Evening star., 1928-12-27
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

Now who would have ever guessed
that Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, presi-
dent Of Columbia University, would find
himself in the company Of Mr.. Bundle,
| declaring, IF the law suppose that,
| the law is a ASA idiot"
DR.. Butler objects to making more
| laws, especially laws with penalties for
| their violation. He does not actually
mention such as the Volstead law, but
if he had spoken of that he might have
| found an alibi as to it's penalties for
violation-in New York. He now gen.
eralizes from that one particular law
| to which he has hitherto conspicuouSly
objected he objects to all flaws which
are not supported by the majority"
The assumption appears to be that
laws which are violated must be con-
trary to public support. The Volstead
law Is violated, therefore, 1t must be
| without public support. Law against
newly created police commissioner of
New York City, Mr.. Whalen, point out,
last week, that out of 223 deaths by
violence, in that city, within the last
few months, the police had made only
two arrests? Therefore. it is obvious
that New York does not support laws
prohibiting murder At least the PEN
alties should be revoked. and the public
should set about to educate its future
murderers and admonish with tone
of rebuke, "Tut! Tut"
The law being "a ass" 1t should be
barred from good society. Yet only
yesterday Mrs. Vanderlip, wife OF the
president of the greatest bank, the City
National, announced that there Is no
social status in New York-nothlng but
| a 'conglomeration.' SO let the law be
barred from the drawing rooms of the
"conglomeration" lest there be too
many "asses" there.
To progress in the reading Of DR..
| Butler, 1t is interesting to note his as
surance that the Columbia University
Law School has undertaken to "restate
| the law" "but a care must be had" he
warns, "that in these restatements
there are not enshrined and given new
| life old errors and fallacieS which 1t
is high time were left behind alto
gether" ..
ton, and abolish Congress.
The doctor had just stated that the
law is a ass" and now he wants to drop
some things behind the main battery
of the ass. What does "a ass" do when
something strange Is tickling its hind
| legs? DR.. Butler is foolhardy-not
| heroic-unless he decides to leave part
| of the revision to Congress or the
| LEGISLATURE lest there rise confusion as
| to which is the law and which the
lass"
He points out that the present-day
ic than
| 1t was in the pioneer days of the re-
public. He testifies, Democracy has
come long way, but, quite plainly, it
| has a still longer way to go before the
maxims and the ideals Of the political
philosophers who first expounded and
extolled it are even meaSurably Illus
trated and attained"
He protests that politics today Is
filled with Ignorance, intolerance,
bigotry and bitter partisanship; and
stupendous self-conceit and self-satls-
| faction are manifest on every side"
Yet in his next paragraph he records,
"It is of no great comfort to be re-
minded that during the height OF the
political warfare between the Federal
lists and the first Republicans. language
of extreme bitterness and viliflcation
was constantly used"
1
and pamphlets of the days of the Fed
Grafton and early Republic verlfies that.
for it brings shocks to every modern
| Ward-heeler We discovered what a
professor of English in another col
lege recently declared, What the Eng
lish language most needs is a supply
of new and adequate cuss-words.' v
There is the old supply, so long neg
llected, but finely embalmed in the
political controversies of $50 to 125
years ago. We are far more polite,
even in modern whispering campaign
than were the fathers of the Republic.
NIasons have discovered live toads today
incased in the cavities Of corner stones
laid half century ago-so they say
What. then, may be the survival OF
"a ass' buried in olden statutes? DR.
Butler visualizes real dangers, which
he rightly views with alarm"
n \ + X
He does not point with pride" at the
increasing lawlesSneSs Of the United
States, although q certain organiza-