The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-03-28
GENERAL HARRISON ON LEGIS-
LATION.

LA LINN.
Addressing the students at the Uni
versity of Michigan the other day, ex-
President Harrison, at the close of his
address. said:,
/ a way must be devised to place cor
porations under proper restraint and to
bring to the tax roll the vast aggregate
OF untaxed personal property, but it
Will never be accomplished by the i'm
pulsive hodge-podge methods of sixty
day legislatures. The executive and
judicial forces of the government act
quickly and directly. The legislative
forces, hampered by the conditions
surrounding them, and the greater
complications of the questions before
them, seem to be inadequate. 1t is
more difficult to make wise laws than
to interpret or execute them. 1t seems
to me that the great reform laws must
be framed by commissions composed
of the ablest men in the states. They
must have time thoroughly to study
the subject. Opportunity must be Civ
en- to the interests to be affected. and
to the public, TO present suggestions
and objections. There should be no at
tempt to bring in the millennium on the
morrow. 1t would be too sudden. The
ideal cannot be reached at a STEP but
Here is an instance of General Har-
rison's happy faculty of saying a great
deal in few words. What is said here
is mostly pith with very little wood
about it.
Corporations, particularly railroads
and such like, do need restraint How
shall it be imposed? How is a very hard
matter to say, but it should not be in
a spirit of hostility; and yet that is
but too often the spirit in which it is
sought to be imposed. But there is a
cause for this, and it is found in the
fact that those upon which the power
of eminent domain is conferred often
use that power in most ruthless
manner, riding over and riding down
individuals because they know that
the individuals cannot successfully re-
they are not so particular TO observe
the obligations placed upon them as
they are to use their power by any
means. So soon as they get what they
want by reason of their semi-public
nature, those who control and manage
them forget or ignore the fact that the
public still has an interest in them,
right to demand that the public well
fare shall be considered. Exercising
the right of eminent domain, it is but
just that they should be amenable to
legislative control to a reasonable ex-
tent. Their managers are too frequent
ly inclined to act as though they were
wholly private concerns with which
the people had no concern. And this
is very apt to make the people hostile
to them.
What is said about the impulsive
methods of legislatures in dealing with
this question will commend itself to all
who have given the matter any
thought. Most legislatures are com
posed of men who are unframed in the
consideration of the problems with
which they have to deal. The conse |
quence is that they do not know how
Tar legislative action will be able to |
solve them; and where they can be !
solved by legislative action very often !
they do not know how to formulate |
the legislation that would effect the |
The ex-prosident states a |
most obvious truth when he SAYS it is |
more difficult to make wise laws than /
to interpret or execute them. But to |
interpret and execute unwise laws is
to run counter to human nature and is
rarely successful
A commission to prepare laws for
submission to legislative body seems,
at first blush, the wise and scientific
thing to do, but the objection to it is
that it is not in full touch with the
people, and not being in touch with
hem, is liable not to be in harmony
and sympathy with them. A very long
step in the direction of better legisla-
ion would be to send to the legisla-
ures better and ADLER class of men
han is usually sent to them. The bet
er and ADLER the personnel of Iegisla-
ures the less legislation they will en-
tct and the better its quality will be.