The weekly true Democrat. (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1905-1912, 1907-08-23
''DEAD-LETTRR" Laws
HOw LsSislators ana LAWYERS Make
TrOuhIs SsF tie People.

Tampa Ttibune.)
AS prominent factors in causing law
lessness, the Tribune has already cited
two things. The first Is the existence
of a bewildering multiplicity of laws,
many of which were never meant to be
taken seriously. and the existence of
which upon the statute books necessari-
ly detracts from the sacredness and
weight of those volumes.
The second is the unrighteous resort
of lawyers, even those Of high stand
ing, to every possible technicality to
delay and prevent legal proceedings
and the reprehensible weakness Of
judges in permitting such trayesty of
justice TO obtain In their courts.
These two causes operate in differ
ent way toward the production Of q
lawless people; the first Of them caus-
ing, as we have asserted, lack OF re-
spect for all legal enactments, however
important, and the latter creating
public impatience and restlessness
which results in q tendency TO take the
enforcement of law away from dilatory
and uncertain courts and TO use private
vengeance TO secure the swift and sure
punishment of the criminal. And all
this is perfectly natural. Men recognize
that, after all, the will Of the people is
the real fountain whence all govern
ment springs, and when their chosen
agents fail 20 carry out the trust inn
posed on them they decide it is time for
the sovereign people to take the law in
their own hands, to create law higher
than any legislative enactment and put
it into immediate effect.
This, no doubt, is very false reason.
ing, as of course, no mob dealing with
any one case Of crime has the right to
proclaim its decision as the will of the
people; at the same time, the mob UNI |
questiOnably justifies its lawless deed
by some process of law analogous
to that which we have pointed out. |
And that such reasoning has gained its |
present strong hold upon the magma |
ton of the people has been largely due |
10 the acquiescence by the pulpit, press |
and educators generally in theory that !
there is law-we mean law govern |
ng the affairs of the earth that stands |
above the written law of the land. This /
accursed absurdity in title and most Sc
-iOus tragedy in concrete application /
las been called the higher law" or
he 'unwritten law" It's use has been, |
8 and ever will be the most fruitful
source OF outrage and inhumanity and /
gross insult to the wisdom Of the ages |
hat have developed the codes of today
Is the highest output of an ever-ad-
yancing civilization and enlightenment
The very word claw signifies the
written or spoken edict that emanates
rom authority, so that even the terms
higher law" and ''unwritten law" are
absolutely meaningless when applied
o human government 1t is, then, one
4 the first duties of the same pulpit,
'ress and educators generally that have
olerated and even applauded these in
qultous terms and 80 made possible the
iorrors resulting from putting the law
essness they stand for into execution,
o wage continuous and strenuous war
galnst them. The people must be
made to understand that law and order
re synonymous terms, and that there
an be no law whose base is anarchy.
hey must be shown the folly, the con-
radiction in terms of the same people /
nacting laws for their government {
nd then permitting the notification Of !
hose laws by handful of their num- ]
er while under the stress of an intense I
They must be made to (
ealize the fact that those who so over
lde the expressed will of the sovereign
eopie as expressed in a sacred code of \
Tvs are as great criminals as the 8
Utility wretch on whom they. may visit +
heir wrath for purposes Of vengeance !
nay, that their lawless acts must nee
Ssarlly have a much more far-reaeh-
X, dangerous and demoralizing conse-
lence than an individual act of crime o
IN possibly have, no matter how afro r
Gus and revolving il may be; for every b
'esh act Of violence committed by an il
,ganized mob that justifies its deed by
: appeal TO something beyond the laws '
the land is another step of the whole <
eople toward the dark, desperate and '
ISOLATE kingdom where Anarchy holds p