Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1911-11-14
DISCUSSES PROBLEM
OF CLASS HOSTILITY

How can the people be put behind
the law? What remedy can We apply
To the republic? Let us look first at
simple and partial remedies.
| Before proceeding, we must remem-
Der that we cannot expect the people
10 reverence law in the abstract an
abstraction cannot long retain the
| allegiance Of a democracy. They will
respect only beneficent laws and good
| lawmakers.
The people could be put behind the
law to some extent by making them
better acquainted with the law. This
would be a method for which we have
precedent in American history The
colonists knew their Blackstone. The
Men of '76'' waged the Revolutionary
war more upon legal technicalities
than because of actual physical griev-
ances. The orators of the Revolu-
ton could boast that every patriot
was an embryo lawyer After the
outcome of the war, il was again the
Widespread knowledge of English
law that made possible our constitu-
ton.
Voices are continually heard today
in peoples assemblies and forums.
often in broken English, expressing
respectfully a pathetic desire to know
more about the legal machinery of
this country. They ask how laws
are made how state and national in
situations can be changed Lacking
this knowledge. it is unnatural that
ignorant or suspicious or aggrieved
working men. especially those from
overseas absolutism. still fancy them
selves in the hands of tyrannical
forces?
Why could not evening classes in
the law be opened for working peO-
pie, where they might become widely
acquainted with the subject matter of
law, and, at any rate. with their legal
rights? Besides night schools for |
adults, law could also be taught in
the high schoOs-and, perhaps in the |
last year of the grammar school. Such }
law studies in the public schools would |
give, too. a dignified and intelligent |
approach TO citizenship
The Twelve Tables were used by |
the Romans as a school book for their |
children. If the Americans were to
its nature. at least, could be explained /
to future citizens, who would learn
that the constitution is not a hard |
and fast contract between the states
and the federal government-in other
words. a dead document-but that
such an agreement embOdies, of ne
cessity, the living law of the land,
and consequently contains within it
self an organic principle of growth
which accounts for the constructive
which, to the eyes Of
the uniformed, look like constitutional
revision at the hands of the judiciary.
Every child in the United States ought
to be taught that the constitution
is not at any rate, boundary stone,
but more like a budapest, and most
like tree well rooted in fertile soil
There is another method by which
the people could be rallied behind the
law; suppose bills of the first i'm
portance i'm congress and in state leg
islatures had public hearing before
great popular audiences. where the
bills could be explained by their pro-
moter and questions might be asked
and answered. Public discussion is
the essence OF peaCelui proSreSS III ~
democracy, but it is rarely afforded
in legislative debate which is too
often only a demonstration Of power
between contending forces. with as
little honest controversy as is shown
in a tug of war contest-worse still,
a tug of war when an anchor mans
palm has been creased" With more
public discussion we should need less
public investigation. Honest public
education about pending measures
would have a tendency to prevent spe-
cial legislation hostile to public in
terest. and would develop among the
people sympathy for lawmakers and
approval of their work-the agreeable
confidence that the laws enacted were
their own laws.-Percy Stickney Grant.
in the November number of The North
American Review.