828 
Law-Making. 
{Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
November,  1920. 
Common  horse  sense,  or  even  average  mule  intelligence  should 
teach  us  that  in  political  affairs  as  in  business  enterprises  the  more 
profuse  the  promises  the  less  likely  the  performance.  The  pro- 
motor  of  "get-rich-quick"  concerns  can  always  promise  greater  re- 
turns on  the  investment  than  can  be  offered  by  the  promoters  of 
legitimate  business  undertakings. 
LAWS  FAIIv  WHKN  THEY  IGNORE  HUMAN  NATURE. 
Another  lesson  from  the  history  of  political  experiments  is  that 
laws  also  fail  when  they  ignore  the  ordinary  qualities  of  human 
nature  instead  of  operating  in  harmony  therewith. 
The  engineer  who  digs  a  tunnel,  or  drains  a  swamp,  or  irrigates 
a  desert,  does  not  begin  operations  without  a  careful  and  scientific 
study  of  all  the  surrounding  conditions.  Sometimes  he  finds  a  direct 
method  of  approach  the  most  suitable,  sometimes  an  indirect  ap- 
proach, and  his  success  is  measured  by  his  ability  to  adjust  his 
methods  to  the  peculiar  circumstances  in  each  case.  Sentiment 
and  emotion  find  no  place  in  his  plans.  He  does  not  attempt  to 
destroy  the  natural  tendency  of  water  to  flow  down  hill,  but  makes 
use  of  a  fall  of  water  at  one  place  to  carry  water  up  hill  at  some 
other  place.  He  does  not  ignore  or  attempt  to  violently  suspend 
the  operation  of  natural  laws,  but  seeks  to  utilize  them  in  the  at- 
tainment of  his  purpose. 
The  reformer  of  political  and  social  institutions,  in  his  anxiety 
for  direct  and  immediate  results,  rarely  takes  time  to  patiently 
study  the  particular  conditions  involved,  refuses  to  be  bound  by 
the  laws  of  human  nature,  and  will  not  consider  any  other  method 
of  approach  than  the  age-old  formula,  "it  is  forbidden,"  which  in 
the  history  of  civilization  has  failed  as  often,  if  not  oftener,  than 
it  has  succeeded. 
Some  evils  of  the  body  politic  are  of  such  a  nature  that  the  only 
proper  course  of  procedure  is  to  totally  prohibit  them,  but  others 
are  like  the  tares  in  the  wheat  that  cannot  be  directly  uprooted 
without  uprooting  the  wheat  also. 
Human  nature  in  the  mass  can  be  led  by  education  and  per- 
suasion, it  cannot  be  successfully  driven.  Laws  that  ai  passed 
by  tricky  political  methods  or  adopted  with  the  grudging  assent  of 
a  bare  majority,  and  which  attempt  to  violently  uproot  world-old 
prejudices  or  beliefs  in  a  day  retard  rather  than  advance  genuine 
reform. 
