Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1901-12-05
LAW AS A SWORD; NoTA SHIELD

Law is all right enough, but in it, as
in most matters, it is possible to have
too much of good thing. Vermont
is law-ridden. Successive legislatures
assemble, and, to make a pretenee Of
doing something, pass more laws,
until the state is tied up with a net
work of statutes that no man can
fathom. Ii you doubt this, make an
honest effort to post up on your duties
as a citizen by reading the Vermont
statutes. You will probably learn to
your surprise that you are doing
things every day that subject you TO
fine and possible Imprisonment, if
taken up.
Vastly more sense is shown in law
enforcement than in law-enaetion, but
the possibilities Of our statutes for
causing trouble and suffering and ex-
Ipense without any compeDsating pub
lie advantages are unlimited. II you
have an enemy, there is a safe and
certain way for you to pay the grudge.
Read up the Vermont statutes, watch
your opportunity and revenge is as
certain as daylight. When complaints
are made as the law provides, what
ever the animus, the officers must do
their duty in enforcement. Then the
unlucky victim is hailed to court and
branded as a public offender, con-
victed and penalized, when, in fact,
/ he has violated some mere technicality
that no one except an enemy would
stop to notice.
Cases of this kind will occur to all
readers. A fresh instance is reported
by the Montpelier journal. A woman
of Berlin was arrested, under indict-
ment, for keeping an unlicensed dog.
She was complained Of by spiteiul
neighbor. She was ignorant that she
had violated any law. There was
nothing to do but plead guilty. Her
fine of s15 she was unable to pay, and
would have had to work it out at Rut-
land had not friends come forward and
paid it. One-third of the fine wrung
from this woman went to the venge-
full complainant The majesty of the
law had been vindicated and justice
smiled in triumph
The journal well says -
This is the law-it may be good
law-but it is not justice. Constables
in towns and policemen in cities OF the
state are warranted in shooting at
sight all unlicensed dogs. Surely that
ought to be sufficient to protect the
state against any great number Of
CANNES on which the owners have not
paid the tax provided by law
After the law makers of 1909 have
tinkered to their hearts content the
woodchuck, muskrat, hedgehog,
moose, deer and caribou laws, amend
ed the age at which a puppy becomes
a dog, framed a new set OF rules for
road commissioners, legalized the
grand list of few towns in which the
officers did not know their duty, and
decided whether or not it is wise to
spray fruit trees in blossom. they
might do worse than to repeal out
right this law pertaining to unlicensed
dogs, which is SIRE TO work hardships
/ in individual eases, and has done so in
one instance during the present term
OF Washington county court"
\ similar case occurred in a neigh
boring town. For sheltering an I'M
licensed dog that had come to him,
and then killing it, man was appre-
hended, and, being unable to settle the
case because he was poor, he was
taken to Chelsea Jail, where he is now
in confinement. A wife and three
little children were left without pro-
wider, destitute, and compelled to call
on the town for help. OF what conse-
quence are all the dogs and dog laws
this side of Tophet compared to the
hardships of human beings needlessly
caused by their operation? Are our
laws for dogs and deer and muskrats-
and lawyers-or are they for men and
women?
If all the copies Of the Vermont
statutes in existence should be as
sembled in one place, and, some dark
night. fire should break out and con-
sumo all the volumes but one and
about half of that, Vermont would be
vastly better off-until the next legis-
latiye session assembled.