The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-02-07
THE LAw-nAxrxa AGE.

suppose may De oeuomsnated laW-hta- mia. The belief that all earthly evils can be cured and all human beings made good by law Is becoming preva- I lent all over the land. It matters It, l tie what the wrong is. or by whom committed. the thing to do is to pass a law and. that will set things right in the estimation of some good peo-
 pie.
 Take the matter of drinking, as an | example. The evils of incompetence l are many and plain to all, but law
 alone cannot cure them or prevent them. It is impossible to iegisiate the taste for liquor out or mems | mouths, and as long as men have
 taste for 1t they will have it on some terms. and they can usually get IL. A law might be enacted making It a capital offence to sell or give
 drink, yet some people could get ", for all that Its sale can be reguiated and controlled by proper iegislation' and drunkenness may be punished, but efforts to banish it entirely by legal enactments have always failed and ai-
 ways will. Like some other human
 propensities it will continue in spite
 of laws and ordinances, as long as human nature remains as It Is. The
 views of some extremists on the sub
 feet are both absurd and hurtfli One LID in Indiana recently remarked that he favored licensing the lowest possi-
 ble dives that could be set up. think ing by that means to disgust the pub lie with saloons and thus banish them entirely That is a specimen Of pro- hibition run mad. The sale of liquor can be regulated by law, and many of the evils of intemperance abated, but men are not ready to become uni versai abstainers and the law will not make them SO.
 Then there are the railroads that are just now catching it on every side.% We don't know what these wicked eorporations have done to the legislative cult but it. must be some thing fearful, judging from the epi- denIc of anti-railroad iesisiation now prevailing Tn various States of the Union. as we'll as in Congress, the lesislators are busving themselves discussing measures and passing laws 10 make the railroads be good and behave themselves nicely. If self constructed eenservator of the dear neouie's weIfare can find nothing else io unIimber his intellect about he will 1e tn do something or to quit doing some l thing else it doesn't matter which. What he wants. is to get into the | swim and swat the railroads few.
 It makes na difference to thewoufH- | he saviors of the peonie that the rail- | roads have done nore than any other | aeanrv in the Iard to ooen up and | daveIop the country, and that but for | this agency Alahsma. to take our own l State as an evamole. would ha~dlv | he worthy to hold a placs among civ fl'zed nations or peoples. Of course | the railroads are not always blame l less, and of course they need to be ! regulated just as individuals fre- uuentlv do. but what Is the good of hamnering and trying to cripple them with laws and regulations that cam not be enforced. and should not be? The railroads are just as much enti- tied to justice and fairness as any individual is, and should have both at the hands of the law and the law | makers Trying to cripple them and ! drive them out of business hy uny just legal requirements is not | justice nor is it good statesmanship. |
 Of course it is always in order for | diseruntled officials and politicians to | take a fall out of the press of the l country. Whenever a newspaper is sufficiently honest and fearless to 1 criticize a present or wouldbe ofiice holder it matters not how just and | fair the criticism may be. nor how richly it is deserved, the victim. if he is a man of small mind and vicious disposition. will try to find some way to put that paper out of business, A free and untramelled press is ter TOT to tyrants and demagogues and they will suppress it If 1t lies in their power, Some or the ndLlonHl anu State restrictions and assaults on the newspapers of the country are unjust and unfair and lack but little of be- ing contemptible. If the object of these dictRtors is to nuzzie the press of the country and suppress free expression of opinion they will fail, or we sadly mistake the character of American journalism.
 And so we might go on to speak of the piling up of laws on the top of laws to suppress gambling and to
 enforce proper observance of Sunday, but perhaps it would do no good, Gambling Is an evil. and violations Of the Sabbath are to be deplnred but can either be cured by the enactment of a host of new laws when those now
 on the statute cooks are not enforced and when the new ones that may he
 enacted will fare no better? Loading down the books with laws intended to
 make people good is not the way to
 ensure and perpetuate good govern ment. Good example is better than
 precept and avoidance of evil has
 more effect than legal enactments. But
 this seems to be an era of law-mak- i ing and perhaps the disease must run it's course.