The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1900-12-14
n "A $50
NO. SO
THE EVILS OF OVER
LEGISLATION.

Ex-Prcsident Manderson, of the
American Bar Association, in two an
nual addresses, has touched upon the
passion of law making, bringing in its
train the ills Of paternalism, dead-let
ter statutes, with disregard and even
contempt for the law. There are at
present but few subjects of more i'm
portance. Some check upon the un-
fortunate activities OF State Legisla-
lures must be devised, and speedily.
The evil, however, is no new one In
days of old Tacitus declared that
"whcn the State is most corrupt, then
the laws are most multiplied "The
tendency to deal with every evil that
appears in society by coercive legisla
tion," says Lecky, that thoughtful
philosopher, "weakcns the robust, self
reliant, resourceful habits on which
the happiness of society so largely de-
pends, and at the same time, by multi
plying the functions and therefore in
creasing the expenses of government,
throws new crushing burdens on strug-
Cling industry" Showing in his ex-
cellent and late work, "The Map of
Life" how injudicious and improvi-
dent laws defeat the very purpose for
which they are framed, he says, meas
ures guaranteeing men, and still more,
women from excessive labor, and sur.
rounding them with costly sanitary
precautions, may easily, if they are in
judiciously framed, so handicap sex
or people in the competition Of indus
try as to drive them out of great fields
of industry, restrict their means of
livelihood, lower their standard of
wages and comfort. and thus seriously
diminish the happiness of their lives
The idea seems we'll fixed in the
mind of every member of Assembly or
Senate that he has been sent to the
Legislature for the purpose Of making
laws. Whether good, bad or indiffer-
ent, makes little difference, so long as
they are laws. 1t goes without saying
that he usually fulfills his proposed
mission. One could almost think that
he who introduces the most acts gets
a prize. S )me time ago the Michigan
Legislature had under consideration
the prohibition of printing hotel menus
in language other than English +; In
diana, the establishment of new
mathematical truth, viz: the sIIaring
of the circle: Nebraska, the penalizing
of football as misdemeanor (there was
an epidemic Of football accidents about
that time); Missouri, an act to prohib-
it railroad companies from using wool
en- rails and tying them with string;
Kansas, an act to prevent the wearing
of corsets, or boomers; Minnesota,
bill to require a red light to be display
ell on the outside of every saloon, with
the word "danger" thereon.
In New York an act was introduced,
and actually passed by the Assembly,
making it a penal offence to put less
than thirteen oysters in an oyster
stew. But the cream of them all was
law proposed in the Senate of
Western State providing that no drug
glst should sell any patent medicine
who did not keep affixed in conspic-
uous place in his affidavit stating that
he had himself tried one bottle OF the
mixture and experienced no harmful
effects therefrom.
In the forty-five States, and the
three Territories of Arizona, New
Mexico and Oklahoma, only eleven
permit their legislative assemblies to
sit without limits as to time. The re-
naming thirty seven fix forty days as
the shortest and ninety days as the
longest period that the inAiction may
exist.
The following six States hold an
nual sessions, and four of these with
out time limit: Georgia, Massachu-
setts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode
Island and South Carolina. There is
an effort under way in several of these
States to bring about biennial sessions.
OF the remaining fortytwo, seven hold
biennial sessions in even numbered and
t! i-ty-five in odd numbered years.
There were enacted in 1899 4,S34
general and 1926 local, special or pri-
vate laws, a grand total Of IA ,159 laws.
How long is this evil going to con-
tinue, ard how long are We to be sub
jected to floods of hastily considered,
ill.famed legislation having for its
chief object the making Of mankind
'good" by statute!