The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1916-05-15

Of OKLAHOMA
INEFFICIENT
USELESS LAWS ENACTED - CON-
DlTIONS PREVAILING ARE ALSO
FOUND IN MANY OTHER STATES
OF THE UNION.


City, says: When the next legisla-
ture in Oklahoma shall have organiz-
ed and the first member arises in
his place to drawl "Mistuh Speakuh"
preliminary to sending up the first
bill of the session, he will stand in
the presence of 110 other members
who will be, like him, for the most
part inexperienced and devoid of
mature ideas of constructive legisla-
ton 1t will not be quite so bad in
the senate, but that body, according
| to all the precedents of southwestern
states, will be less able than il ought
to be. What is expected to be the
case in Oklahoma will very likely
be the case in Texas and Arkansas
and Louisiana and Kansas and New
! Mexico and many other states. The
legislatures will be too large, too
new and too ignorant to accomplish
much that ought to be done.
1t is noted in the filings in the
office of the secretary of the state
election board here that the number
of aspirants for place in the lawmak-
ing body is large. There are more
candidates for nomination to the leg
islature than usual. There are usu-
, ally too many
In Oklahoma's last regular session
there were introduced in both houses
almost 12O0 bills. Most of them
sought to dip from the sebacious sea
of revenues some modicum of lubric-
ity for the districts represented. Many
of them were directed at the salient
of individual effort and sought to re-
duce the competition that confronted
the unfit of their several constitu-
ency. Others approached the ridicu-
lous in their obvious disposition to
prescribe personal conduct and revel
in regulation that would be but inter
ference.
In Oklahoma and elsewhere this
year there are no legislative programs
of conspicuous merit. The fact that
the asprant wants the place and is
a democrat or a socialist or re-
publican is about the sum of his cam
paign slogan The legislatures that
will be chosen next fall by the people
of many sovereign states will devote
much time to measures that indicate
incapacity of the lawmakers as a
whole. These will repeat and am
plify the efforts that have been made
to prescribe the length of bed sheets,
hatpins, petticoats and moving pic
ture films.
By an enactment of the last legis-
lature, Oklahoma solemnly makes the
theft of a chicken at night felony.
The same legislature imposes fine
and Imprisonment upon any minor
who shall decline to tell where he
secured cigarettes or the makings
thereof, but does not prohibit the sale
OF SUCH dIllCltS. llSlc 10 INC SiiiNh~ii
law:
"Any person who shall take, steal
and carry away any domestic fowl
or fowls in the night time from the
messuage of another or from the
premises upon which the dwelling
house of another is situated, and any
person purchasing or receiving such
domestic fowl or fowls, knowing them
to have been stolen, shall be guilty
of grand larceny, regardless of the
value thereof and upon conviction
shall be punished by Imprisonment in
the penitentiary not eXcea ting $500,
or by confinement in the county Jail
not exceeding two months, or by both
such fine and Imprisonment"
The author of this punitive night
mare employed the term ''messuage'
in describing the chicken-infested
area wherein the law was operative.
In the course of the debate some
less erudite statesman wanted TO
know what the term meant. He de-
clared the term was not broad enough,
If it meant the place where automo-
biles or flying machines are housed, |
as some people maintain hen-houses
separate from their garages and han
gars. SO the supplementary express
sion cor from the premises was in
serted.
Many state legislatures have dealt
gravely with the subject of tips.
Some states have laws that prevent
the purchase of a cigar on Sunday
and most of them make it a grievous
error and misdemeanor for man to
get shaved on the sabbath day.
One of the growing lines of activ-
ity on the part of the legislatures
is the enactment of laws prescribing
Lot 1OOx145. 18th avenue west A
street northwest, $500.