Omaha daily bee., 1919-01-26
Moral Reform Must Be Con-
StruCtive as Well as EIimi-
native, is Opinion of
Editorial Writer.

EQlt0rldl WTIIeTs
The legislature of Illinois, like Ne
braska, has for its consideration a
boxing measure. Unlike the Nebras-
ka measure the Illinois sportsmen
ask for a sufficient number of rounds
to insure a real fight. When drafting
one of the measures to be presented
the Illinois lawmakers wrote Mr..
Gene Melady, Omaha commission
man and advocate of clean sports
for the regulations he deemed nee
essary for clean boxing which are
corporated in the measure before
the Nebraska legislature. The two
bills are practically identical with
the exception of the limit on the
number of rounds.
The Chicago Tribune takes ocea-
ion to advocate the passage of the
measure in its editorial columns.
Sporting writer's have been consist
ent advocates of the message of box
ing measures but the Tribune is the
first paper of note to make deter
mined stand on the editorial page
for boxing.
The Tribune editorial is as fol-
lows:
THE BOXING BILL AND OUR
MORALS.
tQ1ha ATo1ka,,~,,.
at meeting of the Baptist ministers
conference said: We are not oppos-
ed to boxing as a game or sport. but
we are opposed to its commercialism
and we may not oppose the pro-
posed bill if it is not a box office
lffair.'
people who hope that Americans
are about to become less afraid of
some forceful manifestations of life
and less afraid of the consequences
Of them hope that morality will not
always be repressive in this country.
Morality sometimes fails construc-
lively. It fails to recognize essential
demands of life. 1t becomes elimi-
nation and merely elimination. The
prevailing idea in the world now, the
prevailing moral and political idea,
is one of repression and elimination.
1t is custodial. From the league of
nations to the American constitu-
tional amendment prohibiting the
manufacture, sale and use of alcho-
holic beverages, the idea is that
some human authority must ride
here constantly upon human activi-
ties. ...
Statutes Regulate Life.
Repression, unmodihed, unrehec-
tive, and unthinking, always has de-
feated the aims which it had. There
is steam in the pot of life. Screw
the lid down tight and the forces
will gather beneath it and blow the
lid to the ceiling.
I'VE have voted the United States
dry. We have subscribed to doctrines
of national and international Gus
tody. The individual must be herd
ed to see that his conduct is precise.
The nations must be herded to see
that their conduct is precise. Some
one must watch every one. Life, by
statute, by organic law and interna-
tional agreement, is about to be-
come a majestic policeman, able to
raise hand and stop anything or
everything.
THE difficulty is that it cannot
be done. Repression works for
while. Then it fails to work. Itdoes
not change the essentials of living.
1T does not make red blood CDR.
puscles yellow; it does not take
youth from youth.
Reform Must Be Constructive.
Moral reform must be construc-
tive as we'll as eliminative We hope
that the Illinois legislature is about
TO pass a bill legalizing boxing and
we hope that it is not to be kim
dergarten bill. The Rev. Mr. Boyn-
ton spoke in censure of commercial
ISM Suppose we cease to erect
straw men and loook at facts.
1--WE know, for instance, that no
matter how valuable it might be to
the moral and physical we'll being of
a great number of'young men in IL
linois that there should be legalized
boxing in the state, that if one anna
teur, physically unfit to enter the
ring, were killed in the ring, or if
fight involving the heavyweight
championship of the United States
were to be arranged and fought in
Chicago, there would be great
protest in the state and demand |
for the repeal of the legalization of
the sport.
IAmatuers Not Affected.
"If the amateur were killed in
prairie game of base ball, by be-
ing hit on the head by ball or bat.
there would be no such demand If
the professionals were bantam
weights and not heavy weights there
would be no such demand. Such |
is the illogicality of human senti-
ment.
"The boy may be taken out by the
undertow, if he is swimming, and |
there is no demand for the closing
of the bathing beaches. He may be
killed by carlessly thrown bat in
base ball aud there is no demand for
the forbidding of the playing of base
ball. He even may be killed under
a mass of players in foot ball game
and there is no successful protest
against the game.
Heavyweight prize fighters have
no greater ability TO hurt each other
than have featherweight prize fight /
ers and yet we could have a feather
weight championship contest here in
Chicago under a state boxing law.