Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1907-02-27
PERIL in PUBLIC UNREST.


patriots, gave significant warming
on the tendency toward hasty and
unwise legislation against corpora
tions, in an address on Washington S
birthday before the Sons of the Ameri-
can Revolution. Among other things
he said:
In the intentions of the fathers of
the republic political liberty was to
be the guardian and the protector of
civil liberty. Civil freedom, the
right to ones own self, to the use of
ones own faculties of mind and of
limb, is SO sweet, so precious to each
one that, it was to be expected, it
would ever be held sacred, and never
yielded up, unless in obedience to
highest duty toward the whole body
politic. And yet, is there not some
peril to civil liberty from political
liberty-at least from what may be
allowed to call the exuberance, the
riotousness of political liberty?
AS matter of fact, we have too
many laws. our legislatures are too
anxious to increase the bulk of the
statute book. AS things are tending
we shall soon have so many laws,
that, wrapt around. as it were. by
serried mail, we shall become pri-
soners, forbidden to stir or to walk.
The mania for legislation frequent.
ly shelters itself under the name of
moral reform. Far be it from me to
oppose prudent legislation in the bet
terment of morality. when crime is to
be punished, natural rights to be safe
guarded, great and wholesome mea-
sure in the interest of the public veal
to be supported But far be it from
me also to uphold the moral legisla-
tion, which at best promises no re-
suits to compensate for the abridg-
ment of public civil liberty, which
assumes to so cover the ground of
morals that no room remains for the
free willed action of conscience,
which. by it's pettiness and narrow
ness annoys and irritates and defeats,
rather than assists, the very purpose
it proposes as its justification.
Today another form of legislative
mania arises from the industrial rest
lessness into which our times have
brought us. Here, again. let there
be laws to punish injustice, and
wrongdoing--injust ice and wrong
doing on every side, whether on that
of the weakling or the strong. on
that of the laborer or of the capital
ist. Let there be laws wisely reach
ing out to the encouraging of social
peace and of social prosperity TO the
bidding nigh of the fair vision of
legitimate democracy, equal in.
dustrial rights for all. equal oppor-
tunities for talent and for energy.
But, let us be OH our guard, that in
the pursuit of Justice we do not bring
on injustice, that in coveting social
prosperity we do not encounter social
disaster and chaos. And above all
other things, let us be sure to despoil
ourselves of all throbbings of envy,
jealousy, hatred in our clamorings
Tor industrial legislation. There is
in the land today the delusion that
to build up one class naught else is
needed than to pull down another
and there is growing up among us a
hatred of success in others. however
much that success may have been the
reward of most praiseworthy effort.
That accommodations of capital, cor
porations, trusts, may have their
faults and may need 10 be watched
over by the state with diligence and
care shall not deny But this much
do deny-that accumulations of
capital and corporations are to be pre-
judged as guilty; that men having
part in them are to be deemed almost
as without right to work, without
right to fair play, which is the native
dDDdudSt Vi ali <Autt VII
L deny-that all men are equally
talented. equally farseeing, equally
Industrious ;thar consequently all are
more or less entitled to an equal pos
session of wealth or an equal il-
dustrial reward. This L deny-that
men, being as they are by nature ana
habit, society can ever be without it's
rich and its comparatively Door; that
American industries aud enterprises
can ever thrive and hold their own
in worldwide competition without
there being here and there. minister
ing to its needs, large accumulations
of wealth, and consequently large
gatherings of men into associations as
contributors to this wealth "
No Hog in His.
liz happened in a crowded street car
The Rabbi Hirsch had Just arisen to
give his seat TO a young woman, but
before she could take it burly Young
fellow slid into it, The Rabbi looked
meaninglv at him, after an uncom-
Portable silence, the young fellow
blurted out: "Well. what're you