San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-03-02
UNWORTHY OF A STATESMAN

Between expediency, TO satisfy agi-
tators and thus promote or safeguard
his party's fortunes, and craftsmanship,
for the sake of lasting fame, Secretary
Hughes possibly suffered agony of spirit
before he decided to tell the American
Law Institute what this country most
urgently needs. Had it been an off
year, politically, he might have decided
in favor of his own reputation as a
statesman. But this is a presidential
year, and his party cannot afford to over
look any opportunity to cater to the
whims of the aggressive. Therefore Sec
Rotary Hughes told the Institute that
the country's most pressing need is to
enforce law"
To say therefore" in this connection,
is less discreditable to Mr.. Hughes than
to assume that there was no cause-and-
effect relationship between the political
situation and his prescription. To make
that assumption would be to deny that
he has it in him to be statesman.
When a man sets out to contradict
the obvious he dooms himself to So
phistry; he cannot be consistently logi-
cal. Mr.. Hughes, trying to achieve the
impossible, got himself into trouble in
the field of logic when, bent upon reach
ing the conclusion that what this coun-
try needs most urgently is claw enforce
ment," he mentioned the fact that $1,000
laws had been enacted in a single year.
He presented further argument against
his conclusion when he added that, in
effect not all new laws are created by
Legislative or congressional enactment
that for all practical purposes the re-
corded decisions of the courts constitute
new laws, and that on an average there
are about $4,000 such decisions annually.
OF course it is true, as the secretary
of state asserted, that the superlativc
need is not to make law" But why
didn't he adhere to the obvious? If the
enactment of more laws would greatly
impede law enforcement then law en-
forcement could be best facilitated by
reducing the number of statutes.
Why is it so difficult to enforce law
Largely because there are too many
laws. If additional laws would make
the task harder, then fewer laws would
make it easier.
Law enforcement is difficult largely
because there is an excess of laws
largely" but not wholly. In addition
to an excess of laws, there are many
statutes which did not spring from a
popular consciousness of need for
them. They originated, not in a need
keenly felt by the public, but in a de-
sire on the part Of legislators, mere in
dividuals, for the achievement of ends
which the public had never held init.
mately in view.
| No law that hasn't terminated in the
lpublic's sense of its own needs can BIZ
easily enforced. No law that runs cotin
ter to the public's sense of its own need:
can be enforced with any degree of ef
ficiency.
The question goes to the very root!
of democratic philosophy. A law, t.
; have any inherent power, must CONF
into being in the form of deep popu
lar desire before it appears in the form
; of written statute. 1t is analogous
to an agreement between two men; tn,
agreement exists before it is committee
to writing, and the committing of it t.
writing is merely way of stating TIL
fact that it does exist.
Lawmakers must come to realize thi
simple, fundamental fact before they cal
truly perform their proper function il
: any country with the republican form O
: government; and the public must con
fine them to the performance of tina
: proper function b4fore it can truly exer
else the sovereignty it claims.