Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/80

 our courts, such legislative devices were necessary in order to carry out in these modern days that justice which was guaranteed in our constitution?

It may suggest to the reader that not only is our legislative machinery, which has been so widely criticised in the past at fault, but that there may be other deep-seated faults which are not being corrected as rapidly as those committed by the legislature, and that the remedy in America does not merely consist of a few laws restricting corporations but that it must go deep down in the education of our lawyers, in the education of our people as to their rights, and in the changes in the forms of our government which will actually meet the economic stress of to-day.

It is a common thing in the legislative halls for some hoary head, learned in the law, to recite the old phrase "you cannot make men good by law." That may be true, but you can make men comparatively better—at least good enough to respect other men's rights. The device shown in the diagrams is as old as history. The state itself is based upon it. Without it civilization could never have existed. To illustrate, imagine a group of savages sitting in a circle feasting; the gaiety is suddenly interrupted by a huge savage who rushes into the circle, seizes the food and runs away with it. We can imagine our savages sitting in a circle, hungry and mourning over the loss of the food. One appeals