakers.

| Qualifications OF Law-Nakers.
cumming up the results Of the dis
cussion, may We not reasonably saw
that there lie before the legislator SOW
GRAZ open secrets, which yet are SO
open that they ought not to remain
secrets to one who undertakes the vast
and terrible responsibility of DEALING
with millions upon millions of human
beings by measures which, if they do
not conduce to their happiness, will in
crease their miscries and accelerate
their deaths?
There is first of all the undeniable
truth, conspicuous and yet absolutely
ignored, that there are no phenomena
which a society presents but what have
their origins in the phenomena of indi-
yidual human life, which again have
their roots in vital phenomena at large.
And there is the inevitable implication
that unless these vital phenomena,
bodily and mentally, arc chaotic in
their relations Ga supposition excluded
by the very maintenance Of lfe) the
resulting phenomena can not be wholly
chaotic; there must be some kind of
order in the phenomena which grow
out OF them when associated human
beings have to cooperate. Evidently,
then, when one who has not studied
such resulting phenomena Of social
order undertakes to regulate society he
IS pretty certain to work mischiefs.
In the second place, apart from
rrloT reasoning, this conclusion should
be forced on the legislator by COMPARE
sons o. societies. 1t ought to be suflic-
iently manifest that, before meddlinp
with the details of social organization
inquiry should be made whether social
organization has natural history; and
that to answer this inquiry, it would
be well, setting out with the simplest
societies, to see in what respects social
structures agree. Such comparative
sociology, pursued to a very small ex-
tent, shows a substantial uniformity of
genesis The habitual existence of
craftsmanship, and the establishment of
chiefly authority by war; the rise
everywhere Of the medicine-man and
priest; the presence of q cult having in
all places the same fundamental traits;
the traces of division of labor, early
displayed, which gradually become
more marked, and the various compli-
cations, political, ecclesiastical, indus
trial, which arise as groups are CON-
pounded and recompounded by war;
quickly prove to anyone who compares
them that, apart from all their special |
differences, societies have general re- |
semblances in their modes of origin
and development They present traits
Of structure showing that social
organization has laws which override |
individual wills, and laws the disre-
gard of which must be fraught with |
disaster.
And then, in the third place, there is
that mass Of guiding information
yielded by the records Of law-makinc
in our own country and in other coun.
tries, which still more obviously de-
mands attention. Here and elsewhere
attempts OF multitudinous kinds, made
by kings and statesmen, have failed to
do the good intended and have worked
unexpected evils. Century after GEN.
fury new measures like the old ones,
and other measures akin in principle,
have again disappointed hopes and
again brought disaster. And yet it is
thought neither by electors nor by
those they elect that there is any need
for systematic study of that legislation
which in by-gone ages went on work.
ing the ill-being Of the people when it
tried to achieve their welI-beinr. |
Surely there can be no fitness for legis-
Iatiye functions without wide knowl-
edge of those legislative experiences
which the past has bequeathed Her.
cert SpeHctrW Popular Science Monthly
for JNlLe.