Article April 19, 1913 Issue

PROTECTION OF LAW

W. TAYLOR STONE.

Law has been defined as "the operation of a principle." Another definition is, "A rule of action according to which a power acts." To many, no doubt, the dominant thought of law has been one of restriction, harshness, or compulsion, when in reality law is essentially protective.

All law is mental, and the moment a law has received the signature of the supreme authority and been promulgated, that moment it becomes omnipresent and omniactive throughout the state or nation. Air-ships, tunnels, rocky fastnesses, or forests cannot hide from its protection. In what is termed the natural world, it requires only slight observation to note the operation of what is termed natural laws in their protective nature. It is seen how animals, insects, birds, reptiles, and fishes are protected by a similarity of coloring to their surroundings, or by their means of flight, escape, defense, or sustenance.

The writer recalls three instances of the protecting quality of law in human affairs. The first happened in Boston, at the intersection of a busy thoroughfare, where a dainty little girl of seven or eight summers tripped lightly up to the big brawny policeman on duty, and, placing her hand in his, indicated that she wished to cross over. The stern face relaxed as it looked at the tiny charge while escorting her to the other side. Another instance was in New York, where a stranger appealed to a policeman on point duty for directions as to a certain locality. With one arm around the stranger's shoulder, the other regulating the surging mass of street-cars and vehicular traffic, he escorted her to the other side. Another instance was in London's busiest thoroughfare, where a blind man stood on the curbstone while a policeman, stepping from the middle of the road and holding back the surging sea of traffic of almost every kind, led him across the street.

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