Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1906-08-22
Contempt for Law.

III ulS WOAA w
ciency," says the Philadelphia
Ledger, DR.. Arthur Shadwell, Of
England, discovers contempt for
law to be the most striking feature
of American civilization.
Comparative respect for law is a
subject upon which statistics shed
no light, and it requires a very ex
tensive knowledge OF the opera
tions ofthe law in all countries to
assign the rank OF any particular
nation with respect to contempt
for legislation. Without confess
ing judgment to DR.. ShadwelPs
bill OF particulars, it is interesting
to note what keen'eyed observers
from other countries think OF
America and Americans, and to
have the mirror held up to our de-
linquencies.
This witness finds no lack OF law
In the United States. There is too
much law of kind which can not
be, at least is not, executed. He
finds no other country in which
there are so many futile enact
ments which undertake to inter
fere with individual liberty.
In searching the statutes, he
says, he has found some states in
which kissing is penal oftense.
The giving of tips is cited as an
other crime that must necessarily
60 unwhipped of justice. He is OF
the opinion that laws Of this char
acter cannot possibly be enforced,
and that their violation ia largely
responsible "for the general con-
tempt of law which pervades
American life."
This is an indictment needing
proof. 1t does not follow that the
failure to execute statutes aimed
at trivial offense breeds contempt
for the weightier matters OF the
law, but there is more truth in the
charge that American statutes are
filed with inhibitions to which the
public pays scant attention.
1t is scarcely worth while for
the supreme court of Western
state to listen to the exhaustive
arguments of learned counsel to
determine whether a culprit who
rolls his own cigarettes is manu-
facturer of cigarettes and subject
to the pains and penalties OF a
drastic anti-cigarette law. The
furtive rolling OF cigarettes would
have continued in the byways no
matter what the sages of the law
might have decided. Happily, the
accused was hOnOrsbly acquitted
in a profound, lucid and lengthy
opinion, and carefully drawn en-.
actment intended to bar home.
made cigarettes was ruthlessly We
toed by Judicial int rpretation."
One OF our most distinguished
penOlOgists says that the categO'
ries of crime in the United States
are already sufficiently minute to
cover all modern offenses, wheth
er they relate to expectoration
or the larceny Of electricity, and
he was relieved to find that no new
crimes were discovered in 1905.
The legislature of the United
States is hardly comparable with
that of England. The law mills
are grinding here in forty six
states. There are likely to appear
many ecceDtricities Of legislation
whose non-enfOrcement or halt.
hearted enforcement furnishes evil
dence of our contempt for law to
foreign critics; but contempt for
useless and prepostOrOus statutes
is entirely compatible with rever
ence for law.
A washerwOman of Kankakee,
ILL.,, who had acquired $15, 900 by
many years Of ardHous toll, fell
dead over her tubs the other day.
She shuffled of just in time to es.
cape the clutches of the newly or.
ganized laundry trust.