Omaha daily bee., 1909-11-14
FREAKS IN LEGISLATIVE MILLS
Nebraska scores One on Record,
but Many Are over


Nebraska scores One on Record,
but Many Are over
looked.
Some OF the freak bills with which state
legislatures adorn their statute books are
enumerated by q recent writer in the North
American Review.
A bill in New Jersey recently proposed
a license tax on whiskers. one in Nebraska
a 10 per cent income tax on bachelors,
one in Minnesota made 1t a crime for a
farmer not to practice rotation of crops,
one in Iowa required all eggs to be stamped
With the date when they were laid, one
in Missouri prohibited treating in such
sweeping terms that the purchase Of ice
cream for a young girl by her beau would
have been Illegal under It's provisions.
or course such fantastic bills usually
fail, but a surprising number Of them have
got on the statute books in the past. Ken
lucky, for instance, has made it a felony
to trespass on a ginseng garden. Georgia,
doubtless in memory Of many bucolic swim
dies, imposes a tax Of R25 in each county
on peddlers of patent churns and patent
fences.
The forty-six states exhibit as many
crotchets as so many headstrong opinion
ated individuals. How these come into
being is illustrated by the many different
ways in which an entirely new subject
for legislative action can be regarded. The
popularity of the automobile brought such
la subject before the state and local law
making bodies generally some ten years
ago. ThiTty-six states have passed auto
mobile laws since then.
Not only are no two of these statutes
exactly alike, but not one of them copies
the essential feature Of the law OF the
country from which most of our success
full horseless vehicles were at first i'm
ported. The idea of the French law was
and is to impose no specific restriction
on speed or power, but to hold the driver
and owner to the strictest accountability
for all damage.
A motor bicycle Is an automobile in In
diana, while a traction engine Is not; both
are automobiles in New Jersey, neither In
New York-a state of affairs which re-
calls the railway conductors famous de-
cision that Cats Is dogs and rabbits Is
dogs, but turtles is insecks."
There is one facetious clause. that of
Kansas confirming 1.-THE prerogative Of any
political chauffeur to run al automo-
bilious band wagon at any rate he sees
fit compatible with the safety of the occu-
pants thereof, provided that when
WV - AAi6 Nu anu pltGuAlk DOllIlGAl
corpse implores for mercy the driver of
the vehicle shall. in accordance with the
provisions of this bill throw out the life
line"
So many associations interested in par
%ticular subjects nave drafted bills to be
urged upon the legislatures that a state
so disposed could supply itself with a rea-
sonably complete outfit of "modeT' laws.
The greater number of these are either
based on the statute of some particular
state or have been adopted by some of tn,
legislatures after having been originally
drafted or approved by an unofficial body
But no one statute book contains today
any considerable proportion of these
model laws and no individual OF organ
lied body, however conspicuous or influl
, entail, has ever persuaded our forty-si,
/, state legislatures 20 take Identical actor
on any subject, however simple. II is an
entirely non-political body, the Association
/ Of Audubon Societies, which has APPARENT,
come nearest % performing this feat.
It's law for the protection of non-gam,
birds is In force today over a larger stretcl
: Of American territory than any comparabl,
u piece Of statute law not a federal enact
o ment. In tho crusade for it's passage hu
manitarian arguments have been eouple,
"Ah NNolOhhg - tie farmers lose -FOUR
= fifths Of 81, 10000 900 a year through insec
depredations.
h Among the friends Of the model Law
are included leading men and women o
every community, while the opponents
" plume hunters and pot hunters, are con
temptible In numbers and influence. Ye
years of effort nave not brought the Law
into force everywhere. When the legisIa
lures of 1907 adjourned three souther
states, five western states and three ter
r%itories had refused to join the movement
for bird protection.
The fight for pure food Is one in whic
the national government and the state
y might be expected to Join and supplement
: each others efforts. The national Law
n passed after seventeen years Of agitation
is naturally the pattern OF state enac
= ments. Within two years after its passas
eleven states had amended their own Law
r SO as to bring them into conformity wit
ne the federal statute, while seven Other
ne which had previously made no effort 1
food control had passed laws on the fe,
eral model.
a. All these had copied, among other thing
st the federal policy Of exempting the deal,
r from prosecution In Ease he holds II
err manufacturers guarantee of the purity
u '6uuuo oApicaaeu IN the now Idmini
a label, but even this group OF new Law
in carries the states only a third Of the wa
a. toward effective uniformity OF policy. A
ready, indeed, there have been conflio
between federal and state authorities {
the question Of the status Of p~articulj
products.
In 1906 forty states sent delegates To
divorce congress called at the request
the state of Pennsylvania. This eongre
marked, perhaps, the most conspicuous al
yer Influential attempt OF recent years
Of arouse public sentiment in favor OF ur
he fcrmity respecting 81 Important branch
m legislation. II would scarcely be possit
ms for commonwealth TO differ more on a
he subject than they do in their attitu
he toward divorce, over twenty differe
causes are recognized In one state or a
he other while one state, South Carolina. /
for heves in granting no absolute divorces
Ted all, II showed the delegates clear perez
es ton Of the difficulties In the way Of obi
The Grating distinctive state policies that I
congress Of 1895 did not even attempt
ter unity causes for divorce.
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