Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1923-02-21

three articles on conditions at rural
dances, begging a question-What is
10 be done? We were paving the way
to answer by saying-Nothing, except
~ parental discipline. The idea is TO
let parents know what goes on at
some OF these revels and then if they
want their sons and daughters to go
ahead it is their funeral and not ours.
AS Mr.. Clementson says, the whole
idea nowadays is to pass the buck.
Parents, having fallen down in their
duty and responsibility to their chill
dren, want legislation. Everybody in
this country wants some kind of leg
station to correct some i'll or other.
And the more legislation we get the
deeper we fall into the mire. Sup
planting legislation for individual re-
5ponsibility is trying to make people
moral by means of lava dismal
failure as we all have noted. The
Herald was leading up to say this
when Mr. CIementsOn seizes his type
writer and in an able maner steals
our thunder. He does it so well that
We will pass the buck to him. Here
is what he says:
Editor Herald:
Your article on dances, girls and
moonshine in last weeks paper
prompts me to get out Of my system
some pertinent remarks, or, better,
assertions, (fOr I make them most
emphatically) which have been Strug
Cling for utterance for some time.
L. The enforcement of the prohibit
tiOn act is the duty not alone of the
national and state prohibition Off
GERS, sheriffS, district attorneys and
police officers, but Of all good citi-
zens as well. So far as | can observe
the good citizen" is combining him
self to unjust criticism, loud bowls
and vOluble prayers. He doesn't come
Forward with any information Of as
sistance to the prosecuting officers.
When he does volunteer information,
it usually is the product of mere COS
sip. and almost invariably he insists,
my name must not be mixed up in
this in any way" He relies entirely
on the prohibition enforcement Of
fcers, though he knows they are COM
paratively few and far between and
cannot be everywhere at the same
line Without the good citizen, with
a consciousness of his duty as such,
no law is enforceable. His co-Opera-
ton is absolutely essential. That CO.
operation in the enforcement OF the
Prohibition Act is distinctly not forth
coming.
2 If the good citizen cannot or
will not use his influence in any other
way, he can at least use it toward the
selection of honest and efficient local
officers, who will look after local af-
fairs 1t is not the duty, and is not
u n Of 1o ch nrif n cSn
that drinking and bootlegging do not
go in the several towns, cities and
villages of the county 1t is up to
the local police officers, and to those
to whom they are responsible, the
boards and councils, and ultimately
the private citizens. 1t is for the lat
ter to see to it that there are proper
police and boards and councils. If
there isn't sufficient respect for law
in a community to cause any agita-
ton over existing evils, why should
the sheriff or any other outsider
worry? It's your home town. But
no one seems to feel any responsible
ty, and the cooperation of the local
officers is not forthcoming.
3. The number of young girls get
ting into trouble is something appall
ing nowadays. This is not due to
moonshine primarily, nor is it due to
the fact that the boy of today is worse
than his father of yesterday. | do not
believe he is. In my judgment. based
on long experience and considerable
study of the situation, it is due to the
utter failure of parents to safeguard
their daughters. 1t is the parent,
who knows and should control, who
is at fault. 1t is his fault, land l in
clude parents of both sexes) if the
daughter roams the country with
young man in an auto, without SUI
pervision of any sort. 1t is his fault
if she comes and goes at dances as
she pleases, without a chaperOn. 1t
is his fault if she attends parties
where moonshine is drunk 1t is his
fault that there is mOOnshine there;
if the parents took an interest it
could easily be prevented; their pres
ence alone would suffice. 1t is his
duty to know the character of these
dances. and of his daughters escort.
He lets the girl run wild, and after
the sad event tells the District Attor-
ney that he never was so astOunded
in his life. He has no reason to be
surprised. He can make no just COM
plant. If he had exercised ordinary
common sense he would have known
that twOsome auto rides, suggestive
movies hugging to tunes called Hot
Lips" in the modern dance, with a
probable dash of moonshine, are
pretty powerful stuff for young blood
Yet he does nothing.
The plain fact Of the matter is that
shifting of responsibility is most by
pocritical, and that the morals Of the
average citizen, or, let us say, the
average of morals, bootlegger, re-
former, officer, business man, father,
and mother, all classes and categor
les included, are at pretty low ebb
1t will take an outside power to i'm
prove them, and that will not be leg
islation. If l were to sermoniZe,
would say that this country needs
something in the way of Christianity
which it processes, but which it has
in fact all but forgotten. Providence
alone knows how that spirit, the
spirit of our forefathers, is to be re-
gained 1t begins with Charity, and
Charity is the rarest of Jewels now