The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-03-30
Women of National Prominence En-

claiming she can raise bacteria enough
of her own. Speed on the city streets,
whether of horse or automobile, en-
dangers the lives of multitudes, and
for their sakes you must forego the
pleasures of racing.
These are but illustrations, but they
are enough to show the need of many
restraints which the proximity of null
titudeS and their rights of comfort and
health necessarily impose. The gasoline
and the powder must be stored far
away from the city limits, for when
fire is once started no one can predict
where it will stop. If the Widow O'Leary
had been compelled by ordinance to use
a lantern instead of a candle when she
went to milk her COW, Chicago would
have been saved the great fire of 1871.
1t may make little difference with the
farm house whether its doors open out
ward or inward; whether there be
ladder reaching to its second story win
dow or not, but the fearful catastrophe
which only recently filled with gloom
this city attests the fact that doors
opening outward, fire escapes reaching
to the ground and other facilities for
escaping from a burning building are
here essential. AS you stand beneath
the awful shadow of the Irequois dis
aster think for a moment how much it
would have meant to this city If all
reasonable precautions against fire had
been prescribed by ordinance and en-
forced by municipal officials. Vain is 1t
to trust each individual to impose on
himself the needed restraints. Many
are ignorant of their necessity; many
Indifferent to them. Only the strong
arm of municipal law can secure pro-
lection to all against the ignorance or
Indifference of the Individual.
DEFENSE OF THE POLICEMAN.
ct is not strange that the most wide
ly abused official is the policeman. He
is the most active agent of the munich
pality in enforcing its ordinances, the
visible representative of all obnoxious,
petty and irritating city regulations. No
man likes to be told that he has done
wrong, even in little matters, and so
the one who is forever dinging in his
ears You have violated an ordinance,
will surely become odious. We may in
our cooler moments regard those ordi-
nances as wise and salutary. We may
not deliberately intend violation or neg
1ect, but we are apt to think obedience
is of comparatively trivial Importance.
Hence we are provoked When obedience
is demanded, and our anger arises
against the officer who compels obedi-
ence. It is a familiar fact that little
things are often the most annoying. A
fly does little injury, and yet the buzz
zing of one about our faces is often so
small boy to do our swearing. 1t is not
strange. therefore, that the newspaper
Photographer is constantly heaping his
so-called witticisms on the head of the
and enjoy them. We feel when we
laugh at those jokes as though we were
in some way getting even with the police
man for the annoyanceS he has caused
ue. 1t is not strange, either, that we
magnify their occasional mistakes or
failures. 1t is part of a reporters stock
in trade to note that no policeman was
around at a time and place when and
where his presence would have been
| helpful; to call attention to the fact
| that some reporter has unearthed a
crime which the police have failed to
discover, or has pointed out criminal
whom the police were unable to detect.
Back of all this, too, is the fact that in
our cities are multitudes of foreigners
who have come to our shores with lit
tie or no conception of what liberty
fmeans-coming with an Unborn and in
herited hostility to government of all
kinds, fancying that here is the freedom
which means license in all things, and
to them the policeman is the symbol
o. despotisn. He represents govern
ment and they rejoice at every discom-
| fort which attends his actions.
! POLICEMAN OUR BEST FRIEND
But notwithstanding all this abuse
| he is our best friend. All honor Il
the policeman. Stunned by criminal:
who dread to hear the echo of his foot
steps, ridiculed by society because ht
| is not ubiquitous and omniscient, h
is the visible arm of that municipal
| force which not only protects us bu