The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-09-10
THE LAWS INNOCENT VICTIMS.

THE LAWS INNOCENT VICTIMS
Every man is presumed to know the law. was
the judgment of English judges on the common law
side long before Blackstone to write his dismal
treatise to the dsmay and bewilderment of following
generations of aspiring unfedged Q. Cs and our own
embryotie attorneys at law But every man did not
know the law when the first judge held that he dd
and multitudes nowadays even more ignorant OF
what the law is because law has grown out OF It's
simple swaddIng clothes of CUSTOM and has even
been termed by persons careless in terminOlogy
science We all know that even lawyers do not know
what the law is until after they have pondered long
volumes of precedents cropping for the pat case
that will enable them to guess at the meaning OF
statutory expression Of legislative WISDOM.
Lawyers even have been known to come out of
court faces flushed with Indignation vowing the
court itself was an Internal bockhead who didn't
know law from beans.
But the old English Judge when he laid down
the law that Is law even unto this day-tempereo
by the mercy of courts and the of
jurors-looked out the head OF the unfortunate
before him to the great Of humanity and saw
that their greater interests demanded the rule he
laid down. for if every miscreant could plead in de-
Tense that he did not know that the act he committed
was contrary to the peace and dignity of the realm
and against the statute in that particular case made
and provided where would society be at! Still the
application of the rule has it's attendant hardshlps,
Of which, growing out OF the enforcement OF our
food laws, purpose considering
a9 For one instance the law makes it misdemeanor
for anyone to SELL have offer expose for sale
cider eyinegar vinegar that is not solely made
from the juice of apples This statute is the egisla
tive expression Of notion that stupidity adheres in
the minds Of the descendants of ancestors who made
fhoiroI xi,,o md nrpiN
dice of ancestral origin against all other vinegar.
But only the chemist in the laboratory, after patient
Investigation can tell if a vinegar is made from cider
only or not whether it is white wine celored with
burnt sugar or with boiled cider added. Still the
taller who sells what looks like cider vinegar for
which he buys 1t. is liable to fine though innocent
of intent to defraud deceive the unborn babe.
He becomes one Of the laws innocent victims
Then there is the dairyman who supplies cow
less de1zens Of cities with milk To him a is
cow and a good bad Indifferent she gives
down q more or less eepous and steady supply Of
milk He knows, of course, that the milk OF
differs in richness, that is in the quantity of butter
- fat in the milk but what this difference is he,
only guess at, for he is chemist and he cannot
manipulate Babcocks famous test if lie could
afford to buy tester SO he ml:s his COWS in the
dawn the deWy and goes cheerily among; his
customers, doing it out their needs demand or
their purses admit. Some i'll starred day ruthless
inspector embodying in his person the law and dig
nifty of the state stops hiIn end takes sample Of
milk HES to the laboratory, tests it and finds that
it holds less than the 35 per of fat demanded
by the law. Then may follow arrest and despite the
manifest mpossibility Of his knowing that he has In
fringed the statute if he has been introduced to
it, he is mucted for doing what he did and could
not know he was doing He is another innocent VIC
tim of the law.
Such recently happened. But the dairy
commissioner, knowing something about COWS HIM
self and having large bowels of compassion, knew
vender SO he had the seventeen of this parcu-
lar dairyman MIXED and samples taken and tested,
and eight of the seventeen cows were the guilty
parties, each giving milk that 1agranty violated the
statutory standard. This suggests two things One
amendment to the dairy laws providing for cow
inspection and the arrest and punishment of cows
failing to do their duty and respect the law The
other that dairymen buy and sell COWS on tests Of
the fat contents of their milk. AS no legislature
that will ever be elected will have the common sense
to enact sensible amendment, the poor limo
cent victims of the cows duplicity and the laws alb
surdy must perforee take the latter course or the
penalties imposed. sr
THE SILENCE OF SENATOR BEVERIDGE.