But older persons, the parents, the school officers, the teachers, the storekeepers, and those of all other occupations are likewise subject to rules, are under control and direction of the Nation, the State, and the city, all having power to enforce rules of conduct, called laws, which apply to the old and the young. Without such rules, such laws, it would be impossible to maintain peace and order. Without such rules, called laws, it would be impossible to protect the weak against the strong and the wicked.
This government being organized for the purpose of protecting the rights and liberties of the people, it is necessary that laws be enacted in order that our rights and liberties shall not be taken away from us by those who may be stronger or wiser than we are. Many laws prohibit wrongful acts and provide a punishment for those who commit such wrongful acts. Thus one who strikes you without justification, one who steals your bicycle, or any other property, one who breaks into your home, or into the store, a burglar, is punished. One who kills another human being, a murderer, is punished. A person who willfully sets fire to a building, or is guilty of cruelty to animals, malicious mischief, or sells liquor is punished.(22) So there are scores of different offenses forbidden by the law, and punishments fixed for those who will not obey.
There are also laws requiring that one shall ride or drive on the right hand side of the street when passing another coming from the opposite direction.
There is generally in every city a law which punishes a person who rides his bicycle upon the sidewalk. There are laws regulating the speed of automobiles, the lights and signals, and the turning at the corners of the street, so that other people either walking, or riding on bicycles, or in automobiles or other vehicles, may not receive injury.(23)
You know in this country, where every person is equal before the law, no one person has any more right in the street than his neighbor has, and the conduct of each in the use of streets and sidewalks and other public places must be such that all may enjoy equal opportunities in the use thereof.(24)
Freedom, as already explained, does not mean a right to do everything we wish to do. Freedom is the right to do whatever we may wish to do, provided it does not interfere with the right of our neighbors to have the same privileges which we claim for ourselves.