St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-27
ENFORCE THEM,

ENFORCE THEM.
1t is much to be desired that the
practice of getting rid of unpopular
and improper laws by enforcing
them strictly, which has been adopt
ed recently in several places in
this country, should become gen.
eral. The most prominent case, of
course, is that Of New York city,
whose entire population is now up in
arms over the hardships inflicted by
the police commissioners in compel
ling observance of the Sunday clos
ing laws. Leaving out of sight the
moral side of the question, it is
clear that a vast majority of the
people of the metropolis are op-
posed to the execution of the law
as it stands. Their desire is that
the people who are not diSturbers
of the peace should be allowed to
enjoy themselves in their own way
on Sunday. The law as it stands is
Extensively severe even to some of
the stricter advocates of Sunday OBJ
servance. Yet it is not an obsolete
ordinance which the commissioners
have dragged out of obscurity with
malicious intent, but has been passed
upon repeatedly by the peoples rep
resentatives; and dates, in it's pres
ent form, no further back than 1892.
The fact is that 1t exists simply
because those who permitted its
passage with good-natured indiffer-
ence were confident that it would
never be executed. The objection to
that is that it has been used joy
fully by corrupt administrations as
a means of blackmail. The privil-
eye of violating it unmolested was
sold to saloonkeepers who would pay
the required bride, while those who
refused to put up money were sum-
marily arrested and fined. And this
is only one way in which the eX-
istence of a law which is not in
tended to be enforced works injury
to the public morals. In Emporia,
Kan, they are almost equally eX-
cited over more trif1ing matter.
An ordinance requires every bicycler
to ring a bell at each point where
streets or alleys intersect, no matter
whether anybody is in sight at the
of this, several scores of the citizens
of that town, male and female, have
had warrants served upon them and
are required to appear in the police
court. In both cases the one OBJ
ject sought is the repeal of an I'M
necessary and Objectionable law.
The shortest road to that end is to
enforce it.
It would be of inestimable benefit
| to every part of this country if we
| might now enter upon an era of the
repeal of existing laws. The United
| States, and every state, city and
| town within it's jurisdiction, is bur-
| dened today with a vast mass of ill
| considered and ill-adjusted legisla-
ton. The passion for law-making
! has become mania. Under it's pres
sure. legislatures and city councils
| grow more and more careless. They
| put through statutes and ordinances
at anybody's desire, with the remark
! that if they are good it will be all
| right, and if they are bad they will
| become dead letter. The result
| is that every community is cursed
| with an accumulation of laws that
are either actively bad or passively
injurious by being impracticable and
incapable Of enforcement.
The general contempt for law and
willingness to disregard it without
fear Of possible penalty which this
] practice inculcateS come to the front
| on occasions like the great strike
of a year ago. Then we see the evil
in its full proportions. We are apt
to forget, however, that it is one of
slow and natural growth; that we
| plant the seed and give careful Gull
ture ITO the plant whenever we place
| among our general or local laws one
| that is not actually demanded by
| public necessity, or one of whose
strict enforcement there exists rea-
sonable doubt. There is no commun-
ity in the United States which would
not profit by a general campaign on
the lines of that in New York and
that in Emporia. Let us find out
where we stand. Let an honest at
tempt be made to enforce the laws
as they exist. That is the first step
toward determining which of them
we need to be rid of. Nothing can do
more to create a wholesome public
sentiment and sweep out of exist
ence the growing accumulation of
enactments that We're never meant
to be put into operation. A year or
two of law enforcement all over the
country would not only revise all our
statutes by the exclusion of improp-
er matter, but it would give people
an Invaluable education in the linn
itations of law and the respect due
to it. Such campaign is necessary
to the spirit of loyal obedience to
| government and to the stability of
popular institutions.