The weekly tribune and the Cape County herald. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1918, 1915-11-05
GUST CAP.?S
Blue LAWS md
ALL DEAD ONES
City Counselor IlnehanS
Talks About Plans For
Ordnance Revision.
MUST BE LIVE TO WIN
PLACE IN BOOK, SAYS
POtters Around in Dust to Locate
License Law For Col
lectOr Meyer.

"Blue laws" in the Cape, antique
ordinances" dead timber on the
statute books will be reIegated TO the
dim and mysterious past when City
Counselor Oscar i. knehans gets
through with them.
The condition of the city's ordinances
could not be much DINNER however,
Knehans remarked yesterday after
noon after he had made precursOry
investigation of the stack of ordinances
in the City Clerks office.
/ The laws of the town, the statutory
basis of many city institutions, have
been simply dumped" into the City
Clerks office since time inmemOrial,
figurativeIy speaking, and there al
lowed to gather dust in their original
folds.
knehanS found that the filing sys-
TEN was the Clerks best memory as
to where he laid them the last time he
] liet'l tlIciI puI lOI uNS. TX Wy NOuii-
selor remarked that perhaps there was
studied method and merit in this
scheme because it was a system well
calculated to keep the an; with the
memory in office.
However, recently since I change in
the incumbent has occurred, there has
been no one with the memory"
around. and whenever it hls been es-
sential that an ordinance, one of the
city's own laws, be dug up, vast deal
Of pottering around in the dust,
thumb:ng Of books, more CT less vitu-
perative talk and a loss IF patience
has occurred.
Yesterday, on the first day of Mr..
Knehans' inCumbency in the City
! CounselOr's position, he W; asked, as
his first official act, 10 nd out for
City Collector, George H. Meyer, the
facts about the license fee on the con-
duct of feather renovatiug machine,
Mr.. Meyer was under the impression
that it was s. a day. The City Coun-
sclor went to work. blowing" through
the city records. He eventually found
the ordinance covering the license for
a feather renovator. and it was s..
The work required nearly an hour.
But more than ascertainiug for Col
lector Meyer MS fee kno'rledge. Mr..
Knehans said it impressed upon him
the full significance of wat his Job
will be in the next year.
"All the old, antique ord nances that
are not effective for anything, l think
shall throw out" he said. "The truck.
the collection of years. 'rill be dis
carded and any ordinance that is
alive and has weight upoI any insti-
tuition row, will be preserved.
"These l expect to read over care
fully and weight carefully with refer
ence to their legality. I shall endeavor
to make corrections where | find legal
mistakes in the wording of the or
dinances and have the cOur ell pass the
new bills.
'All the ordinances, Their will be as
sembIed into book and published so
that anyone may purchase a copy of
it.
q realize that it is a tremendous
job ahead of me. and ! Knew about
what it meant when l first was APP
preached regarding the position. l be-
lieve that once this back work is
caught up, the matter of doing the
City COunselor's work will be simpli-
fled to a great extent.
81 had a talk with Mayor Rage about
the ordinance proposition, and l am
under the impression that the work
will require at least year. All the
ordinances will have to be indexed and
cross indexed, work that will require
a great deal of time"
Sometime ago, the city employed
Angelo Dempsey, an attorney, to per-
form work a good deal similar to
that which City Counselor Knehans
will undertake Mr.. Dempsey made a
thorough investigation Of the ordinan-
ces of the city, in many cases made /
improvements, rewriting the docu- |
ments preparatory for a general revi-
Son of the city ordinances.
The work was dropped, however,
when it was decided that TIE city could
not afford to pay the money to carry
it through to finish. NJ. Dempsey
preserved the records of lis work, it
is said, and it is possible th;t inasmuch
as he was paid by the city for the work
he performed, that City Counselor
Knehans may obtain tie records to
take advantage of the revisionary
work already done.
]. B. Taylor came up from Chaffee
yesterday on business.