Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-09-05
A Citizen with Views,

to be heard in 1t should always accompany his
screed with his full name. not necessarily for
publication but as guarantee of good faith.l
A Citizen with Views.
EDITORS HERALD-In common with
many others, the writer has read in our
newspapers of late and heretofore for
many years back, almost daily. accounts
of what is commonly called the "police
muddle," and has observed that this
seemingly interminable strife has usually
originated in charges against the Chief,
and sometimes against policemen, OF
failing to enforce certain ordinances or of
taking money to refrain, in certain cases,
from enforcing the same. Having con-
sidered often OF this "irrepressible con-
hict," without inquiring whether such
are now or ever have been true charges,
wish to set before your readers what l
think will give satisfactory solution of
the whole problem, cut the Gordian knot
of the whole difficulty and prevent such
squabbles in the future as have wasted
the time of so many Councils in the past
to the exclusion sometimes of such i'm
portant matters as parks, public build
ings, good streets and sewers. 1t seems
to me the evil lies further back and is
not necessarily in the Chief, the police
or the present Council, but in the
law itself-in those ordinances which
are without any foundation in reason or
justice, and can never accomplish their
aim. Make such laws as often as you
will and the result has ever been the
same, to wit, they will not be enforced.
Why? Let Lord Macaulay answer. "Be-
cause public opinion has MT breathed
the breath of life into the dead letter.
This same profound man has told us how
sad a sight it is to see people engage in
"a silent but persevering and successful
war against the law" This is exactly
what we see here. take the bold posi-
tion that these laws against gambling and
against prostitution, since they aim en-
tirely at suppressing these evils, are ab-
surd, and every sensible man so recog-
nizes them, and so the law is not en-
forced because public opinion does not
sanction it. Such laws never have
accomplished their aim, but its
victims, to use Macaulay's language
again, have ever engaged in a silent and
persevering war against them in all
ages. Who that has seen one of these
poor unfortunate women dragged before
the courts, but has reflected; what good
can it do to fine this poor helpless thing
already borne down with thousand dis
graces and griefs? Will she quit her
trade society forbids? Will the leopard
change his spots? Will she go away =?
No. She is only tempted now to rob
some one to make up for this fine she
has paid. Because she is fined think you
all will be? You Know they will not and
the business will 60 on the same as be-
fore. AS we'll try to "kick and cuff men
into eternity" as think of legislating any
man or woman into morality. These
things must be voluntary and as long as
mankind have such natures as they have,
prostitution will continue necessary
evil and gambling disgraceful adjunct
of humanity. Such acts we do not palli-
ate nor excuse. They are subjects
for tears OF lamentation. But
when we come to legislate
we must take mankind as we find them,
with all their mixture of angel and
DEVIL" and not as they ought to be, or as
we would have them be; persuasion
alone, religion alone, can accomplish
this moral reform. and not law. This is
our position. What would we have then
Strike these uninforcible laws from your
statute books. Let these people know
where they stand. License and inspect
and segregate your "frail women," limit
the evil they do, since you cannot
eradicate it, and as to gambling, license
it; keep its doors open; drag it forth
from its dark lairs, and thus rob it of
half its evil adjuncts. Thus evils which
have fourished from the days of Badly
lon till now, and like Hydra's head have
never been suppressed, can be
pruned and limited in their evil effects
by just laws, and such laws being
recognized as just and practical will be
enforced. The treasury will be provided
with money to build sewers and streets
and parks, and neither Chiefs nor pc
licemen will have temptation to take pay
for refraining from assisting to enforce
ordinances which are unjust, and so fail
of their true intent. You license saloons
because you cannot suppress them, why
not do the same with these other classes
for the same reason? The fault, there
fore, we apprehend conscript fathers, is
not in ''our stars" nor in our Chiefs, per-
haps, so much as in the law itself, which
should be reformed some way so that,
with public opinion supporting it, it may,
can and will be enforced. Thus we 60 to
Cno FOUNTAIN neau, anu lay une axe TO
the root" of this matter OF the "police
muddle," which has too much engaged
the attention of our Solons in the estima-
ton of many good men, to the exclusion
of weightier matters, sewers and the like,
which can not be much longer sighted if
we would have habitable city. Very
respectfully, G. WHITE.
Los Angeles, September 4, 1888.
PROHIBITION FARMER.