Salt Lake Tribune | 1915-02-06 | Page 6 | Miscellany

Miscellany j i i i "The Land of the Free." The Tribune exprei-sfa no opinion on tre eureni-s measure indorsed by the citv council, for the reason that the Tribune dofts not know any more about ihe ultimate desirability of simh a law than do the members of the city council, the committees befaru. v:hom tiie law v.iil i be rliseufl. the member? of pit her hranr-h of ti.e legislature, tbe governor who wU be anke-.I to fciE n U, or the Judges and Juries before whom violators will' be taken for pentonc-e. This measure is typb-l of many of the 1,'rowiiiz number of criminal statutes. It is a law pioposprl fr the poveram'c of the whole "people ind undoubtedly is meant fur the ueneht of the whole people, peo-ple, but which Is to bp rut on the statute bookd by a small minority of the peop. j Perhaps the mot RlpninVant "Vvelnp-rnent "Vvelnp-rnent of our government ia that laws are . not made by tiie peonle or the repre- ; sento lives of tbp people, but by small ' cliourH. tremendously rnerg!7rd over particular question. Tho.no. cliques are : determined to force their views on such question upon the multitude, oblivious of the 'act that other Hiqups are forcing I vl'-ws on other qnessions upon them. The number of new ways of KPttlnp n man Into jail Is startling, and the question ques-tion floes not seem to be allied whether the off en:-'" m against the cummunity are , hulf as fcid as tho pennlHea imposed. There neeins to be a Tin-"i"v mania to find new ways of Imprisoning American ! citizens, and yet there Is hnnUy any one tlilntf that can be as bad for the individual indi-vidual or the nation as a man in jail who can possiulv be kept out. It is not irrelevant to remark that tho srowth of demociacy in this country has not resulted in threat er, but rather in less freedom. The "kind of the free," the "sweet land of liberty," is now infinitely less free than France, much less free than the kincdom of England, not as free in some important respects as the empire of j Germany, and we hesitate to draw a dis- j tinctlon between the United States and Russia. Editorial in the Chicago Daily , Tribune, January 25, 11 1 5 .