The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1922-08-18
RESPECT THE LAWS


fruit growers from noxious weeds.
insect pests and plant diseases: 9th
er laws to protect the public health,
through the requirement of the OBJ
servance of strict sanitation in the
preparation Of food stuffs and to
prevent the sale of unwholesome
foods and still other laws. in the in
terests of the farmers, to prevent the
sale Of fake fertilizers and seeds
which have not the proper standard
of purity and of vitality.
1t is one of the singular comments
on the growing disregard for all
laws, that this department has come
under criticism by persons protesting
to speak for farmers and to represent
the interests Of farmers, for its activ-
ity in enforcing such laws, laws
framed in the most cases by farmers
and passed by the Legislature in re
Spouse to the demands of the most
intelligent class of farmers within the
state. 1t is largely due to such laws
and to their enforcement, that the
orchard fruit industry in this state
for one example, has steadily grown;
while the fruit of this state commands
the highest price in the world markets
of any similar fruit grown anywhere
else. And this growth of the fruit
raising industry in this state is de-
spite the fact that throughout the
United States as a whole, there has
been a steady decline for the past
twenty years in the number of fruit
trees of all varities. Older orchards
in older states have been gradually
disappearing, destroyed by insect
pests and fruit diseases, due to the
absence of laws for the protection OF
the fruit growing industry and to the
neglect to enforce such laws, where
they are on the statute books.
The attack upon these particular
laws, however, as stated before, is
but one symptom of the present
alarming disregard of statute laws,
disregard which is one of the most
marked and at the same time one
of the most disconcerting phases of
present day life. We have laws on
the statute books, passed, in some in
stances, not by the representative
legislative body but by the people
directly, through their own votes,
under the initiative, which are evad-
ed or disregarded, without even 4
thought by people in every condition
Of life; and their disregard of law is
a matter of ordinary talk among
them. Indeed, the most popular
topic of conversation among a great
many people is about the manner in
which they or some of their init
mates have been engaged in violating
the criminal statutes of the state and
nation and the method which they
used in such violations.
1t is a most unwholesome condi-
ton of affairs and one of the conse-
quences of which are likely to be felt
probably for at least another genera
ton, probably even longer. No one
who keeps in the slightest touch with
the police news of the day but must
recognize the extraordinary increase
in youthful delinquency and crime.
Young boys are coming before the
courts with alarming frequency,
charged with the gravest crimes
against property and against society;
not the mischievous pranks Of eXube-
rant youth and vitality, but the sordid
crimes Of the professional criminal,
who preys upon society for a liveli-
hood.
1t is a question which every
thinking man and woman should take
gravely to themselves. TO what extent
this youthful disregard of law is due
to the open fact that their elders, the
people TO whom they naturally look
for guidance, shamelessly break the
statute criminal laws Of the country
and rather incline to boast of the fact
than to apologize for their actions.
The young are not analytical. They
do not draw any distinction between
crimes which are recognized by elder
people as crimes in themselves, and
those acts which are made crimes by
the statute law. All laws are alike
to the youth. If he sees his elders
ignore, defy and thoughtlessly break
one statute law, it seems equally
possible for him to break the laws for
the protection Of property rights. II
his elders betray no consciousness of
moral delinquency in breaking the
statute law whenever they feel in
clined to do so, why should the small
boy, who witnesses these acts, feel
any sense of moral delinquency in
breaking into a store and stealing
some of the many things which ap-
peal TO him and for which he has not
the money TO buy?
There can be little if any question
that the open and notorious disregard
of the law by people whom the youth