y toward new legislation in matters of
felony, and many States are still content to remain with the common
law. Such legislation as there is is mainly concerned with the
protection of women and children, alluded to in the last chapter. In
matters of less serious offences, of legislation creating misdemeanors
or merely declaring certain acts unlawful, there are three main lines:
First, legislation usually expressive of the common law against
conspiracies of all sorts, combinations both of individuals and
of capital, already fully discussed. Next, the general line of
legislation in the interest of the health of the public, such as
pure food and drug laws, and examination for trade or professional
licenses; and finally laws protecting the individual against himself,
such as liquor and anti-cigarette or anti-cocaine laws. It is hardly
necessary to more than illustrate some of these matters. Then there
are the laws regulating punishment for crime, laws for probation or
parole, indeterminate sentences, etc., all based on the modern theory
that reform, not retribution or even prevention, is the basis of
penology. Such laws have been held constitutional, even when their
result is to arbitrarily increase a man's sentence for crime on
account of his past or subsequent conduct. Finally, and most
important, there is the legislation regulating the actual trial of
cases, indictments, juries, appeals,--the law of court procedure,
civil as well as criminal, which for convenience we may consider in
this chapter.

Of the first sort of legislation, we have noted that in many States
adultery, in many States simple drunkenness, in other States mere
single acts of immorality, are made felonies. In 1892 the State laws
against food adulteration begin, which, by 1910, have covered milk,
butter, maple sugar, and many other subjects. By the Federal pure-food
law of 1906, applying to Interstate commerce in such articles, it
became advisable for the States to adopt the Federal Act as a State
law; also for the sake of uniformity a few States have had the
intelligence to do so. The trades of fat-rendering and bone-boiling
are made nuisances by statute.

In 1896 we note the first statutes against lynching. In 1897 local
option prevails in Texas, and the blue laws of Connecticut are
abolished to the extent that recreation on Sundays is no longer
prohibited. Local option and anti-lynching laws continue during the
next two or three years, and by 1900