Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-01-28
TWO E BILLS.

Tennessee and Nebraska have come
to the front, for once displacing Kan
sas with two freak bills before their
respective legislatures. Tennessee has
a measure which proposes to tax bach
elors on a sliding scale from the time
they reach % years of age until they
are SO. The tax is to start with $50
per year and increases as time goes on
until, when the victim is so years old
he will be paying into the state treas.
ury 1925 per year for living outside the
pale of matrimony. After he is half
a century old he will not be fined for
not having married.
Nebraska's freak bill Is one that
proposes to make the playing of col
legiate football within the boundaries
of the state a felony, punishable by
Imprisonment and fines. This was in
troduced in all seriousness by a mem
Der of the legislature of the western
state yesterday.
is the more foolish of the two bills but
either one of them compares well with
any Of the freak bills of which the
legislature of the bleeding state" has
ever been responsible. 1t really evens
up for the sensation the hotel keepers
of Topeka caused a few days ago by
refusing to allow Booker T. Washing
ton shelter within their houses. The
Tennessee bill might come in as prac-
ticable when the whole world has
spent a few hundred years in the care
full study of the race suicide problem
and the invention Of schemes calcul-
ated to stop the evil. But it is mani.
freshly a century OF two ahead of the
present age and had best be tabled by
the Tennessee legislature for at least
three or four generations.
The Nebraska football bill, however
] deserves some serious attention Since
general attention has been drawn to
the fatalities resulting from football
there has been no little enmity de,
veloped toward the sport that is sc
popular in colleges, universities and
even schools all over the country
There is no denying that the game Is
a dangerous one and that severa
deaths have resulted among the play
ers. But the number is rather small
as compared with the total number O.
players In any one season. That ques
ton, however, Is n that is always
! open to argument and neither side Il
!. easy to convince. Leaving 1t out o
consideration there Ia reason why tn,
|, opponents Of the game should allow It'll
, devotees to indulge their fancy. NJ
!, one goes into the game without real
, izing the dangers he is facing. Thu
!. players are almost entirely young mel
, and boys VINO are being educated a
the expense of their parents and the,
!, are naturally playing the game will
, the consent of their parents. If a maj
: believes the game to be wrong and to-
/. dangerous for him to c~ountenance, h,
+ can order his son to stay out Of tn,
!, squad and thus remain safe. There ar
: boys, no matter how much this ma.
be denied by the pious directors O
!. athletics in the colleges and univer
!, stiles, who would be unable to obtail
, a higher education were It not for tn
!. fact that they can play football an.
!, receive their tuition and perhaps
) salary or some other help for playing
! In their cases. then. the game Is
y good thing.
In brief, the fact remains, despite al
arguments against football, that a ma.
or boy does not have to enter tn
! game unless he wants to dc SO an
). that a parent can keep his son fror
!. playing if he so desires. Why the1
, cannot this plan be adopted rathe
= than that of barring the game fro1
). the state and making the playing of
a penalty?