Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-04-05

To authorize q compilation of the District
laws 10 one thing; to indorse the compilation
when made and to recognize it as an official
statement OF the statute law is another thing.
Congress has frequently taken the first step, but
never the second. For the welfare of the Dis
trict it is sincerely TO be hoped that the work of
the present efficient compilers will receive
better treatment than that of their predecessors.
The District has ever been ready to emulate
the smiling hopefulness Of Mark Tapley in
respect to what Congress will do for 1t
In this regard Just complaints of the
condition Of its laws were among the
first municipal utterances of the infant
capital Successive would-be compilers or
codlfers since the time of Cranch have kept
dangling before the eyes Of Congress the patch
work Of District law full of ugly holes and ex-
crescences, but in vain. Still the people of
Washington are not completely discouraged.
They are glad to have Congress appoint compe-
tent men from time to time to burrow for Dis
trict law among the English statutes existing at
the time Of the first immigration to Maryland
and (which by experience have been found ap-
plicable to local and other circumstances" in
that state, and among the Maryland stat
utes and stray acts of Congress, where
the local law lies hidden. They would
be additionally grateful if some one Of these
compilations were adopted as a statement of
the law as it exists. For by that course statutes
locally applicable would be collected from
dozen different sources, convenience of refer
ence would be secured, and in Strengthening in
constituencies and making Ineligible the state
ment of existing law many antiquated provis-
ions would be practically legislated out of
existence by being treated as obsolete. But
Congress should not stop even when the rich
boon Of such compilation has been bestowed.
II will be great thing to have existing law
collected and printed in convenient shape,
but clear statement of the statute law
as it is should be only the preface
to an improvement of that law There is no
reason why the capital of the nation should be
clogged with statutes which England and Mary
land, whence these Anticipated provisions come,
have themselves outgrown and cast aside
First by all means, get a compilation. Then
there should follow a comprehensive code or
body Of revised statutes, giving to this District
the benefit of the modern spirit of legislation,
both in respect TO substantive law and pro-
eedure. To put the matter modestly, Washing
ton Is fast becoming progressive nineteenth
century city, and an eighteenth century body
Of laws, merely disigured by subsequent ran
dom patching, is unsuitable to its condition
Tobacco, for instance, is no longer money
to be used in paying the penalty
for some antiquated offense, unknown to the |
criminal code of all other sections of the re-
public. 1t is time that the statutes of the cap
ital Of the nation ceased to serve mainly as a |
museum of antiquities, displaying curiosities, |
wonders and horrors to the investigator The |
District needs modern laws for present use,
which will aid. or at least not retard, its de- |
velopment as modern municipality.