The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1915-12-31
LAWS

ment was one in which there were
enough laws to prevent men from in
juring each other and otherwise leave
them free" To such an extent we
have departed from this ideal of JEFF
Persons that our usual method of re-
form is to "pass law" The result
is that in every state comprising the
forty-eight in the Union we have a
multiplicity Of laws, providing for this
and prohibiting that; every citizen of
the United States is presumed to
know all these laws. 1t is also a le-
gal presumption that every citizen
knows how the courts of the different
states construe this awful, lawful,
lawful jargon.
Every few years new laws are piled
on the books and more officials are
created to enforce the laws. The ar
my of inspectors, commissioners, ETC.,
grows in size as the width of the sta
tutory volume increases until, as the
Democratic national platform says,
the taxes are kept high and the pur-
chasing power of the peoples toll is
reduced.
Blackstone defined law as a "rule
of civil conduct prescribed by the SUI
perior power Of the State" Prior to
Blackstone's day Justinian said that
all laws could be compressed into one
sentence: olive honorably, hurt no.
body and render to everyone his just
dues" Christ laid down an ideal rule
of conduct in these words: "That
which We would that others should dc
unto you, do We even so to them"
When the farmer erects a fence or
his farm he makes law. On one
side of the fence are his rights, on the
other side are the other persons
rights. In state of nature the fence
would not be required but in civil
lied state it is necessary to erect the
fence to show where one man't rights
end and the others rights begin. The
farmer would be a fool, however, who
would so Defence his lands as to make
l them look like wire entanglements tx
| snare an approaching enemy. Hi
would also be fool if he were to 81
fence his lands that it would take al
his time to look after them and keel
them in repair. The good farmer
erects what fences are necessary t.
keep his stock "from injuring eacl
other" as Jefferson said of men, cane
otherwise leave them Free" for The
wise farmer knows that the more
| freedom his stock has from fence an
noyances and restrictions the better
| it will be for stock and farmer
We submit in conclusion that thu
State of Missouri has too much invest
ed in it's fences--its laws. Next yea
there will be an election and lot O.
well-meaning folks will propose ad
ditions to the laws already on tn,
7 books. AS an alternative it is respec
fully submitted that it would be bet
ter to elect members of the legisla
ture pledged to the repeal Of abou
nine-tenths of the laws which now en-
humber business and its conduct. Ant
in particular it would be well to re
wise those laws creating commission
ers, inspectors and other non-porduc
tive folk who spend their time goint
over the State looking wise, drawing
salaries and adding nothing to tn,
commonwealth. Business, after all, il
nothing more or less than the activ
ity incident to supplying people
needs. This being the nature of bus
mess, it needs very few fences o
laws to hamper operations. 1t shoulc
have the maximum of freedom witt
| just enough law to prevent men from
injuring each other."-Sarcoxie Rec
ord.