Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 09.pdf/494



CURRENT TOPICS. Too MUCH LEGISLATION. — Governor Griggs of New Jersey made a very suggestive address at the August meeting of the American liar Association on the manifest evil of too much law-making. He called special attention to the proposition, which is unde niable, that while the interpretation of the law is a science, the statutory making of laws is not. Judges, learned in their profession, carefully constme, classify and apply each new enactment, and in the case of a majority of laws they must receive judicial interpreta tion before they become actually operative. On the other hand, the legislators who prepare and enact the laws are not as a class experienced in the study of law. Lawyers may predominate in the legislature, but this does not prevent bills that are valueless in design and faulty in construction from being rushed through. The majority of the measures introduced fall by the wayside, but the mere fact that they are introduced complicates the work of the legislatures and affords too little time for the consideration of such bills as are really beneficial in character. An evident reason why legislation cannot be a science is that a vast amount of legislation is proposed in the particular interests of politicians and men of business who have no care for the general welfare, but have an axe of their own to grind. No one has more clearly and forcibly demonstrated the fact and the evils of excessive legislation than Mr. Moorfield Storey of Boston, who has made it the subject of several publicaddresses. That the community is awake to the fact is evident from the restriction in most of the States of legislative sessions to one in every two years, and the denial of compensation to legislators after a speci fied number of days. Governor Griggs adduced some interesting statistics concerning the amount of legis lative work during the last sessions. In New York 4,533 bills were introduced in both houses, of which about 1,300 were finally passed, and only 797 re ceived executive approval and became laws. The New Jersey Legislature passed 297 bills out of 657 presented, and the governor allowed 207 to goon the statute books. The number of bills introduced in Pennsylvania was 1,566. of which 483 passed and 400 became laws. Illinois made a somewhat better show

ing, viewed in one way, for only 195 bills out of 1,174 were passed, and of those passed only three were vetoed. As to any remedy for this serious con dition, the governor was vague. He declared : •• We do not want the system changed; it is only necessary that our legislative bodies shall be controlled, re strained and regulated by a proper sense of the solemnity and responsibility that pertain to the power they exercise; that they shall learn to respect the wisdom of conservatism, to value stability more than experiment." It is indisputable that the system is not to blame. It would be unwise and undemocratic to put the lawmaking power in the hands of any one class, for laws designed for the promotion of the general welfare should be devised by a body composed of representa tives of the various interests of the community. It would be absurd to constitute lawmakers out of a class or a few classes, as it would be to choose the executive officers of the government in the same way. But the governor's truisms above quoted amount to no more than saying that the way to cure a man of fever is to enable him to get well. The laws of a community are always good enough for it. They fairly represent its moral sense. Just as soon as the community will send proper men to the Capitol, just so soon they will have proper laws, and not a moment before that time. There is much, however, to be said in favor of a council of legislation whose recom mendation of proposed bills should be influential, if not essential. A sound objection may be raised to allowing any special body to determine what measures shall and what shall not be considered by the legis lature, but such a body may well be advisory, and may be especially valuable in passing on the form of bills. As the matter now stands, there cannot be much difference of opinion among reflective citizens that we " are ruined,"' not " by Chinese cheap labor,'' but by too much legislation. Fewer laws and wiser laws should be the endeavor of our legislative bodies.

THE RETIREMENT OF JUDGES. — The Chairman does not very often suffer anybody else to sit in his chair, but once in a while he makes an exception in 455