The St. Joseph observer., 1921-03-12
PUBMC CONSCIENCE KEEpERs


PUBLIC CONSCIENCE KEEPERS
There is now at jefferson City
where the legislature is in session a
swarm OF sclf-appointed and self
delegated lobbyists who pose as the
keepers Of the public conscience who
are pushing forward bills to regulate
public morals by censorship; family
morals by commission; child welfare
by local boards composed Of women
who never raised a child; private
morals Of individuals by Inspector
Pecksniffs. Missouri would seem to
for the fact that every public welfare
bill has an appropriation of sufficient
size attached to indicate that the fat
lob and the sinccure that may thus
be created is the purpose OF the law
and purity Of morals are merely a
means toward that end.
1t Is not the people who are de-
manding these bills. They are father
ed by place hunting opportunists who
seek to fatton at the public crib at
the expense Of the already overbur-
dcncd and cxaspcratcd taxpayers. 1t
is a pity that the general public has
no lobby at jefferson City to protect
itself from these selr-appointed para
sitical. PharisaicaI keepers Of the pub
lie conscience. God made men and
women as they are, endowed them
with unchangable clements of human
nature and since the creation the
human race has Travelled the road Of
the ages in the direction Of the mil
lenium without having gone to the
dogs Yet these roformcrs would
measure their puny efforts to create
the ideal moral state with those of
the Infinite, which were ordained by
Him and which have persisted since
the fan Of Adam and his wife.
What these people are striving to
realize is a state socialism which will
approximate its perfection when the
citizenship Of tho commonwealth is
legally Cyolutcd to a condition OF de-
naturcd human nature synonymous
Of popular sterilization. 1t is their
idea that the state shall be a parent
and that it shall take from the faith
ers and mothers Of Missouri. the re-
sponsibility of rearing their children
in the old-fashioned way. 1t would
substitute the decalogue with a treat
ise on social hygiene; the rod with a
correctional institution; castor oil
with prophylactics. Generally, at the
head Of this cult. and officiating as
one Of the high-pricsts Of the move
ment to take the JOY out OF life, i9
one Of those new fashioned Doctors
the kind who diagnose an old fash
ioned boil on the back Of the neck as
a deep seated infection" to be treat
| ed not with a pOultiCe, but with the
N-ray at so much per X-ray-thC
| kind who advocate the twilight sleor
for the alienation Of the old fashion,
ed bellyache. These doctors are hell.
/ bent. every session OF the legislature
on the passage Of multitude Of so,
cial welfare laws and the creation oil
new medical ordinances and jurispru,
dence-and always associated with
them are a bunch OF prudish, child
less married women and loveIes.
spinsters
At Jefferson City the men whom W,
delegate to pass laws for US mlstak,
the clamor OF these self-secking re
formers for public demand ant
wrongly interpret the dumb silenc,
OF suffering public. The paragraph
er who wrote: "Tho old-fashionet
family doctor is disappearing. So 4
tho old-foshioned family" hit tn,
nail on tho head. Too many Of tn,
old-fashioned things are going by tn,
board in this modern era and ther,
are many OF us who desire to return I,
the conditions which obtained durln;
the mid-Victorian period. Then ther,
were no Rockefeller and Sage founda
tions with their immense subsidies 4