The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-08-30
PARKER's sREECH

given county or state, lodge additional
power In the hands of an executive,
attempt to expand or contract the ju-
dicial authority, or seek to regulate
or modify by| law habits and customs;
but 1t proposes nothing hitherto un-
tried somewhere.
1t has long been recognized that, II
our legislators we're compelled to
study and know the old and settled
principles Of Jurisprudence, there
would be fewer opportunities for med
iocre men to make. for themselves
regulations, or even to base careers,
outwardly successful, upon laws which
have nothing in them that msnkind
has not tried. II is merely another
Illustration of the refusal of men to
profit by the experience of their an
cestors or predecessors. or to take
account Of the long line Of failures;
but Its faulty is in claiming credit
for something we'll known already.
1t was one of the many wise sayings
of Montesquieu that:
1T sometimes IL. necessary to change
certain laws, but the case Is rare, and
when 1t occurs, one should 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,
who. annually turns out an average of
nearly fifteen thousand laws-two-
thirds of them devoted to private or
special questions-it 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 It;
fewer regulations and ambitions built
upon the shifting 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 bodies merely as step
ping stones to something deemed bet
ter; the amateur, the incompetent and
the blackmailer might be less in evil
dence; the boss who orders legislation,
in order that he may sell it or ex-
change 1t for personal power, might
gradually become extinct; the sensa-
tional newspaper-that outward sign
of inward popular corruption or hys-
teria-might have less authority. and
men of recognized character and sue
cess could be relied upon to keep our
laws in harmony with our progress,
and thus to promote and insure their
efficiency without an Over-prOductiOn
that sometimes makes them contempt
BILE.
But, as this congestion of legislation
has long since become chronic in our
modern democratic society and the
malady still remains, it is necessary
to consider it III s.,me of its many
phasis Some small part Of il Is the
result Of adjusting our life to condi-
lions. fewer of which are new than is
generally supposed The polit!ca!
theories which have gradually become
fairly dominant since the doctrines of
the English Revolution of 1858 were
intensified by the doctrines of the
American Revolution of 1916 and those
of the French Revolution of 1883 ac-
count for the supposed necessity for
many new laws in spite of the fact
that none of these events. singly< or
even combined, has introduced new or
untried theories. Coming back to To-
cal government. each branch of it,
each added legislative body, has felt
itself called upon to enact laws for
dealing with its conditions. or what
it has deemed emergencies.
Although each new migration, as it