Morning journal and courier., 1893-08-15

good citizens instead of leagues comprising only minority of the people? Defocqueville observed that the citizen or the United States regards the law as a :, contract to which he is himself party. It IS true in the abstract no doubt, that all the people in the United States are a trust TOT tne enforcement of law and order. But in the concrete we have had to note that many Of these citizens form powerful con- Dlnatlons to prevent the enforcement of the law. In democracy the law spirit Is king. When he is once dead-slain by the outlaw-there is no successor. Law is said to represent the peoples will. But the popular will that Is the law is not enforced against opposition, except as law-abiding | citizens see that 1t is carried out Said Ar istotle 2, GOO years ago, ''Everybody'a busi- ness Is nobody's business" The attention of all the citizens is abstraotly necessary (not ot law-defying leagues alone), but if that Is impossible law-abiding citizens must have representative leagues. fLaveleye says that the ancient de. mocracies perished because they could not synthestze equality and liberty. Accord ing to the American idea the citizen as such must be trusted, and he can not be present represented. But voluntary organizations for law enforcement are more truly repre- sentative than any other corporation or even than public oficsrs when they ignore and defy the law. Under the circum- stances which exist voluntary law and or der leagues supported by a free people form better guarantee of freedom than | standing armies. mobocracy, anarchy, or even plutocracy, which Is not always the | reign of reasonable law, but may be the | domination of the strongest OK or ass. l The league for trying on the laws is | road to better ones and points out that | via media between socialism and anarchy, monarchy and license, which it is the task | of America to find. As we value our free l institutions we cannot afford to let our noblest corporations become our most dan Rerous outlaws. And for good or i'll the liquor traffic, whether necessary or not, has the power and advantage of national organization. Over against the most pow erful law-defying corporations the league stands for the principle that the weak must be protected as we'll as the strong. In the language of Edmund Burke: To this sim pie principle "Let us attest the receding generations, let us attest the advancing generations, between which as link in the chain of eternal law and order we stand" Said Jackson: "The vigilance which guards our liberties must be eternal"
 7. The importance of voluntary law en- forcement associations as bulwarks of our free institutions is shown by what they have accomplished.
 The committee of seventy in New York | overthrow the Tweed ring. The commit | tee of 100 in Philadelphia purified the gas ! trust. The citizens committees in Albany and Detroit were not formed in vain. Per hsps more than any other this movement | means not mere theory, but power. It causes the law-breakers to say (snd this is the language of 8 member of Tammany), "We must ponder little to the moral sense of the community" Perhaps it lies at the basis of sociology, for there Is no l true reform under lawlessness and no true conservatism, either. It was the voluntary | association of citizens as such which ! brought about the retirement of Coleman ! and Beattie from the head of the cleaning l bureau in New York city-no one dreams that the mayor would have removed them ! of his own accord.
 ''There stands to the credit of the Law and Order leagues of this country, in the enduring accounts of eternal justice, as much substantial good accomplished, ss much serious evil prevented, as can be jastly claimed for any other agency of
 human veal within the same decade"
 8. We conclude that an efficient admin
 istration of the laws in a free government
 requires the constant and active support
 of all order loving citiz=ns or their repre-
 ssntstives.
 They have responsibility. sIf democ-
 racy is safer than despotism it is because
 1t includes more responsibilities, not lsss."
 In New York city in 1890 one hundred
 thou'a citizens refused to register.
 Rings, bosses and some gigantic private
 interests, in which, according to Bryce,
 are found the best brain and ener- gy of America, did not fail to be repre-
 sented either in the primaries or in the ul-
 inmates. In free government, especially,
 all citizens are responsible. They may
 shi1k the responsibility, but If they do , something is going to drop. In 1891 the !: beer interests in Newark were able to boy ] colt any store or factory in the city and to ! prevent the enforcement of the law. In 1889 thirteen organizations were formed to drive Paxton's league out of Chicago.
 President Seth Low said this morning that ] the head of Tammauy has more power
 than the rest of New York city, and the
 influence of MT. Mclaughlin is stronger
 than the rest of Brooklyn. Tho citizen
 may shrink from voluntary organization , laisse z-faire is comfortable though ex- ; ploded thought-but the result will be akin
 to the 'hsry tuition" of Cincinnati
 mobs, Chicago Haymarket massacres, mul-
 tipiied strikes and lockouts, Homestead
 tragedies and riots of Trafalgar square.
 The danger of the let alone policy is that
 1t waits for the reign of terror to fix things.
 For good or ill there is more than one traf-
 tic in America which has the power of
 national organization. Such 8 danger can
 not be met by spasmodic effort,or even con- !: tinuous guerrilla warfare. We must use
 the International league, organize, Cline
 up," and-win.
 g. Is it asked by what authority or in ; what name voluntary organizations may stimulate, assist or encourage the hearts of | public officers when necessary?
 In the name of all citizens who would
 save science, civilization, property, moral
 ity, and justice from falling into that
 abyss of nihilism into which Michael Ba
 kunin says they ought to fall; in the name
 of what has been achieved by the leagues
 of Philadelphia, Montreal, Boston, Chicago,
 Pittsburg and other cities against what 1 Senator Evarts has called "child -steslinp":
 in the name of all who would save our land
 from-js na sais quoi-the fate of the an
 cient democracies, or if that is impossible,
 in the name of our Lacedemonian
 fathers who said "We lie here in
 obedience to the laws"; in the name
 Crosby and Philips Brooks, who being dead yet speak to us to-day; in the name
 of "the likest God within the sour'; in the
 name of Jehovah and the Continental con- gross; in the name of Washington who
 taught that morality (applied) is the neces- sary spring of populsr government, and of the international league when it adds that enforcement of the law is essential to the perpstuity of free governments; in the name of the sword of ,he Lord and Gideon; lin the name of God, of civil or der, of our homes, of our towns, of our cities, and of our Union." In the name of this parliament of Man" or Federation of the world" in which we meet.
 If God does no mighty work through the International league (our only organization commensurate with national law-defying eocieties) it is because of our moral un
 belief: As sure as faith in the God of law is made to work, through voluntary organ iIations if necessary, covenants with appe- tite and death shall be annulled agreements with avarice and he'll shall not stand, and the sink pits of Sodom in our large cities shall no longer stain the pride of ali glory. am no alarmist. I have faith in God according to the power that worketh in ns" But let us wait not to see whether Amalek or Israel is going to prevail
 Said Lyman Abbott: "There Is power enough to enforce the laws, and they are going to be enforced. The only question is whether we shall be leaders in the en-
 forcement or laggards following after"
 At the Soldiers Home.
 Nathan Hale camp, Sons of Veterans, of this city will oiy va a haskat n;on;o s4 4h