FREAK LEGISLATION.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2278, 15 September 1899, Page 1 (Supplement)

FREAK LEGISLATION.

The American State Legislatures, or rather, some of their members, continue to interest an am used and mocking world with the crudity of their attempts to reform mankind by Act of Parliament. Among very recent ellbrts we can recall Hills for the followingTo regulate the color of the neckties men wear ; to regulate the length of the pointed toe tan shoes ; to compel every man to shave ut least once a week ; to forbid women the right to wear bloomers ; to prevent tight lacing ; to forbid the physically unsound fiom marrying; and (from Chicago) one enacting that every husband shall be compelled to give his wife at least one dollar (-Is I'd) a week pocket money. And there are others. The d id'ere nee between England and the United States in this respect is not that there are no cranks or freaks in our midst, but that we do not seek to crowd the Statute Hook unnecssarily with rubbish. In the end, however, the result i.-> perhaps much the same. For, although Britishers rarely pass beliefs into statute law until after much thought and often many years of time, on the other hand, the freak legislator in the States who may get his ideas 011 to the Statute Book finds that, since moderate men are entrusted with the task of enforcing them, they are practically inoperative. In other words, the unwritten law is infinitely more operative at all times and in all countries than some written ones, and the wise man is wise and dillers from the freak in that lie recognises this, and does not attempt recklessly to run counter to it.