The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-09-30

tion by a reasonable measure o- $, | brevity VI
 It is asserted by many of the pessi I in1stlc school of thought that we are | in these modern days losing sieot o7 i the standards that were formeriv sci
 up, both in this, our chosen profession l or the law, and more broadly in o171 political life: that the full meaning hi 1 the oath that ushers us into the re | lsponsl b1Hties of citizenship, and like 1 wise that which marks oIir en+ranne into the ranks of the legal profession 1 is becoming obscqred in the practical activities of life
 In other words, that the ideals that were formerly cherished reeardine the legal profession, as also our ideals of political conduct as citizens have
 suffered a decadent change Let us scrutin1ze ourselves to discover wh eth CT 1t be true that in the mad pursuit for money that in these days has be- come so great a handspring to action.
 those higher aspirations that are in nerent m the breast of man, have be- come so comm mercialized, as that by measure our actions by the fnnme ef7fate gain that is within view.
 Standards Have Shifted.
 The shifting of standards of politf- cal ideals in the rapid development of this nation, affords study of absorb ing interest. Here in New England. we sprang from a race of ideaIists As we call to mind those men of
 
 Hgious views and calculating tempera- ments, who made that clearing upon the banks of the Connecticut river. we are at first prompted to reiect tha claim that such men could be classed as idealists. But below that veneer of austerity produced by their own peculiar experiences and their forbid ding environments, we readily dis cover a group of men with lofty ideals of representative government and of true plane of citizenship hereunder. that end, and without contamina- tion of selfish gain, with the result that the beacon light of civil liberty asf expressed in government by the across the waters, carrying new hope and inspiration to the millions who were ground under the weight of the military systems of the Old World
 These, our forebears, had high and i untarnished ideals of the purity and 1 simplicity of a government that rested upon the consent of the governed.
 No Corrupt Practices Act Needed.
 These were not days when a Cor l -upt Practices Ace was necessary in | .upt Practices Act was necessary in nelled and honest view of the free nan by whom it was cast.
 Their ideals as to sim plicity- of gov srnment might be forcib1y illustrated title Commonwealth in the body of avs, then, and now. To-day, in ad- i1tion to eighty-three volumes of de- isions, and the gerat field of the ally regulated by nearly 5000 Sec ions of the Revised Statutes and aore than 800 additional Public Acts dopted by the General Assemblies of 9O5, 1907, and 1909. How refreshing } turn back to that Arcadian period then the General Assembly of Con ect1cut in the Colonial days declared nat the Law of Connecticut consisted ! the Acts of the Assembly and or want thereof the rule of the word l ExGod We are not accustomed to sgard the Scriptures as practical ! orking statutes for an American l commonwealth. It would necessitate n attorney seeking his instruction in . theological rather than a law. school, T hich doubtless would be regarded by any as beneficial.
 Trial by Biblical Law. loo In the trial of a case. can con. | i've i've or emoarrassrnent for the plain l. frs attorney asserting his right to t ldgment of reprfsaI upon the doc c inc of 'an eye for an eye and a tooth ( 1T tooth,'' the opposing counsel V ould refer to the new dispensation, s le injured plaintiff to turn his other N leek for that further chastisement a hich, in modern legal nomenclature t, ould come under the head of aggra- J tied assault and battery. Carrying e illustration still further, it would em, as the judges say, that plaintiffs . ilure to present his other cheek . ould give rise to an offset in dam r Y 'es for a breach of duty, and thus V e assa liant become converted into II e aggrteved and injured party. q q But this simplicity in Government h as, of course,. to give way before the :; ;e of great invention, of discovery II Id of achievement. u There came the wonderful indus s' Ial development in these Eastern al ates, followed by the mighty wave ea a- immigration that peopled the great n est, and by these potent comm ercial 2, encies that knit us together into a 4ec t1on, With interests so interwoyen-I oe CT this vast4territory between the i cans, as to insure a permanent Gov N nment, resting upon the enduring vi inciple of equality in the rights of f. l e governed. = ~ In this great up1ift which has placed ., oI
 in the front ranks of the powers irl the earth, have we, in the conceit O @o- prosperity and material advance g. snt, lowered some of the old time IT .als of government and of the stand = Is of individual political conduct? HJ
 Special Interests Powerful M Can we hide our eyes to the patent . t that there have developed in our ltical life powerful agencies for the 5tering of special interests that have flare: that unlawful com binatfons we been formed that have stifIed -oIesonle competition and have in iousIy eaten into the very vitals Of s Republic, and chiefly by tbeir ister control of legislation; that Ct 'se influences, set in motion by the scial interests, by which trusts, oressive to the American people, fostered and perpetuateJ, have IT le and again brazenly nominated HI ldidates for offices of public trust dominated the halls of legislation - Tariff rates have been created for pred interests by which swollen tunes have been made at the ex- lse of the American public. r Oppressive tariff propaganda have oI n inaugurated in the years behind Io'
 when we thought we heard the ne in the night of infant industries'' en in fact they had long since ao m & if not so that +ba Seno+9 oe tic ted States, under this same com Slo -cialfzing of our best impulses, has % %1oN n passing from it's former high pa pa