Show w v vy va H a y r i I r I 1 r l w i rN r- r N N r lase A i y l. l v F 1 Congress Conven Convenes Convenes Fortna more purpose se of ot 0 dog mol making more laws 4 Dy By ELMO SCOTT WATSON It n. n JOHN JOAN stamped Into Inlo hI his home homp snorting with whit Indignation lie He had had nn 1111 experience asa ns as a result of ot carelessness thou loss loss- ness and luck lack of ot consideration upon the Iho part of ot Mr William Citizen which hall hail ranged caused him some temporary discomfort dIll dis comfort It If not permanent harm So tto Into the sympathetic ear cur of ot hits his wife he poured out his hili grievance and his tirade with the dl There ought II ht to he Le a n law I Hut But should there Tor some gome time critics of ot our democracy lime have been telling us that one of ot oftie tie the things that's the matter with us Is that w we have too tOil many laws n on um the books Looks and too little observance of ot even a small per tent cent of ot them f fio o why should we wo add to the number and und then have another law which w will UI bo 10 forgotten III ns OR soon lIoon us as It Is III passed to Join tho the Ion long list lint of ot those which are either unknown or or event even if It t they are known ore nrc disregarded One of ot tho the mot most powerful cartoons ever drawn dran by nn an American Amer Iran Icon cartoonist w was Willi na awarded n a prize In InJO JO 1023 I It wan ns 1111 The Laws of ot Mows Moses and ami the Ihl I s of ot Today b by Daniel It U. 1 of ot the St 81 StLouis Louis Take a look nt lit It II OR as It ft Is reproduced with this article Then It will not be nl necessary ry to Bay say another word In this article as ns to whither whether r or not there should be any uny more laws Hut But whether there should be or shouldn't the fact remains remains' that Hint the business of ot milking making laws till still goes IOS merrily on curly Mirly In mn 1031 a n press dispatch dill dis patch carried the tho news that American legislators felt there ought to be bl a n law some Home times this year and ami translated that feeling Into more than new statutes This number It Is I raid adds to the variously estimated to laws Inwil which have been I since tho the United States came III Into to being All this mass production of ot Thou Thuu t note Dots wouldn't 11 be no so had bad perhaps It If legislative bodkin ever showed much inclination to ta undo the work of It their predecessors by repealing twine some of lIt the outworn statutes or at least those which hleb are no su patently tilled 11 with absurdities Away Awny tack buck In 1635 the great and general court ourt of ot the Massachusetts Kay Ilay Colony wrote upon upon Its records the following Whereas Mr Roger Williams one of ot the elders of ot the church of ot Salem hath bath broached and divulged divers new V and dangerous opinions opine ions against the authority of ot magistrates cud and also writ letters of ot defamation both of ot the magIstrates mag malt and churches here and that before any conviction and yet the Mine without without with with- out any retraction It Is therefore ordered that the said 81 Mr Williams shall depart out of this Ihla jurisdiction within six Mx weeks now next nut evening which if It he be nl neglect to 10 perform It shall be he lawful law fat ful for tor the governor und and two of ot tho the magistrates to send him to some somo place out of ot this jurisdiction jurisdiction tion not to 10 return any allY more without license from the court So banished Mr Roger Williams was and I banIshed ban han Mr Roger Williams seemed likely to 10 stay 11 for tor nearly three hundred years jears Then In 1035 S a representative decided that there there was wat lI t now no much danger from Mr Williams on account of ot divers new V and dangerous opinions against the authority of ot magistrates and so 10 he Introduced a II bill hili into the Massachusetts house to revoke re the decree banishing Mr Ir Williams Tho The Hay flay state Mate was preparing to celebrate Its tercentenary and In especial lal the three hU hundredth anniversary of ot John arrival on the stern stem and rockbound coast cast The representative thought that It would be he a graceful gesture to the memory mem mew ory cry of ot Governor who ho during his lifetime lifetime life life- time manifested constant e esteem tm and antI abiding friendship for tor Williams and ond strove without avail to modify his sentence Hut But evidently the other members of ot the hou house 1 didn't think so 80 or lr else Ilse tilt they still