The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-13
TRoUBLE IN MAssAcHusETTs.

culture walks abroad at monday, and where education perches on the top most pinnacle of Fanueil Hall. And l poor old Massachusetts. the land of the pilgrims and the Alsonquins; the land where Miles Standish tried to court the beautiful Priscilla and got left; the land where the gentle Puritans prayed to God on Sunday and hung witches and butchered Indians the rest of the week; the land of codfish, baked beans and clans.
 The entire State is In the midst of trouble and tribulation, but Boston most of all. It all comes about because they have District Attorney with long nose and a penchant for sticking that organ into forgHten places. He has discovered that the old blue laws enacted centuries ago in Massachusetts are still in force, and has set himself to the task of making them effective. One provision of these laws was this: Whoever, on the Lords day, keeps open his shop, warehouse. or work house. or does any manner of labor' 
 essity and charity, etc., shall be pun ished by a fine of not more than $50 for each offence.
 This is only one section of the laws. but even this is as far-reaching as a peal of thunder over the city. Already, as we are assured, more than a thous- and people have been arrested and many have been fined by the Municipal Court. It has held that ice cream can not be delivered on Sundays; that or chestras can not play in hotels during meals on Sundays; that theatrical prop critics can not be transferred after midnight on Saturday; that cofin can not be transferred unless for im- mediate use. It has even been held that garbage can not be collected from hotels on Sunday, the sapient judge holding that it is not collected because of necessity of feeding the hogs, to which 1t goes, but for fear 1t may spoil. It does not seem to have occurred to him that the protection of health by removing matter that might spoil ig more necessary than feeding hogs. h fact the Boston authorities seem to have lost what little intelligence they may have had. Police Commissioner o'Meara, who appears chiefly responsi- ble for the situation. is now calling for a change of the law. He says in an official report:
 Cases are continually arising into which the element of necessity seems to enter. but whether or not to the ex- tent required by the law can be decid- ed only by the courts. The police de- partment has no authority in the mat | ter outside of the law, and there is no official body with the right to decide | in advance whether or not particular piece of work which seems to be neces- l sary is of such character as the law would sanction.
 There you are. and what are they going to do about it? Law Is law, says the District Attorney, in effect, 1 and a law is of no use unless it Is en- forced; therefore, will see that these laws are enforced. That Is sound rea- soning, all will admit. though it is not always followed. These same laws have been practically dead letter for generations, and Bostonians as well as others had forgotten all about them. In modern days they have gone on just as other people have, violating the statutes every day. and especially every Sunday, and nobody thought there was anything wrong about 1t.
 There is quaking and shivering in classic Boston. No man may know when he will be haled before the mag istrate and fined for law breaking. Men go about their daily avocations with one eye open for the officer, for they know not when they are observ- ing or violating the statutes. Still, as The Kansas City Journal observes, they might have stood all other de- privations had it not come as final and revolution breeding blow when caterers were prohibited from deliver
 ing baked beans and codfsh balls on the seventh day of the week. Shades of Faneuil Hall! Could calamity in
 guise less terrible than a prospect of Spanish invasion stir the Hub to more profound depths? What are the glori- ous privileges of American citizenship, | negatives of breathing Boston's sacred atmosphere. compared with partaking on seven days of the week of the heaven palladium, codhsh balls and beans? Will the sons of colonial slres sit supinely by while vandals
 desecrate their blood purchased rights? Never! All their comforts and neces-
 sities may be hiched through civic righteousness condemnation. but by the consecrated stones of Bunker Hill mon
 ument. no restrictions shall be put
 upon codfsh balls and beans! Upon these hal1owed staples rest the culture
 and intellectual superiority of the New
 England metropolis, and lanterns shall
 again swing in freedoms cause from old North Church ere this crowning in
 fanny shall be endured"
 We might almost be induced. to let