Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1915-11-04
Laws-Laws-And More Laws.
tst. Joseph observer.)

Tribune appears a story to the effect
that the family of man in that city,
who makes living by peddling from
door to door, were very much alarm
ed when he failed to return home the
other night. The next morning they |
found him in Jail, where he had been
locked up, owing to the fact that the
cold had caused him to button up his
overcoat, and in SO doing he had COW
cred up his peddlers' badge, which a
law requires to be constantly and con-
spieuously displayed
This fact caused The Tribune writer |
to investigate, and he claims that he
discovered that larger percentage
of people are "locked up" each year
in the United States than in any other
civilized land, and that the job locking
them up is easier here than any other
country.
He shows that over half million
people are arrested each year in these
United States tens of thousands of
them for new "crimesn and misde-
meanors. In Chicago 125,000 people
were arrested in 1914, more than half
of them charged with crimes that had
no existence twenty years ago. In
Kansas City, with an approximate
population of 100000, $4,000 people
were arrested in a single year. In
seven years in Chicago the number of
arrested almost doubled.
The great bulk of these arrests are
for petty offenses to enforce great i
mass of criminal and quasi-criminal
legislation that represents "nothing |
more than the widespread desire to
control all the activities of life by the
upraised whip of the law"
One of the alarming results is a |
widespread increase in the number of
citizens whose self-respect is broken |
down by the humiliation of arrest,
search and imprisonment. Another is |
the breeding of disrespect and con-
tempt for the law and for the law en-
forcing authorities. The courts are
elogged and the administration Of law
is made slow, expensive and full of
injustice and cruelty. And the law,
instead Of preventing crime, is manu-
featuring criminals by the wholesale,
thanks to the effect of Jail and the jail !
surroundings on men and women who
have consciously committed no Of
fense.
In this connection it is interesting |
to recall letter written recently tol
the New York Sun by a New Jersey
Anti Saloon league worker. Hehailed
the anti-liquor crusade as merely the
beginning of larger movement, and
said:
"If I had my way | would not only
close up the saloons and the race
tracks. would close up all tobacco
shops, confectionery stores, delicates-
sen shops and other places where gas
tronomic deviltries are purveyed- all
low theaters and bathing beaches I
would forbid the selling of gambling
devices, such as playing cards, dice,
checker and chess sets; would for
bid the holding Of fsocialistic, anarchis-
tic and atheistic meetings.; would
abolish dancing; / would abolish the
sale of tea and coffee, and I would for
bid the making or sale of pastry, pie,
cake and such like trash"
Though this sounds like "the mere
rawlings Of wild fanaticism," The Sun
recalls all but one or two of these
items have been included in prohibit
tory bills introduced in one or more
states already. And it adds to the
list of prohibitions that have beenpro-
posed peek a-boo shirt waists, abbre-
waited bathing dresses, novels, chew
ing gum, hat pins, flowers at funerals,
flowers at weddings, kissing, soda
water and the presence of women on
the streets unaccompanied by men
after sundown in summer and P. M.
in winter. The Sun, contemplating
the list, grows both alarmed and in
dignant and expresses itself after this
fashion.
Quite certainly when or if the liquor
crusade be won large party will be
formed to back up DIR. Pease and the
virtuous Annette Hazleton in warning
on tobacco. After the demon Alcohol, |
the Siren Nicotine. The movement |
is almost here, and war ON theaters,
cards and dancing may not be far off.
It it nearly time for temperate men
to take account of the prohibition
situation. Whittier are we drifting in !
the matter Of state despotism over in
dividual conduct? Are the people of |
the future to be human beings with
souls of their own, or puppets of
moralistic specialists who shall brood
over the country with blackness of
artificial propriety, smothering every
spark Of humanity, every gleam of
Joy from lives narrowed down to the
worship Of money and the dread Of
hell2
It won't be quite so awful as that,
we fancy. If, for arguments sake, we
concede the coming of time when
there are so many, "thou shalt notn
laws that we shall be lawbreakers,
willy -nilly, then a among nation Of
lawbreakers the laws shall fall into
disrepute and we shall start all over
again. These waves are like the tide
of the ocean, they ebb as well as flow.
The love OF freedom is quite as strong
in the American people as is the love
of power and the determination to
change the other fellow to conform to