Evening star., 1925-07-12

AWBREAKERS throughout the
United States number not less
s." than 10000, 900 a year. Indeed
~ the number may be twice as
egreat; there are no statistics
With which to blanket the Nation
Here and there the figures have been
collected and their startling import is
that at least one adult out of every
eight in the country is arrested once
during the course of IL months for
violating the law-some law.
That is conservative. The proper
uon may run as high as one arrest to
every four or five adults.
Far and away the greatest number
OF violations occur in the class of
minor and often annoying restrictions
written into our law books by local
governing boards. The traffic laws
are broken, perhaps, more often than
any other. chiefly because they are
of as many different kinds as there
are agencies enforcing them
Take Washington, for instance, the
Nations Capital. Ordinarily Wash
ington, as the seat of the Federal
government, is reckoned among the
honor cities in law observance. There
were 34.S29 arrests in Washington last
year for traffic violations alone.
One in Twelve Arrested.
y
away. in the City of Baltimore.
whose population is more than half
again as great as that of Washington
traffic violations resulted in 33,170
arrests in 1924. For the two cities,
with combined population of about
1,250,O00. traffic arrests alone totaled
67,999. One adult out of about every
twelve in these two communities was
hailed into the Traffic Court And
hsnF
every four or less broke the law.
There are about 1S.000,000 motor
cars in the United States If the rest
or the country is as law-abiding as
the National Capital and it's nearest
large neighbor 5000. 900 persons are
arrested for breaking the traffic laws
throughout the United States every
year.
So much for those unlucky motor
lists who get caught. What about
those who break the law and get
away with it? 1t is the writer's OBJ
scrvatlon that at least 10 infractions
or the traffic laws are made with i'm
punity 10 every l that meets with
arrest. Perhaps, however, that esti-
mate is too high. To be ultra
conservative. let us say that for every
man arrested for violating the traffic
laws two men violate the same laws
J
LawIess Car Drivers.
On that premise, we have 10000. 900
additional laWbreakers on the traffic
side OF the case alOne-10. .000, 900 men
and women who break the law dur
ing the year and get away with il.
Add that total TO the number who are
caught, and our traffic lawbreakers
mount TO $4,000, 900. That means, on
lNaa
driving a car breaks the law at least
once a year
All auto laws and tens of thousands
more are broken untold times within
single year. Other kindred thou
sands are dead letters, never enforced
The Roman Emperor Justinian, 400
years ago, found his empire so be-
deviled by accumulated laws that he
selected 900 of the best. put them in
a code and threw the others into the
discard. The day seems Fastening
when there must come relief from
the situation. At heart and in daily
conduct. Americans are law abiding
More than that, the overwhelming ma
Jority are eager to keep the law. They
put up with unessential laws simply
because they are the laws.
And yet we all, on the average,
break the law. Why is it? Mainly,
it would appear, because there are so
many laws that we cannot possibly
learn them all. Most of us try to OBJ
serve the laws we know about None
Of US, however, has time, opportunity
or memory sufficient to learn and re-
tain the whole of law by which we
are required to conduct ourselves in
doing our full duty by our neighbors.
Millions of Laws
Somewhere between 5000, 900 and
40 900 900 lies the actual number of
local laws in effect in the cities.
towns and counties of the United
States. No man can guess within
10 900 of the accurate number.
Whether the truth swings toward the
100000 minimum or the 40, ,000, 900
maximum, no man knows.
To count these laws would be the
task of an ordinary lifetime It has