St Johns College - Ozanam Yearbook (Toledo, OH)

Page 31 text:

Where Hope Is- By ROBERT J. MURPHY The spriit knows a longing In the creeping of the dusk That to the heart drifts gently, Like the drifting scent of musk, And an anguish when a far-light In the distance gleams and dies, As gleams an altar-candle For half-closed, tear-dimmed eyes 'Tis the dying hour of daylight, When the shadows of the soul Reach out their tapering fingers To close about the whole. From the sadness comes a longing, And a plaintive hope is born, Yet from this hope springs sorrow That will some day see the morn.

Page 30 text:

W W K- Q NEGATIVE INTERCOLLEGIATE DEBATING TEAM G rge E. Kenny Robert J. Murphy Donald F. McGrath Qi LQ

Page 32 text:

Too JVIuch Lavv By DONALD F. MCGRATH Many, many years ago an old, white haired gentleman, bent nearly double with the weight of years, appeared in the Acropolis at Athens and pro- claimed to the world at large that, Too many Cooks spoil the broth. Since the truth of this statement has never been questioned, far be it from us to question it. Let us, however, rather apply it to our own times and circumstances: in view of the increas- ing complexity of life in America, the time-worn maxim might be made to read: Too many laws spoil the citizen. When we consider that there are approximately no less than two mil- lion national, state, and municipal laws in this country, and that these are annually increased by about twelve thousand new varieties, it is indeed a wonder that most of us are not now residing peacefully in some county jail. Scarcely a day passes that we do not violate some seemingly trivial law or other. If we go to the zoo and attempt to feed peanuts and candy to the elephants or monkies we are breaking a law. When we stand on a city bridge and dreamily while away our time watching the flow of the river, we are in danger of being hauled into court and fined. Then again if we are accustomed to spend a pleasant evening now and then with our friends playing penny-ante or deuces wild, we had best lock the door and draw the blinds, otherwise our friendly game may cost us more than just a few pennies. So too if our house number is incorrectg this little infraction may cost anyone of us twenty-Eve dollars, payable to the nearest municipal judge. In like man- ner we could continue through the thousands of laws now on our statute books. Without doubt hundreds of these laws are absolutely necessary and important for good government. However it is not with laws of this kind that we are here concerned. Our concern lies mainly with the thou- sands of foolish, trivial, and obsolete enactments that we see on all sides. The crying defect in our American government today, is the lawmaking mania that has taken hold of our leg- islators. Unnecessary laws, foolish laws, laws framed merely for the ben- efit of some political faction, are be- ing passed, it seems, as fast as they possibly can. Some weeks ago The Dearborn Independent made a study of this phase in our political life, and the conclusion arrived at was that the United States is suffering from an attack of Too much Law. It would seem that this evil-for such it really is-is not indeed a thing of recent origin and confined only to our coun- try. In the sixth century the laws of the old Roman Empire were so num- erous and varied that they confused even then the best of lawyers. In making their investigation the Independent consulted many of the most prominent lawyers in all parts of the country so as to obtain a national sentiment in this matter. The opinion was most unanimous that we are bur- dened with too many laws. Here are a few of the answers received: Mr. George Mayberry, president of the Massachusetts State Bar Associa-