THE REIGN OF LAW 311 



denounced the bribery law as a blue law and as a dead law, 

 because it had not been enforced before. They argued that 

 members of the house of delegates having been taking bribes 

 from time immemorial, they had acquired a right to do so, and 

 it was just as proper for them to sell their votes as for a mer- 

 chant to sell his wares. Here was a crime worse than any 

 other, for bribery strikes at the foundation of all law, yet the 

 law denouncing it was not enforced. Men gave V)riV)es and 

 thought nothing of it; men took bribes and l)oasted of the fact; 

 corrupt men feasted and fattened at the public expense ; legis- 

 lative halls became dens of thieves; laws became merchandise 

 on the market, and all this time the pu})lic conscience was 

 asleep. When the revelations came and the people saw how 

 they had been plundered, and realized that a government by 

 bribery was a government by the wealth of the few and not by 

 the people, they saw the offense in all its enormity; and from 

 one end of the land to the other there was a civic awakening. 

 Now everywhere officials are made to account at the bar 

 of public opinion for all official acts, and those who prostitute 

 their trusts and sell the powers that belong not to them but to 

 the people, are being made to answer for their offenses. And 

 yet, four years ago the bribery law was denounced as a blue 

 law, by those against whom it was sought to be enforced. 

 Every law is a blue law if a man wants to break it. The non- 

 enforcement of the bribery statute might be explained by the 

 difficulty of securing evidence of its violation, though a pro- 

 secuting officer working at it seriously, and willing to incur the 

 enmities such an investigation would bring about, can usually 

 lay bare venality of that kind, if it exists. But there are other 

 laws plainly made to please the moral element, and then not 

 enforced, to please the immoral element. The difference be- 

 tween a wide open town and a closed town is that in the former 

 the laws are not enforced, while in the latter the laws are ob- 

 served. The gambling laws in many places are permitted to 

 be disregarded and the laws regulating dramshops nullified. 

 It has been claimed these laws could not be enforced in large 

 cities, but they are enforced and faithfully observed in the 

 large cities of Missouri. In fact, Missouri, is the most law- 



