The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-08-29
TOO MUCH LAW.
Geo. Il. Peck Says All Legislation
Is Experimental.
In an Address Before the Ameri-
can Bar Association.
MANY LAWS ARE BAD.
People Strive to Get Equivalent
for What They Give Up.
Impossible to Remedy Every
Evil by Legislation.
MANY LAWS ARE BAD.

st. Paul Mimi, Aug. 29.-Five hun
dred prominent lawyers from nearly
every state in the union gathered in
St Paul today to attend the twenty
ninth annual meeting of the American
Bar association held in the house Of
representatives chamber of the state
capitol.
The first session was called to order
by George r. Peck, of Chicago. presi-
dent of the association. A warm de-
bate is expected when the committee
on Insurance law presents its report.
Federal supervision over insurance is
favored by a majority Of the commit
tee who in their report hold that in
surance is interstate commerce.
A vigorous minority report will be
sent to the association, attacking this
theory. The report Of the committee
On the proposition to create court Of
patent appeals recommends that a bill
be passed by congress creating such q
court, to be presided over by five
judges, who shall sit on cases arising
over patents.
In the report of the committee on
code of professional ethics a stinging
rebuke is meted out to the "shyster"
lawyer.
me last year mas OGEA "A 1Oi6WOIl1S
one for the association. The member
ship has increased from 1000 to 500.
George r. Peck, as president, de-
livered his annual address which was
well up to the high standard ne long
ago esta blished and was received with
generous applause.
President Peck said:
Our constitution requires the president
to open each annual meeting with an
address. but the only special direction
given him in respect to it is that his
shall communicate the most noteworthy
changes IN statute law on points Of gen
eral interest made in the several states
and by congress during the preceding
year" And to what end is this conn
mand laid upon him2 Certainly not for
the purpose OF making q mere record NJ
the legislation of t13s country, nor fffr
use by active lawyers in tnetF prOteE-
sional practice. If one wishes to know
the statute law of any state. or of cen
gress, he goes to the authoritative vol
unle in which It is contained The re-
quirement Wass I think, founded upon
deeper reason namely, that this asso-l
citation is primarily Interested in the
scientific aspect Of legislation and OF
Jurisprudence Indeed, the first object
of the organization as set out IN the
constitution is, to advance the science
Of Jurisprudence" The Jurisprudence ef
q country is Intimately connected WITT
its legislation, for jurisprudence is, as
Professor Robertson calls II, the sci
ence of positive laws" Changes IN
statute law are evidences 70 the philosG-
phical student, of that ceaseless eVotu-
ton which marks the growth OF po-
litical organism. Alteration, d1Splace-
ment, the endless Encouragement of So
cial and political forces. are phenomena
which constantly crowd upon the notice
of a thoughtful observer. AS LAWYERS
and as students, we cannot be unInind-
full of the unseen influences whieh,
working unconseiOusly, by day and by
night, attain at last the large harno'.y,
that makes institutions and systems
take the place of disorder and chaos
Historical Jurisprudence, the blrth,
growth and development OF law IN 1ts
highest sense, Is study We ought te
pursue far more assiduously than we 90.
When we consider man merely as an
animal a member of a great geological
order, it is sufficiently wonderful that
he should ever have been brought un-
der the sway of law at all; but when we
see him putting the curb upon hinseif,
by his own voluntary action, 1t surpas-
ses the marvellous. Self government
the recognition of mutual rights and
highest achievement of the race. do Y
slow and halting and hesitating has
been the upward march, We may judge,
If we trace it back through the brief
period of which the written record Is
known, to the dim region Of tradition
and myth, and backward still further 10
the impenetrable silence and mystery
of the primeval world. And the earth
was without form and void. and dark
ness was upon the face Of the deep.
How It has all come about, we neither
wholly know nor fully comprehend; but
here we are; and the light is here; and
we have, to some extent. grasped the
meaning of duty. and right and Obliga-
ton, and the conception Of government
and society and law. Civilization is, Of
course. a highly complicated state Of
existence, artificial and, perhaps, strict
" speaking, unna tural. but surely in
fnitely better than the savagery of the
wolf and of the anthropoid progenitors
of our race. We have Travelled far from
the half-human troglodyte in his cave
and, step by step, have advanced to
the height we now occupy. On this
height we rest. serene and self-confd ent.
And vet. the distance between US and
the beginning is not so great as to pre-
clude the idea of its continuity; not so
great but that, as Emerson says. some
spray sprinl5les US from the anted1-
luvian seas" It is unfortunate that au-
tbentic history is the slave of letters.
and that tradition and stories and folk
lore are so elusive and unsatisfactory
as guides and so imperfect as teachers.
Sir Henry Maine and other searchers in
ia the early history of institutions
have traced with Infinite industry, the
course which the race has followed The
family the clan and the tribe have been
the steps which nature and the natural
instincts pointed out as leading to the
higher, and better forms OF social rela-
tionship Combination has been the
persistent factor and force of progress.
Tempered by the ethical or moral senti-
ment, which centuries ago in some way,
got a lodgnent IN the breast OF prime
val man, organiza ton, based upon self
interest. has built up states. nations and
soverefgnties and made them what they
are today The conception Of public
duty is supposed to have been reached
later in the history OF the rsce