Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1912-02-04
'LAWLESSNESS PECULIAR MENACE
FOR OUR FORM OF government
Is the Declaration of Judge LittEOhu Concerning the
Tendency Of the Age Wholesome Respect of the Law
Should Be Impressed Upon Children By Parents

Realizing that from his long ex-
perience on the bench, and his quiet,
thoughtful and keen observation of
life in all its phases, Judge z. A. Lit
tleJohn, of the Southwestern circuit
must have pronounced views as to
some of the agencies that are at
work producing the absence of self
restraint that is becoming so marked
in American life and the increasing
inclination to discard the constituted
and personal inclinations for the le-
gal and moral sodes that are suppos
ed to regulate society, the Judge was
asked yesterday for ali expression of
his views in The Times-Recorder.
Il consider this one of the most
important questions confronting our
people," said he. THE spirit of law
lessness is the peculiar menace of
cur form of government. The bless
ings of self-government can only be
perpetuated among people the large
majority of whom are by their own
volition law abiding people We must
have a wholesome respect for the law,
because it is the law, and to that end
children must be brought up with "a
proper regard and respect for consti-
tuted authority.
"One of the main causes, if not
the very chief cause, as l see it, OF
the growing tendency to which you
refer is the failure on the part Of
parents to regard their own respoR-
sibilities in the proper light. They
seem to signally fail, in many in
stances, to appreciate that the par
ent is often the pattern for the child
They do not comprehend that their
own daily acts and daily words are
the controlling factor in molding the
child's life, in shaping it's character
in giving the bent to it's career as a
man in the coming years. Other in
f1uences, it is true, assist in forming
character, but there is none that is
so powerful, so constantly assertive,
so difficulty to overcome, as the ex-
ample that the parent of the child
himself sets.
Many fathers, too, am inclined to
fear, do not appreciate the magnitude
of small things in their results. They
do not personally commit great viola
tions of the moral or of the legal code
They would shrink from such things.
Yet by constant violations of a minor
character they are preparing the child.
who is ceaselessly observing and int-
bibing the lessons the father pro-
vides by his own acts, to go to ia"
greater lengths in it's mature years.
When a line leaves another line 10
which it is parallel the difference at
first may be slight, but continued or
the distance between them becomes
steadily greater and greater The
fathers acts that the child observes
may be but petty violations of law,
hut they start, all too often, the
child's feet on a pathway away from
obedience to the law that may carry
it far beyond the point the father
reached. The inclination to lawless-
ness once encouraged and nourished
w the fathers example cannot al
ways be held within the bounds the
father would set.
at is like the proverbial playing
with fire for a father to set an eX-
amrle of law violation or law defiance
to his boy, or to openly encourage the
child in acts that he knows are law
violations A concrete example or
two may illustrate what I mean. The
father, for instance, who has the ha-
bit of dropping a revolver into his
pocket in the presence of his bog
has practically said to that boy: "Son,
| don't care a snap of my finger for
the state law against carrying CON
cealed deadly weapons" What can
me say when the boy follows his ex-
ample and, perhaps, in a boys anger
uses it? The father who tells his
son by word or by personal example,
to go ahead and shoot birds that he
and the boy know are protected from
such destruction by the laws of tho
state, is simply encouraging him to
become a law-breaker of greater de-
gree later on. The father who sup
ports his son in violations of city
ordinances that are intended for the
public good. for the preservation o.
order. or public cleanliness, or tht