The Irish standard., 1906-09-08
JUDGE PARKER AND the LAW

JUDGE PARKER AND THE LAW.
Judge Parkers speech before the
American Bar Association last week
was Il much needed and timely criti-
cism of dangerous tendency in this
country. He told his hearers that what
the country needed was nos more laws
but less laws. 1t was the sober ex-
preston of q man of ripe learning,
large experience and good Judgment.
1t was not Il bid for popularity. 1t
was not an attempt to win the approx
al of the unthinking masses, nor was
it an appeal to selfish prejudices.
1t is refreshing in these Gays when
public men are seemingly trying to out
do one another in proposing radical
innovations to know that there is IL
! class of men who still remain stead
fast in their support of the immut-
able principles of equity aad the COM
mon law. 1t was the oar and the
bench that broke down the aristocracy
and absolutism of feudalisT and wrung
from the lords and barons Il consti-
tutional government. 1t may be that
the time will come When the bench
constitutional representative govern
ment from the attacks of socialism and
paternaisn. Judge Parker undoubt-
edly voiced the best Judgment of the
bench and bar of the country when
he expressed the opinion that we are
now suffering from too much law.
Judge Parker has had Il long eXpe-
rience as an advocate and as a judge.
He has also come in contact with the
have the opportunity to come in con-
tact with them. His views, therefore,
sobery expressed after presumably
full consideration. are worthy of the
utmost consideration. They coincide
With the views OF the most thoughtful
statesmen and jurists. ]. would be
we'll for the country il it acted upon
those views instead of chasing hither
and thither in support first of one REM
first time that men whose opinions are
worthy of belief have asserted that the
common law and the statute law al
ready in force is sufficient to meet all
the questions before the country 1t
was claimed by able lawyers that all
the evils attempted to be corrected by
the Legislation of the last Congress
could have been reached under the
laws as they We're bcfor. the enact
ment of the recent legislation.
In the present restless condition of
public opinion Judge Parker's advice
will not meet with popular approval.
In the present confused state of po-
litical thought men are abandoning
old and tried rules of conduct and they
are aimlessly searching 70: some new
systems that will per Sc remedy all
evils. Hence they are ever ready to
follow new leaders who have new and
untried methods to offer. And so it
comes that the federal congress and
the legislatures of the different states
have at the instigation of different
classes and interests proposed and en-
acted into law innumerable statutes
most of which remain dead letters and
the remainder of which ara but re-en-
actments or notifications of we'll set
tied principles of equity rhd common
law. or course these statutes accomp-
lish nothing except to create work for
Appellate Courts. This present day
tendency to chase off afte.' new things
is not confined to law and political
thought but it expresses itself in ev-
cry phase of human thought. Almost
every community numbers among it's
inhabitants some founder of a new
religion and the surprising thing is that
all of these newly discovered religions
find followers.
People do not seem to lealize that
truth is old and Interchangeable. Now
a-days the fact that principle is
long and much tried seems not to be
recommendation. The time must