A QUOTATION FOR THE TIMES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 28, 27 October 1934, Page 6

A QUOTATION FOR THE TIMES

It is not often that we find a Royal Commission pointing a moral with a quotation from Shakespeare. The Companies Commission, in making this interesting departure from custom, selected from that reservoir of worldly wisdom. a fragment of philosophy not only appropriate to the conclusion it desired to emphasise, but capable of a much wider application. It runs, slightly varied from the original text of Measure -for Measure. We must not make a scarecrow of the Law, Setting it up to fright the birds of prey,. ■ And let it keep one shape till custom make it Their perch and not their'terror. The commission pointed out that the .evils referred to in the report occurred “despite the existence of a considerable body of law designed to prevent abuse and protect the investor.” The same conclusion could be reached from a study of the operation of many other departments of law, national and international. The capacity of human ingenuity to keep within the law and yet defeat its purpose, to adventure beyond the law and escape detection, and even to exploit the law with the object of attaining that which its set purpose is to make unattainable, has kept the lawmakers busy throughout generations trying to outpace, the lawbreakers. It is like the perpetual duel between the safemaker and the safebreaker, between the armaments of, offence and defence. From the attempts of legislators to keep men honest has been harvested the cynicism that people cannot be made good by Acts of Parliament. The most that has been achieved is that the liberties of the many have been restricted because, again to quote Shakespeare, “liberty plucks justice by the nose.” Evil doing is not confined to the offences catalogued under the criminal code. There is wide scope for dishonesty and sharp practice in business intercourse between men, where the law is not infrequently made the instrument of injustice. Protests under this head lead to further lawmaking and further restrictions in order that rascality shall be restrained and the gullible protected from their own credulity. The cause is fundamental, and lies in human nature, in that love of man for money which we are told is the root of all evil. Offer the average man with funds to invest an “easy money” proposition and he will be at least interested. Thus a favourable psychology is created for the sale of what may be a specious investment, and upon the knowledge of this the vendor proceeds to tempt and then convince with arguments which many now sadder and wiser men may be able to recall. The medical and legal professions have their own rules and tribunals for dealing with those of their members whose conduct may be unprofessional. The discipline is strict, and in consequence these professions are comparatively free from official regulations and restrictions. If complaint is nade in other walks of life of oyer-much official regimentation "he question may be asked whether it is not possible for these groups to govern themselves and their actions in the same way. One answer might be that it has never occurred to them; another that self-interest is too strong. There is such a thing as having too many laws and too many regulations, with the result that supervision and enforcement become difficult, and respect for the law declines. Yet if the members of a democracy will not act fairly and honestly with each other what else can they expect but laws, and yet more laws? The Companies Commission has discovered that the existing scarecrows have ceased to scare. Now. no doubt, the country will have a new set; and when that has lost its terrors and become a perch something else will have to be devised.