The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-08-30
THE EVENING TIMES GRAND FORKS N. D.

judgment or knowledge. In addition,
there is probably no other class of Of
fetal, and no form of action, which
more surely PRODUCES contempt for
law, whether new or old, than those
inherent in spurts among prosecutors.
In some instances the opposite of
the illustration Just cited may be
found. An Official may insist that 1t is
no part, either Of his duty or that of
the law, to proceed except where he
is fairly assured of his ability to
prove every charge, and to assure
conviction. He may have the old-fash-
toned idea that 1t is discreditable to
indict without reasonable evidence of
guilt merely because some ignorant, ir-
responsible agitator, or hysterical
victim, or "a newspaper, may suggest
or demand 1t. This Is apt to produce
its supply of new bills at the succeed
ing session of the legislature, some of
which may pass the scrutiny of care
less or an aspiring governor.
Another favorite form of legislation
is that for the benefit, or at the be-
loot of, party. The continual tam
pering with election laws and regula-
tions; the creation of useless offices,
political or judicial; crusades against
or favors conferred upon corporations
or interests; the reorganization of city
governments; the Legislation of one
calss of officials out of Office, in order
= to put another in; the institution of
state constabulary for the purpose of
controlling the police of great cities
for party or personal purposes, the
fitting against opponents, process
common to many legislative bodies
all these are productive of such infinite
and far-reaching harm as to emphasize
the doctrine that no partisan legisla-
ton, either proposed before the bodies
themselves or pushed in their COM
mittees, or enacted into law, can be
fair. just or enduring.
enumerated, and the causes which pro-
mote them, serve to show why 1t is
that an almost complete change has
come over the character of our legis-
lative bodies. Their presence gives
speakers almost arbitrary power,
makes committees into new form
of tyrant, devolps management and in
trigue into fine arts, produces bosses
as a natural result, and. while keeping
the larger men out of legislative halls,
puts small ones into their places. Log
rolling becomes necessity, and mis-
chievous or useless bills pass easily
and almost by sufferance. The exis-
tence of these elements also promotes
conflict between urban and rural in
terests in the hope that one or the
other may escape fair share of that
taxation which always grows as the
result of such dangerous rivalry.
All in all, these conditions interfere
continually with the orderliness and
the dignity, with the purity and the
wholesomeness, of our boosted demo-
cratic life. Our whole system of gov
eminent tends to congestion-so far
as Its public channels are concerned
with laws passed in foolishness or
fantOnness, and without respect to the
need for them.
1t is not alone in the domain of law
making and the legislator that these
abuses are potent. They add to the
labor of the judiciary. Upon it is
thrown for adjudication. year after
year, body of work absolutely un-
necessary. and at great expense to the
public and often to private individuals
The constitutionality of much of this
new legislation is continually ques-
toned. So true is this. that a sub
stantial percentage Of the questions
brought before Appellate Court are re-
lated to doubts of the validity of the
laws under which actions are brought
Indeed, in the state of New York, in
period covering about twenty years,
the constitutionality OF over five hun