542
THE GREEN BAG
pretty much by the same impulses and influences; that, in the course of the ages concerning which history has left us a record, nearly every legal device has been tried; that, in general, man, like nature, casts off the useless; and that each failing experiment, however many times it may be tried, is still the same impracticable movement wasting valuable time and ef fort. When we shall learn that legislative bodies must be made up of mediocrities so long as quantity and not quality of laws is regarded as the essential requisite; when some of the temptation to legislate shall be removed by less frequent meetings of such bodies; when trained official draftsmen shall be employed to give the necessary laws legal and literary form; when executives are forbidden, rather than encouraged, by public" sentiment to inter fere with the orderly course of law-making, — when these simple steps are taken, it will be permissible to look forward with hope to the times when hysteria, black mail, partisanship, personal ambitions, and selfish interests will not add ten new laws to the statute books when only one is needed. At all times in history the safe guards of the law have been thrown around life and property. As the result of the laws, slowly built up and carefully tested, men have been able to progress, to command a constantly spreading freedom, and to promote civilization. In the future, as in the past, the law must recognize what has been done; it must look forward continually to the protection of men from violence and anarchy, and their property from spoliation. This can best be done by having few and just laws, and by grounding them upon principles and doc trines which have commended themselves to mankind. If the ill effects of idle and mischievous over-legislation manifested themselves only in the belittled character of our law-mak ing bodies, the result would still be de
plorable. But they are most apparent, in the attitude of a people which, starting at its own shadows, comes to depend more and more upon the so-called strong man; in that dissatisfaction with courts because they find temporarily popular legislation either unconstitutional or unworkable along the lines desired; in the opportunities afforded to the shallow agitator, the dangerous revolutionist, or the opulent demagogue; and in that inability to think sensibly and to act with decision in matters of grave importance having to do with the main tenance of our popular institutions in their pristine purity. These are the vital mat ters — those which really count — in the making and the maintenance of national character, in the creation of that respect for law which is always the sheet anchor of a great people, and in conserving that still more unusual quality of waiting with patience for the slow and sure victory which comes with devotion to fixed princi ples and policies. With more than twenty-five thousand pages of new laws added to the statute books each year, it is apparent, if the sug gestions so far made be well founded, that relief is absolutely necessary. During the years between 1899 and 1905 England's Parliament, legislating for the needs of forty-two millions of a home population, and millions of dependents, passed an average of only forty-six gen eral and two hundred and forty-six special laws — the number of the latter being swelled by the necessity for granting franchises for railways and charter amend ments for cities. One of the potent ele ments in the working out of this to us most astonishing result, has been the presence of a salaried draftsman — a law yer of high repute, well paid for his ser vices —• whose duty it is, not only to study the phraseology of proposed laws, but also to make a thorough examination of existing legislation, for the benefit of Par liament and its committees. The pub