feared those new and dangerous opinions ions for tor the hous house e without debate accepted a report by the Judiciary rl recommending leave to withdraw on the Ihl bill to revoke the tho sentence of ot banishment So o Mr Ir Roger Williams still stays Kajs B banished from Massachusetts Hut But even though the Massachusetts legislature of ot that year jear didn't te see fit to proclaim that It no longer feared the malign Influence of et It the founder of ot Rhode Island it dt 1 act on other obsolete statutes In delving into the subject sub subject of ot useless laws it found some sOUlt curious examples exam plea Ills of ot how the American people or at tit least their delegated authorities dearly love lo to regulate regu regu- late their habits habits or or at any rate the habits ef ot the tho other fellow For Instance one legislator that there was a law which set the le length that an un unprotected hat pin hat pin might pro pro- jec t from the of ut crown a womans woman's hat hut at one lIne ne- ne half inch This went buck back only to 1013 when hM the ladles wore ore many huge ornamental hat pins projecting like daggers dagger several Inches from their hats Some serious accidents had resulted so 10 a legislator decided there thErl ou ought ht to be a law a against long Ions plus hat und and it II was passed after lifter considerable ble but not particularly Seated heated O o oO 1 il O 2 t Ir o J X r 10 r I m- m o. j l iI z tP s z I r r ti 1 1 a Y tea teaI g I r s. r 1 z N L' L i The LOWS Laws of Mo Moses and nd C ef tTo Q 1925 Pulitzer Prize Cartoon by bij D D. R. R of the StLouis P Dispatch Post t-Di t debate In these days lIas of ot bobbed hair and c close fitting huts hats pins hat ar are virtually unknown so o time the law was no longer needed Hut tut It took the law makers of ot Massachusetts 15 years jears to get around to finding that out It lt took them even longer to 10 get around to finding out about certain other obsolete enactments enact enact- ments Slavery was wall abolished many years jears ears ago alO alOIn 1 in Massachusetts and It became one tine of the hotbeds hot hotbeds beds of ot abolitionism which finally brought about the Civil war Hut But in S It was discovered that there stilt still remained on 00 the statute books boob and presumably in full tull tor force e a law which specified sped d fled fied that who sells In to anyone or any way woy transfers trans trans- fers fera the service or labor of ot a II negro who has hl beca B unlawfully tully taken from the commonwealth shall be punished by a ten year jear term in state prison or lr a fine line of ot J 1000 Si Siek of ot Massachusetts In connection with willi laws which have been enacted In that state and andone andone andone one inevitably thinks of ot the 11 famous blue laws which Web are commonly associated with the word Puritanism Such Sueh an aSt association is often an inaccurate one one for tor the fact Is that lint other oilier states besides Massachusetts e have had bad blue laws Gustavus Myers in III Y Ye Olden laws 1 points out the Puritans Puritans' decree In IG lI against h the planting of tobacco was the hl beginning of ot the whole code of ot inhibitive laws The fight light against tobacco o was liS a losing one cue he says sas because baue the average Puritan liked tobacco so well Ill that he tact not only smoked 8 but drank drunk It The rhe law was held invalid by a court derision In If The next battle was against fashion In 1 61 the general court of ot Massachusetts passed a summary act lIet The Time stated grounds ll for tor the law said Mr Myers were wert lre the need of or strict t economy and the immodesty of It the new fashions Costly apparel the law said entailed great superfluous and unnecessary essary expenses The common w wearing ct off I silver sliver or gold girdles I silk laces hat bands and und other such suell adornment was liS a toll folly It was therefore decreed l that no man or 01 woman was thereafter to make snake or buy any ap lip larl parel I whether woolen silk or linen with any lace un eve it Neither should It contain any silver gold cold or silk Illk tJ z ad it any person presumed d to appear in clothes of ot that kind the clothes Yo were ere eret t to be confiscated One of ot the very fry first laws was as t one ne against idleness This did not mean menn merely So A couple of lt women exchanging gossip which us then the sole IOle vehicle of fit news a youth sitting on a stump and contemplating contemplating pia plating tin landscape beauties a group of ot men in to expansive social