The daily Nome industrial worker., 1917-03-14

during an ordinary lie time to read all the laws passed by the differ ent law making bodies in a few years.
 Accordingly the statutes are di- gested severally and individually, and the scope of labor to familiar ize one with these would be the toll of a Hercules. Needless to say it is not done; and for that reason ex- cept in elementary matters two ex- celent lawyers may maintain dis tinct and different positions, because they have absorbed their views from different sources of inspiration.
 What has happened then is that a form of metaphysics has sprung into being. Just as in the scholas- tic era theological metaphysics at forded different schools of thought endless subject matter for debate, controversy and ragchewing, so to- day different legal attitudes follow ing the enormous array of statu.es, precedents. rulings of all kinds. have developed sundry schools of le gal lore which depend upon the eS cathedra pronouncement finally Of a Supreme Court whether they will he accepted or not. as matters of legal faith.
 Following the establishment Of an elaborate theological metaphysics in the earlier ages. there resulted also a theocracy of tremendous power and energy which gradually arro- gated or established itself supreme over all other social forces. ALd the analogy between the two condi- tions is so close that today we find established in the midst of a demo cracy a legal aristocracy which takes upon itself to say what laws the people shall obey what laws the people may understand, and wherein they may and may not le gislate.
 It would be well to understand that teh scolasticism of the Middle Ages led almost directly to the re formation. unless We accept the 10. too restricted view that the reforma ton came from the Devil. Facing this accumulation of laws, this arls- tocracy of law-interpreters with their own obsolete ritual and jar gon which no average minded lay man can understand, it is almost safe to say in the future distant o1 close by. is a revolutionary reform ation which will put an end to the yagaries Of such metaphysical mys teries.
 No one will hesitate to believe that the Alaska legislature will be greatly benefited if the solons dc not give way to the instinct tC make as many laws as possible with in as short as possible space of time And if following the address of the Governor, some of them feel tha' they should restrict the field o their legislative propensities, the territory will be keen to appreciate that theirs was the hesitation O. angels where the fools would have rushed in headlong
 There are good laws and bad laws The law is human institution made by man or supposed to bC made by man for man. It is no divine institution. It is no sacro-sanct. It partakes of the na ture of those who inspire it, wh' urge it. who enact it. And wher bad men pass laws it is certain tif they will have an evil tendency when evil men inspire laws, the pro bability is that they will also be evil when laws are passed for selfish ant cruel and oppressive purposes by dominant power, the laws will b' selfish and cruel and oppressive They may be a mans instrumen for social preservation and orga nization. But they have too ofteI made men the legal instrument o class preservation and the organi zation of the power of powerful few
 Laws to be ideal should be mad, for man, not men for laws. Some day this fact will be realized clearly enough in practice as we'll as theory