Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1906-08-31
HySteriCaI EnaCtm ent of
Mushroom Measures by
Multitude of Legislatures
ChOkeS Channels of Justice
DEMAG0GUES IN OFFICE
RESPONSIBLE FOR EVIL
Enforcement of Tried Statutes
Sufficient Remedy for Pres
ent Day Abuses, Declares
Former New York Judge.

ST. Paul, Minn., Aug. S0.--The fea-
ture of today's session of the Amer
lean Bar association was the brilliant
address Of Judge Alton B. Parker, of
New York. Mr.. Parker said:
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 a moral question is so un-
important that II does not produce,
in nearly half hundred state capt.
tols, series of bills supposed to rep
resent it in all its varied and shift
ing phases. 1t has become far more
common to look for nav law for
the punishment of an old offense or
for defining anew the relations OF
individuals to each other than 1t 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 differences.
And yet every man who has had
occasion to study the question, even
in its narrower bearings, has been
forced to conclude. that but small
percentage OF proposed new enact
ments involves a new principle or
even a new policy. II rarely happens
which no proper punishment has
beeM pfovdeGa and IL is long time
since any real question has arisen
between men to demand legal settle
ment impossible under existing law.
Most of the laws proposed in such
number and variety are assertions
of the police power. Even the ma
chinery which they create-under
the FOND delusion that II is new.
Is as old as western civilization itself.
II thus cOnnotes continual growth
from the comparatively simple condi-
tions OF our modern life, at its best.
INTO the variety. complexity and inter-
ference which have marked all the
history of men. 1t may create an
Office strange to n given county or
state. lodge additional power in the
hands of an executive, attempt to ex-
pand or contract the judicial authori-
ty, or seek to regulate or modify by
law habits and customs; but 1t pro
poses nothing hitherto untrled some
where.
1t has long been recognized that.
II our legislators were compelled to
study and know the old and settled
principles of Jurisprudence. there
would be fewer opportunities for me-
diocre men to make for themselves
regulations, or even to base careers.
outwardly successful, upon laws
which have nothing, in them that
mankind has not tried. II Is merely
another illustration of the refusal OF
men TO profit by the experience OF
their ancestors or to take account OF
the long line of failures; but It's fat
uily is in claiming credit for some
thing well known already.
1t was one OF the many wise saw
ings of Montesquieu that:
II sometimes Is necessary t.
change certain laws, but the case Is
rare, and, when IL occurs. one should
touch them only with a trembling
hand"
If this were taken to heart by the
members of congress and OF the state
legislators OF the American Union.
who annually turn out an average of
nearly fifteen thousand laws-two-
thirds of them devoted to private or
special questions-lt Is certain that
there would be greater satisfaction
both individual and public: more
knowledge of what the law has done
and can do, and more respect for 1t.
fewer regulations and ambitions built
upon the shifting sands; and n gem
eral recognition of the fact that quail
ity of laws, and not their number.
counts. Fewer aspiring young men
might seek seats In these bodies mere
ly as stepping stones to something
deemed better; the amateur, the in
competent and the blackmailer might
be less In evidence; the boss who or
ders legislation, I'm order that he may
sell 1t or exchange II for personal
power, might gradually become ex-
tinct; the sensational newsnaper---that
outward sign of inward popular cor
ruptlon or hysterla-might have
less authority; and men OF recognized
character and success could be re-
lied upon TO keep our laws in har-
mony with our progress. and thus to
promote and insure their efficiency
without an overproduction that some
times makes them contemplate.
But. as this congestion OF legisla-
tion has long since become chronic
In our modern democratic society and
the malady still remains, Il Is neces-
sary to consider II in some of its
many phases. Some small part OF IL
Is the result of adjusting our life to
conditions. fewer OF which are new
than is generally supposed. The po-
litical theories which have gradually
I become fairly dominant since the doe
trlnes of the English revolution OF
1858 were intensified by the doctrines
OF the American revolution OF 177G
and those of the French revolution OF
1888 account for the supposed fact
that none of these events. singly Oh
even combined, has introduced new