Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 18.pdf/575

 THE GREEN BAG reputations and ambitions built upon the shifting sands; and a general recognition of the fact that quality of laws, and not their number, counts. Fewer aspiring young men might seek seats in these bodies merely as stepping stones to something deemed better; the amateur, the incom petent, and the blackmailer might be less in evidence; the boss who orders legisla tion, in order that he may sell it or exchange it for personal power, might gradually become extinct; the sensational newspaper — that outward sign of inward popular corruption or hysteria — might have less authority; and men of recognized character and success could be relied upon to keep our laws in harmony with our progress, and thus to promote and insure their efficiency without an over-production that sometimes makes them contemptible. But as this congestion of legislation has long since become chronic in our modern democratic society and the malady still remains, it is necessary to consider it in some of its many phases. Some small part of it is the result of adjusting our life to conditions, fewer of which are new than is generally supposed. The political theo ries which have gradually become fairly dominant since the doctrines of the Eng lish Revolution of 1688 were intensified by the doctrines of the American Revolution of 1776, and those of the French Revo lution of 1789 account for the supposed necessity for many new laws, in spite of the fact that none of these events, singly or even combined, has introduced new or un tried theories. Coming back to local gov ernment, each branch of it, each added legislative body, has felt itself called upon to enact series of laws for dealing with its conditions, or what it has deemed emer gencies. Although each new migration, as it spread from the Atlantic to the Pacific, has carried with it rules of life and con duct long and successfully tried on many scenes, it has scarcely reached the vesti

bule of a larger career and opportunity of its own before its legislative body has launched upon the world a new line of en actments dealing with marriage, inheri tance, individual rights and property, and all the manifold interests of life, in a man ner which its people have thought new. Especially in the relations of corporations to society and business, many states, dis tant from the scene of origin and devel opment of these organizations, have be gun the work of regulating and tinkering with them almost before their people had passed out of the individual or partner ship period. The result has been a great mass of legislation that was crude, much that defeated its own ends, and still more that was hurtful to the communities most concerned. It was only when the earlier of these laws were repealed or modified that the commanding natural resources of such states really had an opportunity to find development, and that their peo ple could enjoy the natural reward of their own courage, industry, and intelli gence. Sir John Macdonell, one of the great legal authorities of present-day England, has recently called attention to the fact that for nearly two hundred years the struggle has been toward equality, and that this accounts for much of the great bulk of legislation in this country and the British colonies, and has also expressed the opinion that the tide has now turned, so that the tendency is toward a growing inequality. He points out a tendency, which he describes as universal in all the Western world, to restrict the right of con tract. In his words: "It takes many forms. It creates whole classes of persons who are regarded as ab normally weak, if not irresponsible. The idea of equality before the law . . . becomes fainter. The exceptions were once few. Lunatics were, for most matters, at all events, regarded as incapable of contract ing; minors were so for some; and expectant