New Britain herald., 1916-09-15

{ nave the time for lt'-prlnCipally be- ! cause they have nothing more useful l to do. That good old-fashioned word l 'Selectmen' inherited from the early days of the New England town meeting meant something; too often it doesn't today. AS the immortal Bill Nye once said to an aspiring young friend: Y Oung man; you're on the downward road to the Lcgislature.'
 ''The grist of laws that are en- acted-let alone the millions that do not emerge from the committee room is simply appalling. Unfortunately exact statistics are not available but hardly a congress sits without con- | sidering, in one form or another from 10000 to 60000 bills. In the four years ending in 1913, congress and the states enacted over 62,0OO laws, while in a single year 1915, the food trades examined through their legislative counsel over 22, 1000 pro posed laws, 43S of which they ac- lively watched. In the four years preceding 1915, New York State en- actments numbered 3,51S, during which same period, the whole Brit ish parliament passed only 250-and England is some law maker at that. In 1915 alone, New York passed 582 laws, during which time the British parliament enacted only 91. The average of bills proposed in New ork state alone is,not far from 5000 a year. q am happy to hear that Con- necticut has materially reformed in this respect, as contrasted with some states. May the good work go on). | "Does anyone contend that the
 public necessity and convenience re- quire,-to quote the staid old phrase
 which usually preceded a bill in ] New England 1egisature-anv such
 number of laws as this? Are men
 any more honest, Or kind or better?
 For 20 centuries the entire Christian
 world has wagged on pretty well with
 a code of just ten commandments and
 even today no one has greatly i'm
 proved upon them, save in specifica-
 tions and twists that have given rise
 to few million lawyers No amount
 of legislation has yet improved upon
 Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy
 self and property laws by the mill
 lion have not greatly amplified Thou l shalt not steal and Thou shalt not I covet.'
 The Oppression of the Law.
 "All over this country, business men are crying out against the oppression 1 of law. It has become more difficult 1 to know the law than to keep it, l Class legislation has become unbear~
 able and rarely necessary. It is i'm ] possible to carry on business of any | magnitude without employing counsel,
 while every great business association l is forced to maintain a permanent cop l corps of lawyers, not to defeat good
 laws but to prevent the enactment of
 unnecessary, oppressive, expensive and , unjust ones and saving the legislatures l from being ridiculous-at least any more ridiculous than has recently be- l come common to the ST ecial
 "Then there is the favorite pastine | of legislatures to Investigate. The | more unpopular the victim, the more prone are state solons to investigate. It makes good reading, tickles the l electorate and helps fill up space in | the newspapers, in which the name of the Statesman who sits on the com
 mittee is mentioned. Yet very rare | indeed have been the investigations which uncovered any adequate