The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1908-03-26
Violation of Law.

The Nashville Banner INDUCES a
hope that the liquor question may not
occupy all the attention Of candidates
for governor in Tennessee this year, to
the exclusion of other issues consider
ably more vital. "The dominant evil
of today" says the Banner, sis the dis
regard of law, manifesting itself to a
deplorable and evidently increasing ex-
tent in myriad forms of evasion and
multiplied acts of outright lawlessness,
and that not only with apparent impu-
nifty but without any present assurance
of an available check. Our statute
books are full of laws that are dead
letters, seemingly by community con-
sent, The anti-cigarette law is a
screaming farce. Everybody who
wants cigarettes manages to get them
some way, and the street urchins puff
the smoke of them in the faces of the
officers of the law. The anti-pistol
selling law has become a mere invita-
tion to evasion. The state and munic-
ipal laws against bawdy houses are by
common consent ignored, and other
laws, apart from the strictly criminal
code, such as the Sunday laws, are
either very generally disregarded or 80
perfunctorily observed and enforced as
to be practically annulled or insidious'
ly discredited. Mob law, which to eff
feet its horrid purposes trampes the
first principles of social order and gov
ernmental protection under foot, and
onl goes unpublished and unchecked
by the helpless state, but too often has
the tolerance and encouragement of the
communities that helped create the law
and the courts. Night Riders roam
at will, destroying property and COM
hitting crimes of arson and murder in
populous sections, where the courts
and the county and state authorities
are powerless to protect or to bring the
law breakers to punishment. The cry
ing evil of today is lawlessness; and
the crying need of the times is the res
toration of a general respect for law
and its general and rigorous enforce
ment. Laws can not be enforced with
out the general and determined support
of communities. The difficulty in the
way of satisfactory enforcement of 6
law prohibiting the sale of liquors il
that, besides the opponents of the law
many who vote to abolish the nuisance
of the saloon reserve the inherent RICH
to buy liquor in some way whenever
they want it. No man can claim RICH
to commit murder, or arson, or theft
or forgery, or do any violence to hi
neighbor, but there are thousands o
people who are willing to vote ga
looms out of the towns, who are no
willing to surrender their claim to tn,
individual right to procure liquor TO
| themselves. The great amount of bot
, tied goods that goes into the dry
towns does not go altogether to tn
vicious or Incorporate, but much of
: goes into the homes of respectable PEG
} pie. These considerations are not ex
, pected or intended to deter anyone ia
voring prohibition from pressing hi
cause with his accustomed enthusiasm
nor to give aid and comfort to the en-
envy, but they are presented to shoN
I the view which the Banner has fo
years consistently held, and also to in
dictate that in our complex politica
system there is not one question solel
: of such paramount concern that
should overshadew and obscure al
other matters relating to the publ
veal"
D There is much force in this. VIVA
! is the use to load our statutes dow
0 with laws that will not be and neve
have been enforced? What we need il
this country today is revival of respec
for law. We need this to far create
,, extent than more laws that will be oh
! served only in the breach. -Chattanoo
1