The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-06-15
NIIsDIRECTED EFFORT.

It is wonderful what waste of en-
follow the analogy of nature, who
brings forth a million seeds to perish
in order that one may develop into the
perfect plant or tree. So communities
and individuals squander industry and
honest earnestness that might accom-
plish great reforms by directing them
along wholly improper or Intellectual
lines. 1t is the old story Of ''feudal-
ism,' which is the proper name for
about nine-tenths Of our legislative &C
tivity, national or local. During the
last year that portion of the time of the
city authorities which has not been
consumed in figuring how not to do
anything in street railway affairs has
been devoted mainly to two subjects
the framing and passag of a dog or
dinance and a bicycle ordinance. In
both cases the council, under the in
f1uence of blind theory and a passing
prejudice discarded all past expert
ence and reason and eventually threw
over its own work and settled down to
precisely the arrangement that ought
to have commended itself in the first
place.
The ordinance requiring dogs to be
muzzled during all the hot months of
the year was a bit of refined cruelty.
passed under the impulse Of scare heads
and the manufactured alarm about
danger from rabies It was chewed
over and fought over and discussed by
the hour and the column; and, finally,
after the council had listened to reason
and ordered a retreat, we have in force
the ordinance that sums I'D the experi-
ence Of all civic communities for many
years back and is satisfactory to ev-
erybody. By the system of licensing
dogs and impcunding and DESTROYING
those that are not licensed, the city de-
rives a small net revenue, the COM
munity is rid of some hundreds of
worthless ours, and everybody is salts
fed. In the same way the courts have
"0' 'iic 0ouhCl IlSHI III the matter Of
wheeling ordinance; and, after all
the time and all the talk spent on
| this subject, we get back to common
sense provisions which orderly people
have set up for themselves, requiring
the Wheelmen to give due attention to
the rights of others. but freeing them
from the unreasonable and unneces
sary restrictions that mere malevo-
lence had proposed.
1t is obvious enough to any one that
all which has been done in these direc
| tons, and all that needed to be done
could have been settled upon by any
body of adult men at all familiar with
public affairs in the course of about
fifteen minutes. It would not have
been an overwhelming disaster if
neither Of them had been made a sub
ject of legislation at ALL But in local
affairs, as in state legislation and at
the national capital, the great bulk of
the peoples representatives waste their
energy on affairs which are of no
earthly consequence to anybody: and.
even in dealing with them, will work
as If their lives and fame depended
upon it for some legislation that is at
least unnecessary, and in most cases
is positively harmful. The utilization
of the waste energy Of physical ma
ture, that is now the main object of
| scientific research. is a trif1e compared
with the utilization Of mental force
that will be brought about when the
people are filed with a greater desire
to attend to their own business: and
when they will agree to study public
questions sanely, in the light of past
experience, instead of jumping at the
oretical conclusions and acting upon
them.