Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1944-12-16

people COulQ Know lnStlnCllNeIy
what WAS wrong and conduct
themselves accordingly.
1t was unlawful and you could
be fined 81 for leaving your
horse without a hitching-weight
or, in winter, without a blanket.
On Sundays and election days,
in most we'll governed cities,
saleoRkeepeFs were sup
posed TO pull down the shades
and lock the front door, leaving
the side or family entrance
open, however, for invalids who
might be taken bad and need
spoonful of brandy.
TIIE saloonkeepers were a re-
Il spectacle lot, and. generally
speaking, did draw the blinds
and lock up in front and sell
dom was a patrelman forced by
his duty 10 make an arrest for
open and defiant violation of law
and public opinion.
Few families and individuals
who lived in rented premises in
the cities and towns were both
cred about taxes even though
there were local tax laws which
Theoretically required them 10
pay something on their house.
hold goods.
Once III a few years, the as
SCISSOR would select a block in a
netghborhood and go from door
TO door and be invited in TO
look around but, usually, he
would be out and gone in a min
ute and that would be the last
of it.
Once each summer, on the
average, the dog-catcherS would
come around with few poor,
sad NUTS squatting in the cage
with shame and humiliation
written in their woebegone
faces but the policemen were
neighborly and word would
spread like fire before a high
wind.
THE dogs along the block
Il would vanish into their re-
Spective homes to be hidden UNI
Ill scouts failing the dog-wagon
would come back and give the
all clear.
The dog-catchers were cum
ming, like IndiapE,athough, and
some times theyN%ould hurry
around the block and come
through again but the law
abiding citizens of the younger
set were no dummies. either,
and their maneuver never
trapped any dogs in our block.
THE only federal law that
l. anybody was really aware
of was the one against monkey.
ing with the u. S. mails. We
had no idea how the govern
ment could have caught you, il
in the dark of night. you filched
a post card or letter from a
neighbor'S box. but we had all
heard of the post office inspec-
tors and knew the punishment
would be sure and swift and
pretty awful and so the mails
were inviolate.
Possibly big business men
had problems that the people
were Obvious of and it is the
people, then as compared with
now, that l am thinking of in
their relation to the law.
About their worst pitfalls
were dealings with the install
ment furniture people who
would be around with a writ
and wagon and snatch it all
back if you got careless with
one of the final payments and
pile on charges which they
called court costs and lawyers
fees, and the loan sharks who
would eat you up and stop your
pay and hound you from job to
job and even from town TO
town.
These troubles were real bad
but, even so, you didn't have
any doubt where you stood
under the law. You didn't have
a Chinaman'S chance and that
was all there was TO that.
As TO the other laws, of
~ course everybody knew it
was illegal TO blow a safe or
stick people up and anyway,
these were practices Of the
criminal classes. exclusively. so
the people didn't have TO bother
their heads about their con-
Stitutional rights in such mat
tiers.
But look you now,
II you don't get il up for Old
Sam on dough day, he begins
TO grind you in and the dizzy
law is written so that you are
damned whether you do or
don't. because not even the
treasury agents can agree on a
given case.
Then the draft. A fellow with
a pre-Pearl Harbor child was
given a pass and started a little
store on his savings and some
credit, but then was drafted,
anyway, and had TO sell out,
close up, park the family with
relatives and report.
Then, in six weeks, he was
back, broke and with his bust
ness gone. lie had heart trouble
Ill IL a.r..n Nr... r.,n.-l.n L..