Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-11-16
POLICE IN THE HOME?

TT Is quite true, as DR.. J. Madison Taylor
L observes, that people who are sick, espe.
cially II they are afflicted with contagious
ailment, ought to stay IN bed and zealously
obey the Doctors orders. These nre only u
few OF the things that people should do
but don't. Folk should 80 to church on
Sundays. They should read only good books.
They should 20 to bed, If they are to be
credited with reasonable regard for them.
selves and others, at what we are accus.
TONED to call "a respectable hour" every
night. Simple food and fresh mir and out.
door exercise should be-. central concerns In
the collective mind Of the entire populace.
But 1t would be strange indeed to sec pla.
toons of policemen forcibly cscorting un.
willing multitudes to church under the terms
of n Compulsory Worship Law.
1t would be even stranger to find plain
clothes men from City Hall pryins about in
pantries and summoning householders before
the magistrates for having too many pies in
their larders and too many dumplings and
not enough Of the sort of food that may he
said to have what the doctors call high
vitamin content. One may only wonder
excitedly about what the people would do,
even In this age Of docility and acceptance,
If the Legislature at Harrisburg were to
pass law under which. at the to!ling OF
large municipal bell all men. women and
children should be required TO rush forth
into the streets and walk brisky UP and
down swinging their arms in the sort of
exercise that is deemed necessary TO the
good of the present and the future gen.
erations.
Or. Taylor seems TO be convinced that
physicians should have the authority to keep
patients in bed by force. when such novel
police methods seem clearly desirable. We
venture TO believe that some other way will
have to be found further to restrict the death
rate There Is In every average man n
lurking. resolute desire to do as he pleases
with himself-to be rash II he feels thnt
rashness will amuse him. to be occasionally
foolish and even reckless ii he can get any
fun out Of It. He would rather be wrong.
he probably would rather be unwisc than
bound in matters affecting his souls affairs.
Some such state of mind was inevitable
in country like ours. where all the people
nre descended from men and women who
crossed world to seek liberty. Therein,
without doubt, is the origin of most Of the
insurgent opinion with which the "drys"
have to contend in many quarters.
1t must be apparent to everybody by this
time that those who actively resent the drift
toward morals legislation seldom want to be
merely had. 1t happens that the average
human being has sense Of hunlor. The
average man has large natural capacity
for m!rth and joy. He is npt TO resent much
Of what is proposed in the name of reform,
not because 1t is not good so far as It goes.
but because it is So often joyesS.
The world wants fun. 1t wants a chance
to laugh and sing and talk freely about in.
consequential things. n it COOS TO cabarets
and dance halls and dinners furtively wet,
and ii it encourages jazz in life and in fiction
and in the theatre. il IS largely because,
having failed to find genuine fun in life. II
turns 70 tn" limitations.
Mirth and laughter and opportunities TO
expand his spirit are. We venture to believe,
as necessary to the health of the normal
human being as the spinach and brown
hread and fresh air and exercise about which
many doctors talk with rising fcrvor now
ndays.- II reformers sometimes fail. II the
folk who agitate for q larger nnd larger
extension Of moral censorship by law are
not always gleefully received by all the
people. it is largely because their philosophy
Is nowhere lit bv q sense Of humor Nor IL
IL usually adjustable 70 the natural and
ineradcable needs which thnt Unborn quality
of spirit creates in the average man.
1t IS beginning to seem that II Govern.
ments 60 into the business Of policing the
morals Of modern peoples they will have 70
60 all the way or fail wre'rhrdly They will
hrve TO crente where they now merely de-
stroy. When they take away the means by
which men and women find release for a
natural insistent spirit of gayety. It will
not be enough to say thar what they destroy
tends to evil or is generally bad They will
have to seek until they can find. not for a
few but for all people, some other sort Of
escape from the sad or serious nonotony Of
the days work.