A Cautionary Tale

The year is 1934.

New Jersey tailor Jacob Maged charges 35 cents to press a man's suit, even though FDR's "Brains Trust" figures the rate should be 40 cents.

Maged trifled by his 5-cent violation of New Jersey's "tailors' code," written in conjunction with the NRA. On April 20, 1934, he was fined $100 -- serious money when the average family income was about $1,500 -- and sentenced to 30 days in jail. The New York Times reported that Maged "was only vaguely aware of the existence of a code." Not that such ignorance was forgivable. It is every citizen's duty to stay up late at night, if necessary, reading the fine print about the government's multiplying mandates.

The guv-ment knows best.

Read the story by George F. Will here