The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-05-31
ABOLISH ALL DANGER;
GET BACK TO. SANITY
SACRIFICED TO PATRIOTISM.
Totals .1,71s 37,4to se,12s

| 1911 .... 81 1876 1903
Totals ~. .1,71s s7,4to 1929
In the nine years a total of 1929
peopIe-the equivalent of over thir-
ty-nine regiments-were killed or in
jured in the celebrations of the
Fourth Of July.
Independence day is coming: day
of powder-poisoning and lockjaw;
day of hospitals and ambulances: day
of mutilation and fire and death. If
there is anything that is sane in the
American people it is the growing
revolt against our insane manner of
celebrating the Fourth of July. 1t
might be called Incendiaries' Day.
| for on that day the fire-fiend runs
riot. No man having any public re-
spcnsibility fails to dread it. No fire
department gets through the day,
and the nights on both sides of it,
without exhaustion. 1t is doubtful
if on some fifth of July an entire
city may not complacently burn it.
self up in the faces of firemen and
fire horses too exhausted by silly
firecracker fires the day before to
cope with. it. The "fire-fighting APP
paratus of cities and towns is SO
overtaXed by the numberless calls
which begin on the evening of July
3 that response to possible summons
for help by neighboring towns or
cities is impossible. 'aasE
City Would Be in Peril.
! What fire chief would dare allow
even hose wagon to. go beyond i'm
! mediate recall while alarms in his
own city are coming in at ten-min-
ute Intervals? Even the large num-
Der of false alarms, due to the reck-
less use of the day, have their dire
| significance, for they tire out the
J horses and the men, and reduce the
ability of the department to cope
with actual fires. When the gong
begins to ring at head quarters, it's
/ call is as imperative for a rubbish
| heap ablaZe as it is for the home of
a citizen. The wear. and tear of the
apparatus, and even" the injury to
the horses during thirty-six hours of
/ almost constant runs, may be as
great for false alarms as for real
ones. It seems sort of folly al
most too unspeakable to relate, but
there are instances where American
firemen have been killed in runs to
fires on July 4 by being thrown
from trucks by frightened horses
swerving from their course at explo-
sives thrown under them as they
/ galloped past. ~. lu.tni+a4s..s ..,
Made Dependent For Life. -.
Never an Independence" day but
scores of human beings are made de-
4 pendent, for life Life and limb are
1 jeopardized by explosives thrown
from the windows above the level of
i the street, setting fire to clothing
and menacing the eyesight of those
passing, while upon the child, who
\ in his innocent love of noise and OBJ
i jective demonstration responds to
loUr present absurd kind of celebra-
! ton, falls the heavy hand of disas-
! ter. When our civilization was not
SO complex, it was possible for those
who had the. courage to leave their
| homes to the mercy of possible con-
i flagrations, to shut them up and es-
cape to the quiet of the country. Not
SO today. The trolley car and the
automobile follow the seeker after
peace to his country retreats, throw
i ing explosives at his head as they
roar past in their reckless irrespon-
sibility.
! And for what! Nobody stops to
inquire. Nobody any longer cares.
We have gotten wholly away from
the educational significance of en-
dependence" day, and lost ourselves
in an orgy of fire and noise
i 1t is, perhaps, too much to expect
any sudden return to sanity; but
some effort at least may be made
by cities and towns toward leading
their people into more moderate and
more intelligent forms of celebration.
If explosives must be used the au-
/ thorities can limit their use to the
i public parks during certain hours of
the day, where the folly-hunters
T, may kill and MAIN themselves and
! each other to hearts content, with
out injuring other people, or destroy.
ing property by fire. The firing off
Of explosives among the closely built
i shingle-roofed frame houses, which
compose the greater part of our
cities, is wholly in accord with the
4 reckless spirit of Americans regard
ing fire.
Clean Towns of Rubbish.
i If before every Fourth of July all
cities and towns were given a thor
ough cleaning of rubbish, and all
use of explosives then restricted as
to time and place, the, police and
public wardens might have at least
i a fighting chance to minimize the
disastrous results of, our public folly
i during the years it may require to
INSPIRE in our people a desire for a
j national kind of celebration. And
such a desire. must be inspired. 1t
is the duty of every city to arrange
for it's people, suitable ,amusements
or exercises definitely calculated to
educate them, in a rational observ-
lance of this historic holiday. Habits
of folly can be most easily eliminat-
ed by a substitution of something
better. The things,a city can do to
Interest," its citizens in a sane and
wholesome celebration are unlimited,
. and the municipalities, which, in the
past two years have taken steps in,
this direction, are already receiving
national praise for their wisdom and
their high sense of civic responsible
lily.
i independence day of 1912 is COM
ing. To what city, what town, what