Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/266

242 The other, a prominent lawyer, said, "Why, you are talking like a fool; while I was district attorney of——county, almost my entire time was spent counteracting the work of that fool county board."

Such are the conditions; the remedy is plain, There is a science of statute law which is yet to be developed. The possibility of a jurisprudence in the field of statute law making has been realized by few people. Even in England, where an official draftsman is employed, practically nothing has been done to gather the history of statutory enactment.

Says Professor Ernst Freund in his article upon "Legislation and Jurisprudence":—

"For the vast majority of the acts on the statute books of our States, the reasons or considerations inducing their adoption have not been formulated. There has often been no discussion in the legislature whatever, or if there has been, only incomplete accounts of the debates have been preserved in the daily press. It is otherwise with regard to the more important legislation of congress and, in a number of States, with regard to the enactment of constitutions. In some branches of administrative legislation there are comments and recommendations of official authorities, and revisers' notes furnish for a few States valuable material. The whole amount of this source material is poor as compared with what the official publications of England, France and Germany afford. A great amount of information for legislative history is scattered through the law reports, in cases construing statutes and pointing out defects, which led to appropriate amendments. But the current