The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-08-31
PROFOUND ADDRESS BY
JUDGE ALTON B. PARKER
Tendency of Legislative Bodies to Pro-
pose and Enact New Laws Dis
cussed at Length.
Conclusion Reached That Legislation May Be Consd
cred as the Outward Sign of Progress.

st. Paul. Mimi. Aug. SO.-The feature
of today's session of the American Bar
association was the annual address of
Judge Alton b. Parker. Judge Parker
said i'm opening:
LAS a member of this bar association,
PROUD of the membership therein and
glorying in it's unselfish ambition to be
of service TO the profession and the
public on the broadcast lines and utter
ing the sentiments of every member,
j wish TO thank you, our honored and
much-beloved president, for your ad-
dress of yesterday. 1t was philOSOphi-
cal, Statesmanlike and eloquent Every
man who heard it and all who shall
read II will be the wiser and the better
for 1t. If at times we thought we de-
tected a tone of doubt of our beloved
country. later we were strongly other
wise assured by expressions of most
profound confidence. The forces of
good and evil are always at war with
each other, one tries to uplift, the other
tries TO drag down. SO when any evil
tendency of our governmental affairs is
found, all patriots should at once gran
pie with it and apply the remedy re-
quired. whether it be mild or drastic
1t is of one of those tendencies that 1
have chosen to speak of today"
Judge Parker spoke as follows:
Judge Psrker's Address.
Few questions have been more discussed
during recent years than the increasing
tendency of legislative bodies 10 propose
and to enact new laws. Scarcely any
agitation of a public or a moral question
is so unimpOrtant that it does not pro
duce, in nearly half a hundred state can
ltais' series OF bills supposed to repre-
sent it in all it's varied and shifting
phases. 1t has become far more common
TO look for new law for the punishment
or an old offense or for defining anew
the relations of individuals TO each other
than IL is to invoke those powers or rem
edies 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 occa-
sion TO study the question even in its
narrower bearings, has been forced to con-
Clude that but small percentage of pro-
posed new enactments involves a new
principle, or even "A new policy. 1t rarely
happens that an Offense is committed for
which no proper punishment has been
provided. and IL is long time since any
real question has arisen between men to
existing law.
Mere Police Power.
Most Of the laws proposed in such num-
lice power. Even the machinery which
they create-under the fond delusion that
II is nevis as old as western civilization
itself 1t thus connotes a continual
growth from the comparatively simple
conditions of our modern life at it's best
INTO the variety. cOmpleXity and interfer-
ence which have marked all the history
of men; 1t may create an office strange
10 given county or state. lodge addi-
tiOnal power i'm the hands of an executive
attempt to expand or contract the Judi
c19l authority seek at or
modify by law habits and customs: but
it proposes nothing hitherto untried some
where.
It has long been recognized that. if our
legislators were compelled to study and
know the old and settled PRINCIPLES of
Jurisprudence. there would be fewer op-
pOrtunities for mediocre men to make
Tor themselves regulations, or even to
base careers, Outwardly successful. uDOn
laws which have nothing IN them that
other illustration Of the refusal of men to
profit by the experience of their ances-
tors or predecessors. or to take account
Of the long line of failures; but its faulty
Is i'm claiming credit for something well
known already.
Caution Is Necessary.
IT was one of the many wise sayings of
Montesquieu that:
ct sometimes is necessary to change
certain laws. but the case is rare, and
when 70 occurs one should touch them
only with a trembling hand"
II this were taken to heart by the mem !
bers OF congress and Of the state legis-
latures of the American Union. who an |
nuaHy turn out an average OF nearly D. !
eco laws-two-thirds of them devoted to |
private or special questions 1t is certain /
that there would be greater satisfaction, !
both individual and public: more knowl- |
edge OF what the law has done and can |
do. and more respect for it: fewer repu- |
tations and ambitions built upon the shift |
ing sands: and a general recognition of !
the fact that quality of laws, and not /
their number. counts. Fewer aspiring /
young men might seek seats in these bod /
les merely as stepping stones TO some /
thing deemed better: the amateur. the /
incompetent and the blackmailer might be /
less I'm evidence: the boss who orders leg |
islation. in order that he may sell ii or 1
exchange IL for personal power. might !
gradually become extinct; the sensational |
newspaper-that outward sign of inward !
popular corruption or hystera-might |
have less authority; and men of recoE- /
nZed character and success could be re- /
lied upon to keep our laws in harmony 4
with our progress. and thus to promote /
and insure their efficiency without an |
over-prOductiOn that sometimes makes |
them contemplate.
Chronic Congestion.
But. as this congestion of legislation has |
long since become chronic in our modern /
democratic society and the malady still |
remains. II Is necessary to consider Il IN !
some Of its mary phases. Some small part
to conditions. ever of which are new
than is generally supposed The political
theories which have gradually become
fairly dominant since the doctrines of the
English revolution OF 1858 were intensified
by the doctrines OF the American revolu-
ton of 1776 and those Of the French revo-
luton of 1859 account for the supposed
necessity for many new laws. i'm spite OF
the fact that none OF these events singIy
or even combined has introduced new
Dr. untried theories. Coming back to local
each branch OF il. each ado
"a Legislative body. has felt itself called |.
upon 20 enact series OF laws for dealing
with it's conditions. or what It has deemed
emergencies.
Influence of immigrants.
Although each new migration. as il
spread from the Atlantic 10 the Pacific |
has carried with Il rules of life and con- /
luct long and successfully tried on many
scenes. il has scarcely reached the yes
ibule Of a larger career and opportunity
lf its own before its legislative BODY has
aunched upon the world a new line OF
,ractments dealing with marriage. in /