Show MUST Tn E lONG SKIRT GO Hon Thomas Babington McAuley Says that it is Greatest Existing Menace to Public HealthBy Gathering Up the Microbes they Serve to Disseminate Deadly Diseases I i 1 The right to life liberty and the pursuit pur-suit of happiness 1s an inalienable one and pertains to every Individual personality per-sonality In all nations and climes How I cVer there has never been a time in the history of the world when everyone possessed all of the rights belonging to him But civilization advances and enlightenment spreads the rights of r Individuals I become more complicated and their mutual obligations one to another an-other more involved In a certain sense1 the only absolutely free and untrammeled un-trammeled man is the naked savage who recognizes no right but might He is hampered and bound by no constitution consti-tution nor statute laws norOldols he recognize ally rules of etiquette nor 1 propriety Not even the spirit of > noblesse oblige has ever entered Jiito his mental calculations He feels himself him-self bound by no precedent nor rule The whole wide world or as much of it as he can acquire and hold Is his and he has no regard for the property personal nor social rights of others Individual rights must give way to community rights and complete independence inde-pendence to social dependence If each were to remain a law unto himself harmony equality and equity could not exist the unlicensed willfulness of the strongest would destroy In the name of his liberty all of the liberties of the Weakest If the savage nature of A shall demand the continuance of all i t fr t ° v t r 11 i WB 3V f i t < iii j J r 4 r 4 i 4iJ 1 A i I Y 1 I I Y I Justice Thomas Babington McAuley of Missouri fj the rights he enjoyed while an isolated I 1 savage what Is to become of his II neighbors Eachcannot own the whole city at the same time There must bean be-an averaging of sacrifices each giving l up something otherwise some must give up everything It has been said that necessity knows noMav It more justly might be said that necessity neces-sity makes good law If equity and I equality be not gnnred But In proportion as savage man becomes be-comes more civilized I individual rights I and privileges must be abandoned or sacrificed for he general welfare and convenience Constitutions are adopted laws placed upon the statute books and with each one there passes away Homo element of savage freedom and license At length Is reached that highly developed I de-veloped state of urban relationship most fittingly Illustrated by such Intil r cate municipal corporations as New York or Boston where either by police regulation or social custom almost every action and habit of the Individual is restricted within certain limits for the general welfare and the municipal ity becomes one gigantic piece of machinery ma-chinery wherein every individual is and of necessity must be and remain I subservient to the general good I J The extent to which police regulation 1 of personal actions has reached in the I i I I present day and age of the world has been of slow growth but hac gone faryf r I beyond the point where early writers and law givers Imagined It would stoP r The ancient knight or squire would have felt outraged when he learned that a city ordinance regulated the speed at which he should ride or drive I on the public street the width of the tire he must use on his vehicle that he must carry a light provide a boll pnSj j I a tineI If he left his animal unhitched and to cap the climax pay for a license li-cense and have a tag before he could go jousting upon the highways at all But the direction In which police and municipal regulation of the habits and conduct oC the Individual has been carried to the greatest extreme Is with regard to sanitation and the I preservation preserva-tion of public health It is recognized by all municipal authorities that tho average individual Is too careless or ignorant to appreciate or understand the necessity for observing strict rules regarding proper sanitation Hence nil cities have plumbing inspectors to see that proper connections are made milk Inspectors to see that no adulterations are practiced l certain other public officers who to amore or less extent Interfere with what might be termed the personal rights of the individual for the general good Such regulations have gone so far as even to declare indiscriminate expec I toration in public places to be a nui I sance punishable by fine This is one t of the most filthy rand disgusting of habits Travel and observatjon have convinced the writer that the inhabi tants of the United States are the worst offenders in this respect of any nation on the globe It has often been said that Americans were the prize piecaters We occupy a still more unenviable prominence with regard to spitting America Isa nation of splt ems Voltaire has said there arc three things