Show ABOUT LAWS If laws were applied in their spirit now and then and not always literally they wouldnt so often be made ridiculous ridicu-lous in their operation There is a Congressional law forbidding the importation im-portation of foreigners under contractor contract-or agreement to perform labor or service ser-vice in the United States the penalty being a fine of f 1000 It also delares that such contract laborers shall not be permitted to land but shall be sent back to the country whence they came The statute was intended to check the the importation of cheap Chinese and other ignorant labor and applied to that ent would prove a beneficent law but its literal interpretation is fast bringing it into disrepute A number of instances in-stances of unnecessary strictness in application ap-plication have occurred lately and others are now under discussion Last spring a Kentucky farm owner went to Scotland and engaged the services of a skilled dairyman but upon reaching New fork the man was sent back by the too technical officials Senator Stanford has done and is doing do-ing much to develop the grapeMndustry of California he has grown tired of Chinese labor and a little while ago it was announced that ne was making arrangements for bringing over one hundred trained vineyardists from France No sooner does this announcement an-nouncement appear than it is declared in the press that his Frenchmen who are to displace two or three times their number of the bated Chinese will not be permitted to land But the most ridiculous case is that of the pastor for Plymouth Church Recently the church proposed tj employ em-ploy the Rev Charles Berry of England Eng-land to occupy the pulpit of Beecher and at once opened negotiations with the gentleman The attention of the District Attorney having been called to the Tact he said it would be his duty to proceed against the church for engaging the services of foreigner A member of the advisory board said the church would at once pay the fine of 1000 whereupon he was informed that Berry would not be permitted to land or if he did land that he would be sent back to England Thus the law will have to be openly violated by the church and the violation viola-tion winked at by the officials or Plymouth will be deprived of its pastor There is rank absurdity in a good I many of our laws I |