Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-03-20
A Proposition That Is Absurd.

ASk1 En- -. n In Id.
A Proposition That Is Absurd.
Let US consider. for few moments,
the proposition to turn over the hotels
of Maine to the management Of the
Board of Health. OF, rather. to an in
spector named by them. If we under
stand Senate document No. go. An
Act Relating to the Inspection of Ho-
tells. Inns, and Rooming Houses" that
is the nature of very small demand
which appears almost to have slipped
through the Legislature without any
general recognition of its significance.
Maine sends its representatives to
Augusta every two years to revise the
laws that need revision to meet chang
ing conditions, and to make such new
laws as needs and experience have
shown to be wise. Many OF these
said-to-be needed laws are found I'M
wise Some Of them are found to be
good. but good or bad, the people can
govern themselves accordingly.
But when the Legislature surren-
ders its prerogatives and delegates its
duties 10 another body. putting the
body so delegated in place of the
statutes, then the people find them
selves subject to the whims Of human
beings. They have not the statutes
for guidance, and are liable to find
themselves in the power Of unin-
formed, selfish minded. and very hui
man human beings who have been
substituted for law and from whose
verdict there is no recourse to the
courts Of law.
Such groups. known as commits
sions" or what not, ought 10 be desig-
mated as flexible statutes OF ami
mate law: that is, law that is SUBJ
ject to all the emotions and infiuen-
ces Of human beings, both in the in
depreciation OF justice and the meth
DDS of application.
More and more is the evil growing.
More and more we are encouraging
our law making bodies to hand over
their functions TO groups Of mon
named by them, by the executive. or
by the people. These little groups Of
three or FIVE, perhaps. make arbitrary
Ia VS. from which there is an appeal.
In recent address in the L. S. Sen
ate, Hon. William E. Borah said:
We have today the transportation
system Of this country almost COM
pletely under the control Of a COM
mission which the people can neither
select, elect nor recall. We have the
currency in the control Of a commits
sion which the people Of the country
can neither select, elect, recall nor pre-
ven, from being appointed. We are
new proposing TO place all the great
industries in the hands Of a commits
sion which the people neither select
elect, nor can they recall. We leave
the mere shell Of the government, the
mere outward form of a government,
in the hands of the people to f1atter
and satisfy their PRIDE, while the great
essential, elemental powers which deaf
with and control their destinies are
in the hands Of Is or so men"
Here is an example called to atten-
ton by Senator Weeks with refer
ence to President Wilson's selections
for the new Federal Trade Commits
sion:
He has seen fit to appoint FIVE
gentlemen not one of whom, in my
judgment, would have been elected to
serve as the director of any impor-
tant corporation" Yet these COM
missioners are going to have great
er powers than have ever been in
trusted to any ave men in the world
Maine has the point brought home
more strikingly than ever before in
this proposition to turn over all the
vast interests of the hotel business of
this State to the arbitrary dictativn
and control Of three men who know,
presumabl about as much Of the
needs and demands of the hotel bust
ness as the average physician knows
about law, or the average hotel man
knows about the science Of drugs, or
strategic movements against microbes.
In other words, a small group Of