Gubernatorial Messages 783 



bad enough when the unscrupulous individual works 

 by himself. They are much worse when he works 

 in conjunction with his fellows through a giant cor- 

 poration or trust. Law is largely crystallized cus- 

 tom, largely a mass of remedies which have been 

 slowly evolved to meet the wrongs with which hu- 

 manity has become thoroughly familiar. In a simple 

 society only simple forms of wrong can be com- 

 mitted. There is neither the ability nor the oppor- 

 tunity to inflict others. A primitive people provides 

 for the punishment of theft, assault and murder, be- 

 cause the conditions of the existing society allow the 

 development of thieves and murderers and the com- 

 mission of deeds of violence; but it does not provide 

 for the punishment of forgery because there is noth- 

 ing to forge, and therefore, no forgers. The gradual 

 growth of humanitarian sentiment, often uncon- 

 scious or but semi-conscious, combined with other 

 causes, step by step emancipated the serf from bodily 

 subjection to his over-lord; he was then protected in 

 his freedom by statute; but when he became a fac- 

 tory hand the conditions were new and there were 

 no laws which prevented the use of unguarded ma- 

 chinery in the factories, or the abuses of child labor, 

 forced upon the conscientious employers by the un- 

 scrupulous until legislation put them on an equality. 

 When new evils appear there is always at first diffi- 

 culty in finding the proper remedy ; and as the evils 

 grow more complex, the remedies become increas- 

 ingly difficult of application. There is no use what- 

 ever in seeking to apply a remedy blindly; yet 



