The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1913-08-23
Continued from Last Week.

I.a COHl!HueV from Last week.. itls
An executive must do the best he
can, with the means at his command,
according to the light he has. In
doing this. he can not, of course, sat-
isfy all men; il he could be imagined
as absolutely enforcing all these
thousands of statutes all the time, he
would satisfy no one, but succeed
only In dissatisfying and provoking
all, Tor at some time or another every
man no doubt must violate some of
these statutes, and as no man ever,
under any possible circumstances,
wishes the law enforced against him
or his relatives or, friends, it liz clear
that no man really believes that all
laws should be enforced all the time.
Il Even you. in your suggestions as to
more rigorous enforcement of the
statutes relating to Sabbath :observ-
ance. do not insist on the enforce
ment of them all. You select out of
the number, but one, namely, that
relating to the saloons. The others,
those prohibiting base ball. for in
stance, or sporting, or other games,
or keeping open stores, or the per-
Torrance OF or profting by common
labor, you omit. You do this, I ven-
ture> to say, because you know from
experience and observation, from
your knowledge of men and of the
world, and above all, from your per-
ception and recognition Of the custom
and habits and necessities of the
community, that their enforcement
would be impractical, and indeed
impossible, without bringing on
tumult, and riot, and a whole train
OF evils much worse than the VIOLA
ton of these statutory regulations
could POSSIBLY be. That is to say,
you allow a certain discretion in the
administration of these statutes,
measured by the state Of public senti-
ment and the degree Of conformity
thereto by custom.
You come to the very point at
which all who give deep consideration
to the problem inevitably arrive,
namely, THAT these statutes can be
made applicable to human conduct,
only In the way of auxiliary aids,
they may guide it, to a degree regu-
late it, and perhaps educate and in
fuence 1t, but they can never con-
troll it. VII
We had a striking illustration of
this whole truth only recently when
Judge Wachenheimer sought to en-
force certain laws against certain
citizens. Do you not remember he
objection that was made, the outcry
that was raised? And do you not
remember that when Judge Wachen-
heimer came up tor reelection he
was defeated This fact shows, I
think, fl ?rst. that all men do not be-
lieve In the enforcement Of all laws
all the time, and secondly, that a
statute is not law merely because it
is on the statute books.
In the past few years, during a
period. Of agitation and searching
criticism, numerous efforts have been
made by prosecutors to punish cer-
tain rich and respectable men for their
violations Of Statutes, and yet, notwith
standing all the agitation. all. the ef-
fort, here and all over the land, there
are few instances; so far as I know,
OF a prosecutor who succeeded in
putting any OF these men in prison,
and not one single instance in which
the people sustained him for doing so
or for attempting to do so.
It is undoubtedly not yet custom
for society to punish the acts which
those statutes that Wachenheimer,
Heney and Folk and the other brave
prosecutors sought to enforce were en-
acted to punish, it is not a law; these
acts are inextricably woven and inter-
woven into the fabric of our industrial
system, they cannot be separated from
it, nor can their evils be avoided, I'M
til the whole fabric is renovated and
renewed. And until that is done it
will continue to be customary to main
tain one law for the rich, and another
for the poor, certain men will be let
alone, and certain men punished and
until another ideal and another sys-
tenn shall prevail, courts and prose-
cutors will be powerless to convict.
Leave Retribution to God.
I would not have you understand
me as wishing to see these men, or for
that matter. any men, in prison; for
my wish is the exact opposite to that.
I do not pretend to judge men; am
not wise enough to know what justice
is. in any case. ISagree. indeed, with
Mr.. William Dean Howels. in the be-
lief that: 1T seems best to be very
careful how we try to do justice in
this world, and mostly to leave retri-
button of all kinds to God, who really
knows about things and content our
selves as much as possible with mercy,
whose mistakes are not SO irrepar-
able
say all this merely in the attempt
to show you someSof the difficulties
of my position, some 81 the obstacles
which an executive encounters. and
to make clear how very difficult it
lis to give to stafdte the vitality Of
a law unless the public sentiment.
the custom and habit; Of the people,
run ins,the same direction. And 4
seek also to make clear the, further
fact that to me it'sseems to be- my
duty to be guided by the will Of the
people Of Toledo. The people elected
me, I am responsible to them, and
have tried to be true to them. For
me to employ force to combat their
will would SAVIOR .of tyranny, and I
have neither the inclination nor tho