Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1901-01-02
Suppress Football; Bigger Penalty
for Kidnapers; Set Up Whip
ping Posts.
WORK FOR THE LEGISLATURE.
Inauguration in Madison on Next Mon.
day Personal Letters TO Law
makers Influential.


there is an unusual number of unusual
proposals.. When such bills are ver,'
unusual they are styled "freak" bills
as the one last session to eliminate
corsets. The man whose name gets
identified with such bill is doomed,
and his political death is usually
caused by satire.
Raising Jack-Rabbit Standards.
A Kansas man is trying to save the
annual loss of 100000 pounds of
Jack-rabbit meat by inducing his legis-
lature to spend $1,000 for costly Bel
gian hares; and he feels sure by turn
ing them out o. the prairie that the
result will be constructive chicken on
every table ttIee times a day.
Nothing Guite So fantastic is pro-
posed for " isconsin this year, but one
man will ask the legislature to sup
press football which would prove
more difficult than TO convert the rab-
bits of the great American desert into
q table luxury.
or the bill to surround marriage
with a physical and mental test,
have written previously in these let
tiers. Such a measure is not likely TO
pass, though it viii bring some good
speeches, and likely some funny ones.
A member from a northern county viii
propose a law to establish whipping
posts as a means for the punishment
of wife heaters. The whipping post
fingers In Delaware. though the lash
ing at It of 14-year-old boy for thiev-
cry lately provoked a good deal of adj
verse comment. Furnishing a wife is
such an abhorrent thing: the brutal
strong and the helpless weak, that
nothing so arouses a righteous ndlg-
nation, and If the measure is properly
launched il will at least be well dis
cussed-
Many legislatures viii be asked to
suppress kidnapping by a death penalty
us the result Of excitement over the
Cudahy case at Omaha, Neb Kidnap-
ing in Wisconsin Is punishable by inl-
pr1sonment from one to fifteen years in
the state prison. 1t is generally be
heved that the death penalty would be
unwise, as putting a compulsion on
criminals to kill their stolen victim
against them.
In 1883 the maximum penalty for
kidnapping was raised to five years, and
in 1889 to fifteen years. The Willie
Dickinson case and the protracted slls-
pense and fear after the disappearance
OF Maggie Hennecke exerted an infiu-
ence upon the minds of legislators In
favor of a severer penalty.
Most Awful Form of Kidnapping.
Hattie Tying Griswold Is a name
well known in Wisconsin. Her voice
and pen are ever ready to lift against
iniquity and in behalf of better things.
The CO 1se that latest interests her is
the kidnapping of girls and women, who
are taken TO the dens that infest COM
muntt1es In northern Wisconsin. A
recent case, the victim committing
suicide. has been reported in the pa
pers, but. as Mrs. Griswolt observes,
over this fiendish crime there win be
little or no cutlery"
Mrs. Griswold continues: '"The
dens in northern Wisconsin have been
kept filed In similar way for years.
The fact is known to all men, and the
people of the state seem to be abso-
iutely Indifferent to the sin and shame
of II. '$ . Win there be any ade-
quate effort made % locate this kid
naper and 10 NEE out 20 him the pun
ishment due to his hellish crime? |
venture TO say there win not, and that
the den IN northern Wisconsin where
she was taken will go on doing bust
ness at the old stand, with all the eff
frontery of old. Young girls will stin
be lured to their doom by fiends in hu-
man guise."
II is 4 matter that the new governor
is expected to interest himself in.
Free Employment Bureaus
The Milwaukee county board VIII
report to the legislature bill to ere
ate free employment offices in cities,''
and II also regulates private employ
ment agencies, one Oh the regulations"
being an annual license fee of 500.
This, of course, Is unreasonable and
would be unjust in taking away the
little business of widows, and others.
who make little by finding positions
for domestics, nurse mails, and the
IKE Illinois and some other states
have this European device--free EN-
ployment agencies. and while 1t Is
socialistic In trend, IL the laboring men
want Ii and can put 1t in reasonable
shape, like enough they win get it.
enough the Milwaukee unions say it Is
more an issue for other cities. The
bill provides that the bureau shall not
supply help IN .ases where employees
are locked out ur where there is a
strike in progress.
The grocors who have trouble in col
lecting their bills, have a measure
not new, however-reducing the pres
emit exemption of SIS a week At pres
ent the law protects the swage-earper
to that extent from levy for debt. He
may keep $50 a month for the support
of the family, and that may be all he
earns and is often more Wisconsin
has the highest exemption of any OF
northwestern states: Minnesota has
$25 a month; Michigan $25 per month.
and Illinois IS per week.
When Petitions Have Weight.
The groceTs have an association.
which is great advantage In secur-
ing legislation, for all its members
throughout the state write to coax and
sometimes threaten their local repre-
sentatives and Senator's pressure
which is pretty hard to resist.
In fact, the petition or personal
letter TO g legislator is more effective
than most persons think. Petitions,
Of course, are proverbially scorned as
3 source of influence and in the mat.
Ger Of appointments they cut small
ngure. But not so when bearing ON
state legislator If the names be those
OF his home people. OF many OF the
measures coming up the legislator
may know little and care less: he may
readily be SyyaVed to the one side or