The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-04-22

Not long since a prominent educator
in an address to a normal school class,
said that there can be no liberty with
out law" Without consideration the ac-
crracy of the statement might be ques-
toned. but a few minutes examination of
the proposition will satisfy most people
that there can be no liberty. in the sense
that liberty in its broadest inter-
probation involves the security of
the individual and the pursuit of
happiness. without the structure OF law to
uphold it. Law defines liberty. The de-
velopment OF human freedom has kept pace
with the development of laws for the pro-
lection Of society. The contention of the
centuries has been for the establishment
of human rights by constitutions and laws.
The broadening of laws so as to give
greater individual security and more clear
ly defined rights goes to prove that law
is absolutely necessary to insure liberty.
1t follows that where the laws for the
security Of person and property are not
enforced liberty in the true sense does
laws breeds lawlessness, and lawless-
ness leads to violence. Whitecapism is the
result of nonenforcement of the laws
against those who violate them. The laws
being dead because of the faithlessness of
those selected to execute them. every mans
security, which is one of the fruits of lib
erty, is put in jeopardy. Sufferers finally
take the law into their own hands, and
vengeance, instead of justice. is melted out.
When one band of men can resort to meth
DDS outside the law. others can, and the
result is that terrorism prevails and lib
erty is destroyed This Is the headduar-
tiers of whtecapism," was the remark of
one abiding to locality in Indiana, land
life and property are not secure" On it's
face the locality bore the marks of that
insecurity which destroys thrift. Liberty.
I'm its fullest sense, is dead because the
laws which uphold it are dead letter
AS a people we make loud boasts of our
free institutions, of our liberties and of
our equal rights. So far as we abide by
the spirit of constitutions and laws, the
claim may be made, but when one reads
accounts of murderous assaults upon men
whose only offense is the earning of wages
without asking permission of others or
accepting conditions which conflict with
their personal liberty, he feels that some
thing is wrong. When inquiry is made
to ascertain the nature of the injustice,
he finds that the laws which are designed
to protect the individual in the rightful
pursuit of happiness are not enforced.
If the laws which guarantee the fullest
personal liberty and security were enforced,
no man would be driven from his employ
ment and assaulted If he should persist
in the exercise of his personal rights.
There is no tyranny more odious than that
which declares that a free man shall not
pursue an honorable vocation in a manner
which seems best to him. 1t is odious be-
cause Ii defies the first principles of law.
AT time when so much is said about the
Declaration of Independence as a theory,
would it not be we'll to devote some at
tention to an insistence upon the enforce
ment of laws adopted in its spirit-laws
which must be upheld and reverenced be-
cause upon them rests the structure of
human liberty?