The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-04-19
LAW AND THE ANARCHIST.
What Rev. DR.. George Heron
Said in His Lecture Last
Evening.
DIR. C. O. BROWN WAS PRESENT.
An Able Comparison Between the
Christian Ideal and That Of
Anarchy.

For the fourth time the Rev. DR.. George
D. Heron lectured to large concourse of
admirers in the Third Congregational
Church last evening, the subject of his dis
course being 1.-THE Christian State; the
Redemption of Law from Anarchy"
His central idea was to prove that true
anarchy exists in this country more in the
great corporations than in the individual;
more in those who use the laws of the land
to further their own ends than in those
who fondly believe the laws were made for
their protection.
"There is no likeness between the
Christian ideal and that of the anarchist"
he said in opening.
The Christian organization of the State
would be its perfection, the anarchist phil
osophy would be its destruction. Accord
ing to the Christian philosophy of law,
society is the end for which law exists.
Society is the fulfllment of law, because it
is the fulfllment of love. Not individual
protection but mutual association, is the
end of law; not individual rights, but
mutual association in righteousness. No
enforcement OF law external to a mans
nature can make him right or social; it
can only restrain MIN from OubWdTu dCGS
of evil.
"Probably not since the Roman age has
such attention been given to statute-Inak-
ing as by our nation at this time, yet in
the common mind there is scarcely any
longer a thought of our courts of law as
having a relation to social justice. Our
courts do not impress the public thought
with the moral majesty and holy nature of
the law. Law and justice have come to be
incidentally
| unite.
1.-The fact abides and enlarges that our
courts of law have ceased to be courts OF
justice in the public mind. No legal
sophistries can conceal that ones standing
in the processes of legal trial and iudg-
upon the material interests which
he represents, and his ability to
purchase technical skill. Even judicial
| decisions that are strictly according to the
law are often SO VIGOROUSLY unjust when
! weighed by the social conscience as to i'm
pose wide and ominous distrust of both
legislators and courts. To say that an
act is legal, and has been SO adjudged by
the judiciary, no longer necessarily means
that it is just and right"
Dr. Heron then went on to comment on
the shameless manner in which the laws
are being constantly violated by powerful
corporations. The utter disregard for all
law which they show he said, was the
true and most dangerous anarchy.
1--WE have thus become" he said, "the
| most lawless and socially destructive of
civilized peoples, and this is so because of
our purely secular and individual concep
| tons of law. We do not need to throw
bombs to be anarchists. The open viola
ton of the interstate commerce law by
railway arrangements is anarchy. The
use of our legislative institutions for cor
porate private interests is national an
archy of fearful character and danger.
Our anarchists are among the politically
cunning and interruptions, the socially
strong and industrially powerful, the vic
torious competitors and spoilers of the
peoples substance, and the law itself is
their instrument of anarchy"
In concluding the speaker commented
freely in the unnatural state of governm ent
which places the rights of property above
everything else.
Among the audience was DIR. G. o. Brown,
who has been so active in opposing DR..
Heron during his stay here. He left i'm
mediately upon the conclusion of the lect
ure. About the attitude of DR.. Brown
toward him, DR.. Heron will say but this:
"Dr. Brown is undoubtedly very sincere
man, and thoroughly believes that what he
is doing is right and that he is doing God s