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Show THE CITIZEN 8 . THE REGULATION A LOSING GAME MANIA. TVHE mania for regulating people by legislation continues. Michigan has a new firearms act under which the sheriffs PUBLIC ownership took another setback in North Dakota when, according to the state industrial commission, the losses in the different counties and city police departments register the state mill and elevator totaled $1,25,691.93 during 1927. The same old story is constantly being repeated. A recent weapons in the possession of state residents. Failure to register makes one liable to a fine of $100 or imprisonment for ninety revelation shows that the municipal railway, of San Francis has been losing about $100,000 yearly from a single suburbai days. street car line, that wj The law will probably be enforced for a while. Arkansas line. The plight of Seattles and get them properly registered. The avowed object of this recently unable to meet salaries of employes, is well known, elaborate statute is to prevent criminals from getting danger- can go through the whole catalogue of public ownership enter ous weapons. Commenting on the measure, a South Carolina prises without finding one conspicuous success in any important! venture. And yet politicians are still trying to put the govern.! paper says: business all the way from printing envelopes to fur. If Michigan succeeds in persuading all bandits and gun- ment in electric power. men to comply with the law faithfully and to promise not to nishing We have seen what happened to politically operated induwithout some state from other perdangerous weapons bring strial schemes in the past, and it is always a question of whether! mission, doubtless the measure will prove a success. we wish to pay another admission charge to see the The law will probably be enforced for a while. Arkansas farce played again at our expense. had a similar statute, but due to lack of attention paid to it by the citizens, despite attempts to enforce it, it was repealed after FALSE VANITY three years. Up to the middle of December, Michigan had registered The prohibition law was passed when over three milliojl some 85,000 pistols, which are undoutedly only a small per- voters were in France, and then passed at a time when the entiij centage of the number in the state. The new law will make country was in histeria over the war. When the people wokenpl more lawbreakers, because all the people will never regis- to what had happened and how they had been fooled by proMil ter. It is the old story of trying to make something unlawful by tion, they then and there refused to obey the law, and there k law, which in itself (the ownership of a gun), is not unlawful. been h ever since. The United States Constitution provides that citizens may Christ, the greatest teacher of morals, did not believe own firearms. The people will not give up this right. Legisla- prohibition. tion which puts the honest gun owner in the class of crooks and What are we trying to do in this country! Build up a ner criminals, is putting the cart before the horse. It virtually kingdom and for whom! The result of this radical legislation has played havot keeps a police record of the honest man when everybody knows that the lawbreaker will not register.' It will be interesting to among the people. watch the trend of crime in Michigan. You prohibitionists, you blamed the saloon for crime. NotI of city-own- ed . ie BEWARE. With the air filled with political proposals for the govem-me- n going into the various lines of business or industry, it is of the utmost importance that in considering presidential candidates the people choose a man who has not been bitten with the bug of socialism, if they wish this nation to retain its title as the land of opportunity. Presidential candidates should be men of broad vision who have a knowledge of world affairs and who can appreciate the advantages the people of this country derive from private initiative and enterprise, as contrasted with paternalism in pean nations which are ridden to death with government ownership and bureaucratic control. If we did not enjoy such freedom of individual opportunity as we now do, we would fight to secure it. By the same token, why not fight to retain it! It is interesting to note that all proposals for the government taking over the private business of some individual or group of individuals, are made by men who are not generally engaged in any constructive line of endeavor. They cannot point to success for plans which they ask the people to adopt. Then why consider their experimental ventures at the expense of the taxpayer and freedom of the individual! Truly presidential candidates should be men who will stand as a rock against disintegrating influences which threaten to. undermine constitutional rights and privileges. . A dispatch from Berlin says that the Kaisers gate is to be made part of a national war memorial. Wonder if this is the gate they handed him when the armistice was signed! A New York scientist leaves for the Bahamas to find out for himself whether or not the shark will bite a human being. If he follows our advice he will take it for granted. we have twice as much crime, yes, and then some. What do blame the cause to now! yoa ILLEGAL TAX The supreme court of Illinois has held that the gasoline to law is unconstitutional. That has been a foregone conclusion and talked about in all parts of the country. The only auto why automobile owners permitted the excessive taxes on roads mobiles was because the money was promised for good but a big portion of it is getting away from roads and peopk are beginning to complain. f Might just as well tax the eggs from a hen, the milk a cow and the water from a pump. Why not tax the hay for horse which furnishes the power to pull the wagon, and so down the line. Our gasoline tax in this state is too high and more mo of that collected ought to go into roads. Dont make the ad" mobile owner the goat, because if he ever becomes organ somebody will be looking for a new job. PERMIT FOR HUBBY GLORIA SWANSON has finally managed to secure ap P port for her husband so he can come to this country from to visit his famous wife. Probably the emigration authon lid not know the marquis and were a little cautious, and did intend to allow any slip through the lines who could not snpf themselves. m Condit is successful in his flight to Venus aew rocket speedster, we will soon know whether the ompl there are anything like us. Will not some scientist acc him on his trip in order to thoroughly study conditions Venus! If Robert |