The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1913-02-15
THE MANY LAWS
OF MARYLAND
Editor the WING:

2~hitOi t'S w iAiN
You have rendered service to
good government by your illus
tration in the WING of February
9Th, O.. the comparative size OF the
volumes made up of the laws pass
ed by the last session OF our legiS-
lature and OF those OF otner states.
To show that the acts of that ses-
sion are more voluminous than
those OF Illinois, Iowa, Connect
cut and Missouri combined, tho
Illinois alone is Of much greater
territory and population than our
State. is to do more than call at
tention to the multiplying OF laws;
it exposes the condition of Mary
land politics as compared with
those OF the other States named /;
States by no means free from cor
ruption in their public affairs. For
it is true, as Macaulay, in one of
his essays quotes one of the an
cient thinkers, that when a State
becomes corrupt it multiplies its
laws. The condition of Mary
lands law-books, fat Volumes
marking with records of numer-
Gus enactments the course OF
every gathering o; politicians at
Annapolis, is the condition OF the
State government. In the decay
OF protection for popular rights,
in the continuing divorce between
justice and law, in the sluggish ac-
ceptance by discouraged citizen
ship OF the rule OF private inter
ests over the public welfare, the
multiplicity OF enactments is as
natural as the growth of saplings
around decaying tree. The rem
edy is not to reduce in some ar
bitrary way the number of new
enacemerts, but to provide condi-
tions for healthy growth III free
dom, through the representation
by its best individuals of every
class OF worthy people in the Com
nonwealth.
You will say it is not the ma
chine, but what the machine does
which af1icts the public. 1t would
be within truth to add that the in
jury the machine works is not
alone in the plundering OF the
people, but in the exclusion OF the
able and the honest, from nominal
tons and elections, i'll favor or
those who are merely active ior
the party.
Machines ior good government
are created where the people
arouse themselves and think. The
present conditions our subserv-
iency to wrong methods and
wholesale wrong-doing in road
making, the excess in taxation,
the neglect Of schools and OF COM
pulsory attendance laws to make
Them efficient, the inferior quality
OF public officials, the ignorance
OF the mass OF the people as to
what is being done, an ignorance
which the ablcst are often forced
10 share, are all effects Of the same
causes which multiply laws be-
y1nd reason and at the cost OF the
public welfare The remedy must
be found in public education and
in radicalism by the editors who
desire better things. For until
the people are aware what is the
source OF their ills. they will not
act and until inspired by radical
ism, an enthusiasm both to de-
Stroy evil conditions and create
better ones, there will be no real
Improvement. And where i'm
provement does not appear degen-
Grafton comes and new evils con-
tinually accumulate. The state OF
the public mind and interest is
what the press and the ponucians
OF Maryland have created by a too
close adherence to conservatism,
so-called. intoxicating respect for