Arizona republican., 1906-08-30

of mutual rights and mutual obIiga- tions. is perhaps the highest achieve ment of the race" He traced the de- velopment of government from the primitive form through all the various stages to the highest and most compli- cated form demanded by modern civ ilization, and, quoting from Maeter- linck's Life of the Bee" that "in pro- portion as society organizes itself and rises in the scale, so does a shrinkage enter the private life of each of it's members. Any government" said he, however imperfect, is better than no gOvernment-which is anarchy. If we have too much government-as many of us believe-is it possible in the present state of human wisdom to have just enough restraint. and just enough personal freedom. An excess of the one no doubt means a diminution of the other but what human intelligence can fix a perfect equilibrium? The subject is too large for the grasp of the average mind; the points of view are so numerous and so variant that the most laborious inquiry leads to no ac- ceptable and final conclusion. The most complicated system of govern ment in the world is our American sys- tenn, but it is, in my opinion, the most
 
 cape the persistent inquiry-does it pay? What do we give up, and what do we get in return? Let the inquiry be enlarged so as to cover not simply our relations to our own governments. state and national. but to government itself. as an institution Of civilization. We are. of course. primarily concerned with the relation we bear to the nation and the particular states of which we are citizens: but underlying that must always be the question, how stands the individual. everywhere, throughout the world. in his relation to the social or political organization in which he finds himself? Undeniably. he gives up much. He gives up the right to be a law unto himself; to make war upon mankind; to hold by force, and not by contract or conventions; in other words, he surrenders the simplicity of barbar- ism for the complicated, artificial idea of civilization. And what does he get in return? Does he get all that the spirit of the agreement cOntemplateS2 Probably he does not. The unsatisfed aspirations. the eager desire for better conditions. the constant pressure. up ward and outward. shows that. req sonabIy or unreasonably. there is ev- anywhere a profound feeling that since so much has been given. something more ought to have been received. ThiS feeling is at the bottom of nearly all proposed acts of constructive legisla- ton.
 "LegisIation is not only the adoption of positive rules of conduct; it is. if may so exDress it. experimentation. It is feeling the way: exploring paths that may or may not lead to the right goal. It is certain that many bad laws are enacted. many unnecessary ones. and many foolish ones-but. on the whole. do we not move along toward better things? Undoubtedly, we have too much legislation. but is not our sys- tenn. even with the danger of over Legislation a wise and good one in its great essential features2 I believe that. in a way. which is larger than we can grasp in its entirety. we are car rying out the increasing purpose which Tennyson declared runs through the ages
 'In the summary of legislation which is communicated to you from year to year there are many statutes which might we'll have been omitted from consideration by the legislatures that passed them. Of all the bills intro duced in any legislative body, a com
 
 living enactments. and of these but few every really enter into the life of the community. Every act passed adds more or less to the individual shrink age of which Maeterlinck speaks, but often without any corresponding ad- vantage to organized society, and un- doubtedly the citizen gets the worst of the bargain whenever this happens.
 q shall not believe that the great volume of legislation enacted by the last congress was inspired by mere wanton lust of power. 1t had back of it something higher and better than that: an earnest desire to deal with conditions not very well understood; and a conviction that the time had come for doing something. I do not close my eyes to the fact that we can not have a bewildering cOmplexity in all our affairs. and at the same time have perfect simplicity in government. But in all this turmoil. the whirl of machinery. governmental and mechan- ical, the organization of labor and cap ital, the throbbing of every pulse and the strain of it all, to brain and to nerve-what has become of the indi- Vidual man? What we may do to reconcile individual right and individ- ual freedom with the assured certainty of increasing legislation we must do as lawyers, and still more as American citizens. And out of it all, step by step, we shall go forward, maybe, to better things. But, anyway, we shall go forward