The twice=a=week herald. (Amarillo, Tex.) 1887-1906, 1906-08-31

ST. Paul, MIMI, Aug 3O,--The
second days session OF the Amerl-
can Bar Association ls much better
attended even than yesterdays, Many
members came in last night and some
few arrived today. This meeting in
every way promises TO be the best In
the history OF tbe organization and
that the actions Of this body Of
lawyers will WELD a great influence
In future legislative assemblies Is
freely admitted. President George
r. Peck, Of Chicago, presided at the
meetings today. Chief among the
speeches delivered today was one by
Alton B. Parker, of Esopus, n. "
nd who was the Democratic nominee
6rpresidency in 1904, and is as fol-
iows:
The Congestion OF law.
Few questions have been more dis
cussed during recent years than the
increasing tendency OF legislative
bodies to propose and to enact new
laws. Scarcely any agitation of a
public or moral question Is so unlm-
portant that II does not produce, in
nearly half hundred state capitols, a
series Of bills supposed to represent
it in all its varied and shifting phases.
1t has become far moro common to
look for a new law for the punish
ment OF an old offense or for defining
anew the relations of individuals to
each other than It is to invoke those
powers or remedies by which, over
many centuries, while law has been
gradually taking fixed form, men
have been able to punish crimes
against society, or to settle their own
difficulties.
And yet every man who has had
occasion to study the question, even
in its narrow bearings, has been fore
ed to conclude that but small per-
centage of proposed new enactments
involves a new principal, or even n
new policy. II rarely happens that
an offence is committed for which no
proper punishment has been provld-
ed, and It is a long time since any
real question has arisen between men
to demand legal settlement impossi-
BILE under existing law.
Most OF the laws proposed In such
number and variety are assertions OF
the police power Even tho mach.n-
cry which they create-under the
fond deluslon that it is nevis as
old as Western civilization itself. It
thus connotes continual growth
from the comparatively simple condi-
lions OF our modern life, at its best,
into the variety, completely aud inter
ference which have marked oil the.
history of men. 1t may create an Of
fee strange to a given county or.
state, lodge additional power In the
hands OF an executive, attempt TO.
expand or contract the judicial all
thority, or seek to regulate or modify.
by law the habits and customs; but
it proposes nothing hitherto untried
somewhere.
It has long been recognized that,
IL our legislators were compelled 10.
study and know the old m dsettled
principles of Jurisprudence, there
would be fewer opportunities for
mediocre men to make for themselves
regulations, or even to base careers.
outwardly successful, upon laws
which have nothing in them which
mankind has not tried II Is mere
" another illustration Of the refusal
of men to profit by the experience CT,
their ancestors or predecessors, or to-
take account of the long line of fail
ures; but It's faulty is in claiming
credit for something well Known al
ready
1t was one of the many wise say.
ings of Montesquieu that:
ut sometimes 80 necessary to-
change certain laws. but the case isl
rare, and, when t. occurs, one snou!d
touch them only with trembling
hand"
If this were taken to heart by the
members of congress and Of the state
legislatures Of the American Union,