The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-08-30

spread from the Atlantic to the PACING
has carried with 1t rules Of life and
conduct long and successfully tried
on many scenes, It has scarcely reach
ed the vestibule Of larger career
and opportunity of its own before its
legislative body has launched upon the
world a new line of enactments deal
ing with marriage, inheritance, iniiv-
idual rights and property, and all the
manifold interests of life. In manner
which its people have thought new.
Especially in the relations Of corpor-
atoms to society and business, many
States. distant from the scene Of orig
In and development Of these organiza-
tons, have begun the work of regu-
lating and tinkering with them almost
before their people had passed out of
the individual or partnership period.
The result has been great mass Of
legislation that was crude, much that
defeated its own ends and still more
that was hurtful to the communities
most concerned. It was only when the
earlier of these laws we're repealed
or modified that the commanding nat
ural resources of such states really
had an opportunity to find development
and that their people could enjoy the
natural reward of their own courage,
industry and intelligence.
Sir John Macdonell, one of the great
legal authorities of present-day Eng
land, has recently called attention to
the fact that for nearly two hundred
years the struggle has been toward
equality, and that this accounts for
much of the great bulk of legislation
in this country and the British colon
les, and has also expressed the opinion
that the tide has now turned, SO that
the tendency is toward a growing in
equality. He points out tendency,
which he describes as universal In
all the Western world. to restrict the
right of contract In his words:
ut takes many forms. 1t creates
whole classes of persons who are re-
garded as aAnormally weak, If not
irresponsible. The idea of equality
before the law = becomes faint
er. The exceptions were once few.
Lunatics were, for most matters at
all events, regarded as incapable of
contracting; minors were so for some;
and expectant heirs were, in certain
circumstances, unfettered. Now the
list of such classes Is more enlarged.
The borrower cannot bind himself as
against the money-lender; the Court
enables him to break his word. He
who gets bill of sale finds it inopera-
tive unless it satisfies certain condi-
tiOns. Farmers are protected against
themselves. The Irish tenant is en-
cased in legislative armor against his
own weaknesses. The expanding field
of labor legislation contains many
such provisions. Workmen and sea-
men, factory operators and miners,
cannot contract themselves out of
many provisions established for their
benefit. In several European countries
the working day of grown up men is
limited by statute. Railways and many
corporations are subject to restrict
ions from which they cannot be re-
leased by contracts. It would seem
as If, instead of the age of status be-
ing over; we were rapidly turning to
it, Hegel said that in legal restric-
ton lay true freedom 1t, is the working
creed of most legislatures"
If, then, socialism is the subordina-
ton of the individual to the state. over
legislation is its outward sign Of pro-
gress, because only thus can the DOM
nance of the state be emphasized.
even when it cannot be enforced be-
cause abhorrent to human nature, the
doctrines of our religion and the de-
crees of God. State dominance Is.
however, no new phase in the history
of man, and the attempt to satisfy 1t
by means of laws passed by popular
assemblies does not really differ SER