PERTINENT AND IMPERTINENT
Z.
PERTINENT AND IMPERTINENT BY Z. THE epic of this world is not now arms and the man, how much less shirt frills and the man; it is now tools and the man," said Thomas Carlyle. The arrogant...
...Alabama, where the gun has been de rigour in morning or evening dress, has immensely amused the country by legislation, which provides that weapons must be at least two feet in length, making it difficult to carry one of them in the conventional hip pocket...
...A very little larger appropriation would secure the constant registration of every individual in the country...
...Both the razor and the ubiquitous "gun," which is responsible for the vast majority of brutal crimes, would seem to be capable of easy regulation if it were not for the lurking desire of the primitive white roan of twentieth century America to use the latter himself on occasion...
...Whatever the effect on the financial world, industrial America could find no more profitable enterprise than a permanent census...
...WE ARE the last of civilized countries to hold on to the old liability law with regard to industrial accidents...
...and put a premium on all law abiding and respectable citizens, native or foreign born, white or colored...
...The arrogant Anglo-Saxon should have a great deal of sympathy these days for the Afro-American who, buying a razor, was asked if he wanted a "safety...
...Congressmen were horrified by the suggestion that the next decennial census required the expenditure of fourteen millions, although they voted in the first place to take good care of that fourteen millions by keeping the appointments open for political patronage...
...Anyone in possesion of an unregistered weapon could be dealt with severely...
...Dana Durand, ought to suggest that the time has arrived for a constant record of industrial and vital statistics as we have now of the stock market...
...the shooting of Carmack and Heney...
...The profanation of Lincoln's memory in Springfield, Illinois...
...No reports have been received as to whether the law has been enforced when concealed weapons have been discovered, but this is doubtless as rare as in other communities where it is only invoked at the discretion of the police...
...The registration of fire-arms, even at a trivial charge, would not only add to the police revenues but be deterrent...
...Responsibility for the use of a weapon could be put upon the owner when there was doubt as to who used it...
...record the unemployed and the industrial opportunities as stock reports are issued today...
...WHILE playing with the fire of federal intervention, it is only appropriate to consider an accepted national institution which immediately invites revision...
...It were well if the country could be as much shocked at this sum as congressmen claim to be...
...Germany, first, in 1884, then Austria, Finland, England, France, Italy, Holland, Siveden, Denmark, Belgium and Hungary, in order, have passed laws which embody the principle that an industrial enterprise should regularly share the economic loss resulting to the workmen injured by its accidents.—From "Employers Liability," by Crystal Eastman, Published by the New York Branch of the American Association for Labor Legislation...
...secure accurate vital statistics instead of the familiar local exaggerations...
...No sah," he said, "dis is for social purposes...
...Instead of whimsical and mischievous state legislation some truly effective repression may be exercised, when there is federal licensing of fire arms, an entirely legitimate regulation by the authorities which provide for military protection, to which no patriotic citizen can object...
...The encouragement of the observance of law and the regulation of the floating population would be furthered in no better way than by a permanent census...
...provide the police with information which they seem seldom to possess now...
...The removal of Director North and the appointment of a scientific and reliable student of statistics like Mr...
...the accidental shooting of a woman in Chicago across the airshaft of an apartment...
...IF a man who can be called an anarchist is discovered in the possesion of a toy pistol, it is warrant for the extremest punishment, but if a mob or a politician is thoroughly armed it excites only indignation...
...remove the necessity for the additional expense of state and school censuses and political registration...
...So far as it discouraged the use of such arms, it would not only protect game but reduce the number of individuals who are shot by their excitable fellow sportsmen or who commit suicide, directly by cleaning or vicariously by trifling with unexpectedly loaded guns...
...Such a law would apply legitimately to shotguns and rifles used in the pursuit of game, as the license fee need not be prohibitive...
...publish accurate annual directories of the urban communities instead of the belated decennial obituaries...
...and the fiasco of the Hains trial, to mention no more of the commonplaces of the day, call renewed attention to the savagery of the mob, the barbarity of chivalry and the popularity of physical force...
...Of course such registration of "arms and the man" would enlarge the power of the government and, in the name of "liberty," the old fashioned American citizen may prefer political patronage and mob rule...
Vol. 1 • July 1909 • No. 28