suctal converse all converse all these and many others came lime under the ban of ot idleness Death for tor cursing or striking parents was de de- creed As for for- forthe f. f the blue 11 laws in other colonies Mr Myers states that in New ew York p pastimes on Sundays Sun Son days were wre forbidden hi OS well as worldly labora labor a and 1 this Included hunting shooting horse ratIn racing rat ran In lug ing and other acts Connecticut tollo followed td the lead of Ala Massachusetts in classifying actors as IS vagabonds vagabond II and forbidding acting and plays playas 1 was long the punishment ot for tor blasphemy according to one of ot Connecticut's Connecticut twelve capital laws law based m upon on the be Mosaic 11 code but there OlN appears ars to be beno no case recorded where this penalty penalty pen pen- alty was Willi inflicted Ve We commonly think of ot the Cavaliers of ot Virginia Virginia Vir Vir- ginia as lIS Len being more minded broad than the of ot New England but compulsory church attendance was one of ot the initial Virginia laws The penalty for tor violation was a fine of ot a pound of ot tobacco It If a 1 person stayed away for tor a month the fine was fifty pounds of ot tobacco Some of ot the early day fox tox hunting ministers of ot Virginia often ottEn acted In to a manner that created created cre ere scandal but bat when they were wore criticized they thy obtained a law preventing the people from com come commenting upon their conduct The fhe clergy and the church chorch wardens and vestries were wre censors of ot morals and Inquisitors of ot public and private life The stocks pillory whipping post and ducking ducking duck duck- ing stool came callie much later Inter In Virginia than in New l England says sas Mr Myers but they were set let up In every ertry county court house Anyone either drunk or sober so sober so ordered the Virginia army regulations of ot who 1070 who blasphemed the name nam of ot Cod God should for tor every offense run the gauntlet through one olle hundred men or thereabouts thereabouts' there there- And If It th the blasphemer persisted In his wickedness he was to be bt bored through the tongue with a hot hoi Iron Hut tut lest residents of ot other states get the Idea that the common commonwealths on the Atlantic sea sla bon hoard board rd with Ith their heritage of ot blue laws ls from colonial days das are the only ones whose hose stilt statute ute books have been or 1 still mill are cluttered UI up with 1 lc le ul tl oddities an and absurdities consider now the case lUse of ot a middle western state Male Away hack back InIe in tie Itic early days of ot Illinois the legislature of ot that state passel passed what was known us the little bull bill Unlike some other 1 legislation however ho It did not cot have hare to wait long Ion before It was re re- pealed Ity Ily this act small bulls were prohibited under severe penalties on their owners from running at large It was dl designed to improve the breed of ot cattle caUle In the prairie state stiliE but It became apparent that passing such sueh a law was not the way to do It Immediately there arose a storm of ot popular Indignation The The- little bulls found hundreds of ot champions The fhe law was denounced d as being benr time the work of ot the aristocrats and Intended to tv favor tavor the rich who could afford to own large bulls and nd who would profit by the destruction of ot the tho small ones ones More than that the outraged citizenry felt there should be an equality of ot privilege even tn among bulls So the frightened legislators Immediately lately repealed Ue the little bull Ull bill but It was not done soon enough to save om some I of the legislators from the Ire of ot their constituency Many an f. f embryo statesman in that legislature was wal lost to hU hla country bt because cause he voted for tor that bill and und many of them failed of at rl ll election re-election toc on In that issue alone It If space allowed the list of ot useless laws of ot unnecessary lans s of ut laws which are destined to become so 10 much It legal al df deadwood could le ke extended extend extend- ed Ill indefinitely and It would Include ever every state in the IbE Union For or the business of ot making laws lawi still UIl goes goell merrily on and still we 1 disregarding tile fact that we already have wn-e between 2000 0 a and Ind ad of ot them m continue to declare every so often There ought to be a law law t r Yes Yea there ought to be a law Indeed a indeed a law against making more laws I 3 b by 7 eru News |