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THE CITIZEN AND THE

LAW

BY

JOHN B. WINSLOW, LL.D.*

If we judge the flight of time by centuries rather than by individual years, and measure progress by great world movements, rather than by the petty events of this or that community, we shall find that it is no very long time since the law was generally regarded as a mysterious, if not an occult, science, entirely beyond the grasp of the ordinary citizen.

Its decrees were accepted and obeyed not because they were based upon reason, but because they emanated from a power capable of enforcing them.

When told that some grievous and palpably unjust result must be endured because the law said so, the citizen was, perforce, content, or at least resigned to his fate, wondering, perhaps, why it must be so -but hardly venturing to think that law could ever be made logical and just, as well as inexorable.

In the days of the rule of kings absolute, this attitude of the citizen towards the law was natural and almost inevitable.

* Late Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin; Ex-President, American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology. Author: "History of Supreme Court of Wisconsin"; "Legal Forms.''

The subjects of a feudal sovereign had a valid excuse for not familiarizing themselves with the fundamental law of the state. They did not make the law and could not change it, however wrong it might be. The citizens of our country, however, have no such excuse; they are, directly or indirectly, the lawmakers, and it is their duty no less than their privilege to know the law and to change it if it be wrong.

The future historian will find many things of surpassing interest when he comes to review the opening decades of the twentieth century, but he will find nothing more interesting or significant than the tendencies toward an extreme democracy.

If the people are to rule in person and not by representatives,—a proposition which, as applied to a great and populous state, is impossible, the people must be fit to rule. To be fit to rule they must not only be educated, but the great mass of them must be of good moral character. If the fountain head be poisoned, the waters of the stream cannot be sweet.

The question of whether the American electorate, in small communities where a democracy may be possible, is in all respects fit to assume the duties and responsibilities of a democracy is by no means free from doubt. We are much accustomed to boast of the intelligence and good morals of our people, but "boasting proves nothing.'

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Taking up the question of whether the moral tone of the people is improving as the need for higher ideals increases, we shall find conditions not altogether reassuring. In the first place, we find that the industrial revolution has brought us not only the

vast factory, and largely supplanted human labor with machine labor, but has added very serious difficulties to the problem of maintaining, not to say elevating, the moral standards of the people.

The great city has come, and come to stay, and it has brought its great problems with it-problems which will call loudly and more loudly for solution as the years go by.

They are the problems, of the slum, the tenement house, the social evil, of child labor, of congested population and insanitary living, of alluring vice in all its phases; and many others, all of which have greater or less bearing upon the physical and moral manhood and womanhood of the race.

The sturdy farmer, who is daily breathing in health and strength under the open sky, surrounded by the inspiration of Nature's wonders, is giving way to the city dweller, the operative in the great shop, and the thousand and one stunted and narrowchested workers in the city streets, who just manage to keep body and soul together, and who go to bed at night hopeless and wearied, or try to drive away all thought of the morrow by forced and shameful merriment. The picture is not overdrawn, and it is not encouraging to one who is looking for improvement in the moral tone of the people at large.

This is not to say that the moral fibre of the nation is weakening. Churches, schools and philanthropic societies of various kinds are working as never before, but there is need of such work as never before.

The political condition of most, if not all, of our great cities is distressing already, under a represen

tative democracy; what will it be if we are to have direct democracies?

What will it be when the cleavage between great wealth and abject poverty becomes more pronounced?

What will it be if class hatred grows more acute? What will it be if the urban nurseries of crimé go unchecked and the professed criminal classes increase in the future as they have in the past?

Who can answer? It is not pleasant to speak of these things, indeed they are not much spoken of in our best society. People go to their receptions, their teas and their banquets, and talk of the weather, of the last opera, or the latest book. It is far more comfortable to ignore such disagreeable questions as those suggested. Yet the time has certainly come when they must be considered, and the wonder is that anyone could think of ignoring them.

So far only the problems which are peculiar to the great city have been spoken of, but there are others which are present not only in the city but in the village and in the country as well, and they also threaten to affect the moral tone of our citizenship.

The great increase of wealth and luxury which has come from the development of our wonderful natural resources has resulted in a perceptible lowering of ideals.

Our forefathers struggled for their very existence in the face of tremendous difficulties; they subdued forests, endured the privations of the frontiers, and in the midst of toil and privation laid the foundations of the state that was to be. Amid such labors and pri

vations it was natural that they should develop the sterner elements of character, the elements of fortitude, both physical and mental, of self-control, steadfastness and probity of purpose.

We who have entered into their labors and are reaping the results of their self-denial, either by way of making gain from vast business enterprises or dwelling in an atmosphere of ease or luxury, which they made possible, are quite apt to have our thoughts directed to the material things-the things which make life pleasant and enjoyable, to the neglect of the sterner virtues.

It is not possible for one citizen, or for any group of citizens, to make any appreciable change in the material conditions of the age in which we live. We cannot go back to the days of our fathers if we would. "The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves ,"-not backward.

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The great city will become greater, the opportunities for the acquisition of wealth will not decrease but rather increase, the use of the conveniences and luxuries which modern life places within our reach will not cease, the temptation to live a life of ease and pleasure, regardless of the cry of the unfortunate and afflicted, will be just as strong.

How are all these weakening tendencies to be met and overcome?

How are we to make sure of that high grade of morality in our citizenship which will be necessary in such democracies as we may have?

This question is probably not capable of an authoritative answer in a single word, nor will the attempt M.A.L.-2

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