St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-11-20
IN EFFICACY oFLAW.

IN EFFICACY OF LAW.
The incident of the meeting of the
ministers of Minneapolis with Mavor
EuStis. in which the former took the
chlet executive OF our sister city to task
because certain evils continue TO exist
In spite of a legislative decree that they
shall not, and in which the latter told
the ministers plainly that as a plain,
everyday matter OF fact, the repressve
laws did but little more than aid the
authorities in keeping the evils within
bounds. and that they could not be
wholly repressed nor should lie attempt
1t, suggests condition of thought which
is quite prevalent in this country, a
strong survival here of habits of thought
formed during generations OF paternaI-
lstlc government in other countries.
1T is not only in the statutes which
forbid gambling and the social evil that
we see tAls disD )5itioa to reverence
mere legislative enactment and to a
tribute I'd it the Self-executing power of
the laws CT nature, but We meet it
everywhere. City councils everywhere
yield to their own impulse or the I'M
portunities Of others who see some con-
dltlon OF wrong, and, impatient OF the
SLOW but sure processes OF Individual
development, would Strike tile wrany
with the force of the aggregate power
OF the community expressed in its or
dinances, and in response another Or
dlnance goes to its slumbers among its
lnnOcuouS fellows.
NO session OF legislature is ever held
anywhere but some of its III" tprs come
lmbued with a mission to ef, tie some
social i'll. and what may De wanting Of
measures thus initiated is supplied bv
those prepared by blind huuanitarians
who see evils clearly and tie reme-
dies darkly. And so it comes that the
law books of the cities and state and
nation are filed with enactments de-
Glazing this thing or that crime, and
providing fearSOme penalties viii ch
would restore the garden of Ellen were
there any efficacy in mare legal pro-
Scrlptlon. And the acts are forgotten
or ignored rs soon as passed, and the
old world with its people ways along on
helped nor hindered III its progress by
thu lumber Of the statutes.
This is the common and universal ex-
perience. Everywhere this for midable
thing we call the state full inmates its
bulls agains the wrongs apparently ill.,
separable from human conditions as
they have existed and still exist; and,
everywhere and always, unless the laws
formulate the common sense and con-
science OF the people, they lapse into
lnnocuous deSuetude, to be temporarily
revived only when malice or spite
makes them the implements of its
vengeance. And yet, in spite OF this.
the impatient good people cry for more
and yet more law, and refuse to learn
the lesson, old as the social organiza-
ton, that reformatory laws are not self
eXecutory; that men cannot be better bv
legislation: that Suasion, not coercion.
is the only effective force.
The mayor was right, and the mslIs-
ters were wrong. He knows what they
should know, that the gambling room
and the brothel are not causes, but
effects. They exist only because of
conditions existing in the men and
women of the community. They di-
mInlsh as virtue advances; they in
crease as this force retrogrades. Law
is helpless to eradicate either vice in
men and woman. 1t may prevent them
running riot, but that is all. Ii it check
them, it has done all it can do. The
remedy, lies in constant, unwearying
efforts to create in men and women =
higher sense OF self-respect, because.
both evils find their food in human self
abasement. The man or woman, boy or
girl who has that decent pride of self
which abhors the unclean. is safe
against the allurements of either.
The process is inevitably a slow one,
but all human experience shows that if
is the only sure one. We have come up
out of the depths behind us only by this
path; we can reach the higher plane of
universal right conduct only by this
path. We must tread it with patience,
gathering encouragement for greater
eXertlonS by measuring the progress
already made And, since ministers
are So free with their sage counsel to
the press, we may absOlve ourselves of
the obligations thus imposed by suggest
ing to them to teach morals and right
conduct more, and dogma and creed less.
Give to this work the energy You ex-
pend in eXpounding sectarianism and in
your inter-sectarian strifes and bicker-
ings. While the mayors are oiding the
panders in terrorem. all them by dimin-
ishing the supply of material on which
the panderS feed.