Evening star., 1939-04-09
Fifty Years Ago
In The Star


act which directed the Supreme Court
:, of the District ito appoint
So"pne two persons learned in the
y. -. law as commissioners to COM
Lows pile, arrange and classify, with
proper index" all statutes within the
scope of the civil and criminal code Of
the District of Columbia. The Supreme
Court in general term the following day
appointed w. Stone Albert and Benja-
min G. Lovejoy to perform this long
needed codification of District law, which
had its origin in the common law OF
England and the statutes of Maryland
The Star, in an editorial Of April 5, 1885,
made the following comment on this
undertaking:
District laws is one thing; to indorse the
compilation when made and to recognize
it as an official statement of the statute
law is another thing. Congress has fire.
quently taken the first step, but never
the second. For the welfare of the Dis
trict it is sincerely to be hoped that the
work of the present efficient compilerS
will receive better treatment than that
of their predecessors. The District has
ever been ready to emulate the smiling
hopefulness of Mark Tapley in respect to
what Congress will do for it in this
regard. Just complaints of the condition
of its laws were among the first munich
pal utterances of the infant Capital
Successive would-be compilers or codi-
fiers since the time of Cranch have kept
dangling before the eyes of Congress the
patchwork of District law, full of ugly
holes and excrescences, but in vain. Still
the people of Washington are not COM
pletely discouraged. They are glad to
have Congress appoint competent men
from time to time to burrow for District
law among the English statutes existing
at the time of the first immigration to
Maryland and which by experience have
been found applicable to local and other
circumstances in that State, and among
the Maryland statutes and stray acts of
Congress, where the local law lies hidden.
They would be additionally grateful if
some one of these compilations were
adopted as statement of the law as 1t
exists. For by that course statutes To-
cally applicable would be collected from
a dozen different sources, convenience of
reference would be secured, and in
Strengthening inconsistencies and MAX
ing intelligible the statement of existing
law many antiquated provisions would
be practically legislated out of existence
by being treated as obsolete. But Con-
gress should not stop even when the
rich boon Of such a compilation has been
bestowed. 1t will be a great thing to
have existing law collected and printed
in convenient shape, but a clear state
ment of the statute law as it is should
be only the preface to an improvement
OF that law. There is no reason why the
Capital of the Nation should be clogged
with statutes which England and Mary
land, whence these antiquated provisions
come, have themselves outgrown and
cast aside. First, by all means get a
compilation. Then there should follow
a comprehensive code or body of revised
statutes. giving to this District the bene-
fit of the modern spirit of legislation,
both in respect to substantive law and
procedure. To put the matter modestly,
Washington is fast becoming progress
sive 10Th century city, and an 18th CEN
tury body of laws, merely disfgured
by subsequent random patching, is un-
suitable to its condition Tobacco, for
instance, is no longer money. to be used
in paying the penalty for some anti
quated offense. unknown to the criminal
code of all other sections OF the Repub-
lie. It is time that the statutes of the
Capital of the Nation ceased to serve
mainly as a museum of antiquities, dis
playing curiosities, wonders and horrors
to the investigator. The District needs
modern laws for present use which will
aid. or at least not retard. its develop
ment as a modern municipality"