The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1897-03-04
THE CURFEW LAW.
What the Oshkosh NORTH western Has to
Say About Racine's.


Aid. Yule says he is about to present
curfew ordinance to the council for It's
! consideration. In view of this fact it
NAV not be out of place to call atten-
ton to the editorial of the Oshkosh
Northwestern, one of the most influ-
entail papers OF the state, on the cur
few ordinance recently passed in Ra-
cine. There is great deal of good,
hard common sense in the article:
The adoption of the curfew ordi-
nance in Racine is another illustration
of the tendency to breed disregard for
law which curfew ordinances and other
similar enactments create. In that city
the curfew bell is rung by the police at
7:45 O'Clock and the children are eX
pected to be off the streets by s o'clock.
But dispatch from Racine, in telling
how the new ordinance is operating,
says that the police do nGG intend to
enforce the ordinance except in eX
treme cases. That leaves the children
to understand that law does not mean
fit TO enforce it. This is made to de-
pend on extreme cases and the chill
dren are left to speculate for them
selves as to what are extreme cases
and what are not extreme cases. In
other words they are taught TO figure
to what extent they can violate the law
without getting caught at it or without
having the law enforced upon them. A
ine school of instruction as to how to
evade law A splendid training this
in the art of violating law with i'm
punity And thus it IS in nearly all
he affairs of life, and especially in the
matters pertaining to legal restrictions
and regulations. We are growing up a
nation of experts at lodging law: a
people of disregard and even disrespect
for law. Aud is it any wonder that
disrespect for law is engendered when
80 many laws are passed 70 restrict and
which are purely personal and which
pertain solely TO individual liberties,
and which cannot be enforced in the
face of popular dlsapproval. Good law
is founded on philosophy and sound
sense. If these essentials are lacking
in laws they naturally fall into disre-
quite, and this breeds a laXlty of regard
for other laws that are founded on cor
rect principles and sound sense.
Therefore, we should be more careful
about the laws we do pass. The indi-
vdual should be left as free to act and
do as is consistent with the rights of
others. Leave to the progress of civili-
zatlon and education the moral effects
now certainly not secured through
statutory enactlnents. When we come
TO provide by law when people shall go
home, what they shall eat, drink or
wear, or, as in the case of high hats
and boomers, what they shall not
wear, we have attempted to regulate
common customs by statutes, thing
that is a bar to progress, a hindrance
to development and an obstruction to
evolution. People fully realize the eff
feet of these things, but they do not
sufficiently analtze the causes of them.
! AS when people know that they are
sick without being able or sufficiently
discerning to determine what the mat
ter is or what has caused the derange-
ment of the system. What we most
need in human affairs is to approach
as nearly as possible to the simplicity
of nature
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