Morning journal and courier., 1889-06-26
MIR. DEPEw,s oRATION.

An EloqCent Effort at the Yale Law School Commencement Yesterday The Fabric of the LaV-Our Nation To-Day-Divers1ty of Elements-Our ! ship of State.
 do not propose to pursue any Of the suD- iects upon which you have been instructed l by this learned faculty, nor am prepared to | compete with you with thesis upon some ' legal question as part of the exercises of graduation. The commencement orator usually addresses himself to the professors and the elder members of the profession, but I came here to speak to you. The most joyous of days is that which closes the doors of the school and opens the gateway to the ! world; the most apprehensive, the one ! which marks the opening of your clientless office; the happiest, the first return after the 1 future is secure and success assured, to ool- Iege scenes and associations. It is the privi- \ leQe of age and experience to indicate paths | in the fields you are yet to explore, to point ' out the dangers which beset them, and the methods of safe and comfortable travel. | Most of the ideals of these closing hours de- \ voted to the confidential interchange of as- pirations and hopes will be shattered against the stern realities of practical life, but their destruction will furnish the lessons for sure fundations and permanent construction. Proceeding, the speaker spoke of real suc- cess, which was not money getting, honor. | able and useful as it WAS. The mastery of any calling involves thorough knowledge of | it's history and pride in its pursuit. The law | is at once the dryest of studies and fullest of \ inspiration. The importance, scope and \ mighty influence of law and it's gradual growth through the ages to it's present glorious fabric, involving so much of impor- | tance as the liberty and welfare of the human ! race, was the next feature of the address, ,and ' was not in historic suggestion. On the i'm \ portant matter, vital in our nation, of respect for law, the speaker uttered there words \ which we'll deserve to be rememberei~The end the destruction sf4 law itself, though contempt s{2r it's interpreters and practi- tlo9elssseSo So long as the American democracy believes that it's courts are learned, fearless and incorruptible, the people are them-
 selves the standing army which upholds their judgments and forces their decrses. As the country increases in population, in wealth, in crowded commu- mites, in vast combinations of labor and cap ital, in the elements, which in any disinteg- ration of society from wrongs or corruptions come together for the overthrow of existing | institutions, the salvation of our lives and property, of our families and homes, of our rights and liberties, of our civilization itself, ' depends more and more upon 8 judiciary which commands the respect and confidence \ of the masses. The men who are to settle ' estates, care for the interests of women, of \ widows and orphans, administer sacred trusts, defend the weak, right wrongs, fight in jus- \ tics or crime intrenched behind wealth and \ power, and furnish the judges of the land, \ can neither be ignoramuses nor knaves with ' out weakening the whole fabric of society \ and government in proportion to their in- ! competence or rascality.
 ' The republic has passed through grave II and Tlr0hl6ma | tions of more universal moment will arise ' and they will require all your wisdom, patri- ! otism and courage. We are a5 present sail- ' ing upon tranquil seas, with no clouds above the horizon and no warnings from the bar ! ometer. But continued the speaker, the present great aggregation of people in this | country of so many diversified nationalities | and social conditions brings upon us prob- lem from which the fathers of the republic ' and other thinkers anticipated most frightful consequences.
 While these fears were groundless, never theless the restlessness of labor and its con- solidation into powerful organisations, occa- sional riots displaying the fereest passions and most destructive spirit, and spasms of
 legislative fury against corporate invest
 ments, indicate discontents and dan
 gers which it is folly to ignore
 further that public spirited and successful
 men and honest corporations suffer from 8
 keen sense of wrong against those who have
 acquired fortunes by violence or fraud, or
 the companies who have upjustly or tyrani-
 cally misused their franchises.
 No intelligent man desires a return to the
 crude conditions and primitive simplicity of
 the "good old times." Notwithstanding
 great fortunes, there is 8 wider and more un-
 iversal distribution of property, and owner-
 ship of homes than ever before. In spite, or
 rather because of invention, there is greater Ior ay,k for 1oh1
 and better wages, than any other period in
 our history.
 Universal suffrage, which, with the in
 crease of wealth, boded only evil to the i'm
 agination of the early patriot, is now de-
 monstrated to be the security of society.
 Laws, and not men, are our governor; the
 people make the laws and respect and en-
 force their creations, but the stability of or-
 der depends upon the intelligence of the
 voters. Here the lawyers duty is plain and !
 his mission clear. Suffrage can, if 1t pleases, \
 annihilate property and dissolve corpora.
 tions; but the majority are investors in land
 or personality, and would fercely defend
 what they own. They do not wish the limit |
 fixed beyond which neither they nor their
 children may go. The procession from the '
 bottom, in its upward march, is forever
 passing the unfortunate, who are coming \
 down from the top. The second or third
 generation, with few exceptions, ends where
 the first began. And yet if the laws were so
 framed or were so interpreted by the courts,
 that any advantage was given to one class of \
 citizens not equally enjoyed by all, the ma
 jority, in sternly seeking a remedy, might
 overturn the very foundations of vested
 rights and interests and plunge the common
 wealth into chaos. See to it that all the bur |
 dens of the State are equally borne and its
 benefits open alike to all. Keep the roads !
 paved and free from Instructions by which the industrious, the honest and the capable,
 | .1I a1 fk.1h hr,k rise from any condition to the highest honors I of the republic and the largest rewards of I
 business. Defamation is cheap and the vo- Il cabulary of epithet large and easily accessi- |
 ble, but they remedy no evils. An eminent \
 jurist said to me recently that many ambi- |
 tious lawyers in his State had preached, \ from the stump and on the platform, that I railroad ownership was robbery, and its cons
 fscation by special taxation and unremune- \ rative rates a patriotic duty. They sought | by this appeal to temporary interests to be- \ come judges and Congressman, though they | knew that the general ineulcatlon and adop- tion of the principle would end in Commu- nism, and the destruction of the property of | the people they professed desire to protect. | The anarchist, ignorant of liberty, madly | plots and dies for the overthrow of law, or der and religion; but he is at least honest II in his convictions and purposes. Fifteen \ years ago one man owned 8 majority of the N stock of the New York Central railroad, and | a few others most of the balance. Now it has ten thousand proprietors, and the large \ majority of them are people of small prop erty. This indicates a process of distribu- tion which will speedily change the character and management of American corporations.
 The magnitude of modern enterprises and the close competitions of business have reu- dered the massing of the money of the many into one company necessity which seems to be steadily increasing. The only other sug gestion for carrying on the great affairs es- sentisl to comfortable living in our complex civilization is for the government to conduct them all. But experience has demonstrated that then, as in the German railways, the people get the minimum of service for the maximum of price, and an army of office holders keep it's party in power and prevent the reform of abuses or the remedy of ' wrongs. We meet the question better by