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109 The Rule of "Not Too follow with good grace the fine rhetoric of Henry Watterson quoted here last month. Secretary Taftj says : Nothing is more foolish, nothing more utterly at variance with sound policy than to enact a law which, by reason of conditions surrounding the community, is incapable of en- forcement. Such instances are sometimes presented by sump- tuary laws, by which the sale of intoxicating liquors is pro- hibited under penalties in localities where the public senti- ment of the immediate community does not and will not sustain the enforcement of the law. In such cases the legis- lation usually is the result of agitation by the people in the country districts who are determined to make their fellow citizens in the city better. The enactment of the law comes through the country representatives, who form a majority of the legislature, but the enforcement of the law is among the people who are generally opposed to its enactment, and under such circumstances the law is a dead letter. In cases where the sale of liquor can not be prohibited in fact, it is far better to regulate and diminish the evil than to attempt to stamp it out. By the enactment of a drastic law and the failure to en- force it, there is injected into the public mind the idea that laws are to be observed or violated according to the will of those affected. I need not say how altogether pernicious