done by the human 1 race which distinguish a man from all other ani I i mals Man is the only animal who laughs drinks when he Is not dry and I makes love at all seasons rte might well have added one other trait name lyman is the only animal who spits Promiscuous expectoration isa habit I not a necessity Many men both smoke and chew tobacco without spitting In the opinion of the writer the Indiscriminate I Indis-criminate clearing of the nostrils and discharge of sputum In public places I Is tolerated only through long usage Such prccLloes are n permitted In some older civilizations In Japan the American practice of carrying pocket handkerchiefs and placing thorn again In the pocket after using is held to be uncleanly and disgusting There each one carries a number of small sheets of I tissue ppor which after using arc I thrown away 1 McclcRl authorities agree that one of I I the easiest ways of spreading contagious > conta-gious and Infectious diseases < is by j means of microbes which are carded about In the air For Instance a consumptive con-sumptive expectorates in a public place The spittle which contains tho deadly germs of the disease dries is carried up into the air by any disturb ing moans and finally is drawn intothe lungs of a healthy Individual and he Is inoculated with the fatal malady One of the most common and ordinary I ordi-nary ways of disseminating such disease dis-ease germs is b > ireuns of the unslchl ly 1 long trailing streetsweeping skirts now so universally worn by all women One approaches this subject hesitatingly not to say with trepida Lion for the writer realizes that to I make a suggestion or even intimate a I single l change in womans dress is the i most dangerous ground upon which a public official can tread Being unmarried I unmar-ried however he plunges l Iii with a I temerity born perhaps of lack of experience ex-perience with femininity rather pre ferring a general onslaught of the out raged Innocents than an individual cas tigation or curtain lecture from one I Hell hits no fury like a woman scorned and no doubt next to the 1 pangs of despised love no offense could appear more grave or heinous to the feminine Intellect than a rude masculine mas-culine criticism of her personal ap I pearance Nevertheless the time has come If ever it Is to arrive when the I female portion of humanity must sub I aft to the same stern laws as men endure the same privations and suffer the same punishments We long have seen that all men are equal before the I law Soon We shall as truthfully say the same of all women It will be remembered what a wave of sympathy and horror swept over the country when Mrs Surratt was hanged Today such an event scarcely excites comment So we see women arc rapid ly l acquiring that equality for which they have waited and striven so long Far be It from me to indorse the poets sentiments when he sang Women since Eve have been tho devils1 tools Men since Adam have been womens fools Heaven might have spared us ono torment when wo fell Not given us women or not promised hell Rather let me say with the happy married man This oltl world Ig scarce worth living TIll love waves his mt lc wing And wo gauge the bliss iC being I Thro a s olden wedding ring For what If I may ask the question I do ladles adorn themselves I First and I foremost it will do doubt be adrnltted In order to appear attractive in the 1 1 eyes of men and second from a natural natur-al or acquired fondness for finery No man admires a long trailing skirt on the street It may be contended from a legal point of view that a restriction on long i I skirts Is an Infringement of personal I rights But such a move Is only a step I farther than has already been taken At present women are not allowed to appear on the public streets in too abbreviated ab-breviated skirts nor while exposing the neck and arms Improperly even have known women arrested for appearing on the streets in what Is commonly known as a Mother Hubbard This is good taste on the part of the trial Judge if not good law 1C it should be successfully contender that all ordinances fixing a penalty for any woman walking upon the public sidewalks with a skirt dragging on the ground are unconstitutional we can at least regulate the matter If she insists in-sists on maintaining a streetsweeper at her extremities she can be required like other sweepers to use It only before be-fore 7 oclock a m and after 10 oclock p m During the writers term of office as Police Magistrate for Kansas City lid many opportunities have come to hm to suggest municipal improvements and sanitary reforms In his opinion nothIng noth-ing Is of more Importance than the preservation of the public health lie hopes to live to see the practical elimination from the public thoroughfares thorough-fares of all the large cities of the dirt gathering germspreading trailing dress skirt THOMAS BABINGTON MAULEY |