The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1919-06-17
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

CVERY NOW AND THEN somebody start
r something. Down in Texas, at Weather
ford, is a worthy physician who has starte
4 crusade for promulgating a more gener'
of right and wrong. Millions {
men and women from immemoral time hav
been endeavorers in the same cause, but ID
S. Garrett appears to have a me-
dea along this line. In recent letter to tn
Dallas News the doctor writes
Being anxious to help elevate the STAN
dard Of our citizenship and assist in the
work of decreasing crime and in helping
to close our reformatories, jails and peni-
tentiaries, because of the decrease in
crime, and help to set in motion general
moral reformation in our country, / have
been impressed to offer the following sug-
gestions, hoping thereby to help arouse
the moral sense and nature in our young
people, and older ones Also to such a de-
gree of wakefulness and activity that
crime will almost, if not entirely, become
extinct in our country.
Realizing as | do that actual moral and
religious teaching in the homes of large
per cent Of people is neglected to greater
or less degree and that in some homes
moral teaching is almost entirely omitted,
and believing that great and important
moral truths constantly placed before the
mind will, after a time, make lasting sub
stantial and beneficial impressions on the
mind and character, and believing that re
lating to morals as well as to health that
prevention is better than cure and that
money spent in preventing bad morals is
better investment than money spent in try
ing to cure bad morals, | am suggesting
no nj to o,.it,, in,
state and country. And were a candidate
for governor of the state of Texas, | would
incorporate the same in my platform.
First, | would suggest as measure
leading to the prevention of crime that the
Scripture recorded in Exodus 20 and
as the Ten Commandments be published
by order of the state and paid for by pub
lie funds Of the state set apart for that
purpose in all the weekly, semi-weeky,
tri-weekly and daily newspapers of the
state that have a paid up subscription of
$500 and over, and that the said Ten
Commandments be published on the, front
page in prominent type with every issue
of such papers.
This would not be mixing church and
state because there would not be anything
of sectarian or denominational nature
,oHhcNtCu Will tlle
AS second measure, | would further
suggest that list of the felonious crimes
of the state, together with the penalties
therefor, be published in all of the afore-
said papers in as simple and abbreviated
form as suitable for the general and aver
age reader to understand, at least once
each month, so that the people would not
only be almost continuously informed
relative to the great moral laws of God
and the foundation of the laws of the
state, but that they might also have placed
before their minds from time to time the
1elonlous crimes against the state and the
penalties for committing them. The Scrip
ture says: my people are destroyed for
lack of knowledge"
believe that the time is ripe for a
greater diffusion of a knowledge of right
and wrong, and that the public press is
one OF the most powerful, as we'll as one of
the most useful, means of disseminating
such knowledge
AS knowledge of the cause and pre-
vention of disease is becoming common
knowledge of the whole people and as the
transportation of news, the extending of
me human voice through space and the
navigation of the air have all become al
most boundless, so may the knowledge of
he moral laws and the penalties for dis
)beylng them become the knowledge of
all the people, thereby Fastening the full
lllment of the ancient prophecy which
lays for the earth shall be full of knowl-
'dge of the Lord as the waters that cover
he sea-"
The good doctor has the right idea. though
nay be that his suggestion as to methods for
ting 1t across will not be carried out bv the
erament and the press. SO far as the press
the overwhelming preponder-
e OF that important body of publicity pro-
tlon breaches and practices the ten COM
ndments every time the papers go to press.