The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-08-28
THE GREATEST REFORM.


THE GREATEST REFORM.
OF all the reforms that it is possible
to accomplish in the making bust
ness of this nation, the greatest is that
recommended by a paper read before
the National Bar association. This is
such diminution of the business of
law making itself as will give our peo-
pie respite from eternal change; enable
them to learn with certainty where
they stand and what are their obliga-
lions to the state. and put a quietus
upon the constant agitation of projects
whose effects are unknown and unpre-
dictable, and whose effect upon the
Whole community is, therefore, at the
outset dangerous and depressing. 1t
is true that the curse of this country
from the highest legislative body to the
lowest, is too much law making. The
states have been first to realize it in
their general agreement to substitute
biennial for annual sessions of their
legislatures. More than thirty. states
have now adopted this policy, in addi-
ton to which many of them limit the
length Of the session itself. In not one
was there any proposition to return to
the old system, and in many it is be-
ing considered whether the time of
meeting might not proftably be made
still less frequent and the length of
session allowed be still further cur
Tot NJ
that, if it were possible to prevent the
passage of any new law whatever for
period of ten years to come, the coun-
try would be vastly the gamer. This
on the statute books needing change,
and no subjects on which new legisla-
ton is not desirable. 1t does mean
that we could get along without either
of these reforms, if by that means we
| were to be relieved of the annoyance
and the menace to good government
and business prosperity contained in
the crude, raw, empiric legislative
products that overflow legislatures and
congresses, burden state and national
a
| petual worry and unrest.
The excessive activity of legislatures
is not due to a deliberate desire to
harass the people, but grows naturally
system of government. In a repre-
| sentative democracy like ours where
elections are frequent and political
rights and privileges are absolutely
large portion of the members of every
| newly chosen legislative body are men
inexperienced in public life. They are
| frequently men of limited knowledge
! of the world and it's affairs, of narrow
mind and of great zeal for some par
ticular theory. This is usually some
| restraint upon individual liberty, like
an attempt to tax some business out
of existence or to impose unjust. and
unequal burdens on one class of the
community as against another. I'm
affected by past experience, or perhaps
even unacquainted with it, they mag
| Inc that they are going to turn the
| world upside down and reform evils as
| old as mankind by the simple process
of BE it enacted"
This process is going on all the time
in all the states of the Union and at
Washington, and the result is a perfect
inundation Of new statutes and a. de-
Votton of that time that should be ex-
pended in improving old laws to plan
ming new ones. The courts are kept
busy with this steady influx Of unine
! terpreted laws, the public never knows
| just where it stands, and a legislative
session is commonly regarded much
as II 1t were an invasion of the state
by some hostile power. The doctrine
| that legislation should be diminished
| that we need no more laws, and that
the attention of city councils and state
| legislatures and federal congresses
ought to be devoted, for a decade to
come, toward the repeal of obsolete
| statutes and the amendment of inner
feet ones, ought to be preached by ey-
! cry reformer, put into the creed of ey-
cry lover of good government and re-
| peated by every newspaper in the coun-
| try until it becomes effective. Less
law making and more business is what
this country needs if it's system of gov
eminent is not to pass from political
blessing into a public curse