The Kemper herald. (Scooba, Miss.) 1875-1908, 1907-05-16
The Submerged Individual
BY JUSTICE JOHN WOODWARD, of
the Appellate Division Of the SUI
preme Court of New York.

the Appellate Division of the SUI
preme Court of New York.
1t is undeniable that the despot, if
he be benevolent, can accomplish
more good than the divided and
myriad minded many. An unwise
and precipitate democracy can, on
the other hand, degenerate into that
worst of despotisms, an irresponsible
and selfish oligarchy which appro-
PIRATES all of the benefits and denies
every burden.
And such, it must be confessed, is
the present attitude of many of our
overgrown corporations. They have
been intrusted with the welfare of the
people, and have abused their trust
They have become pirates, where they
should have remained beneficators.
They have destroyed competition till
with monopolistic greed they have
robbed the public for their own en-
richment They have desecrated the
law, which is the conscience OF the
State. They have not remembered
what they should never have forgot
ten, that old admonition still to be
seen on church in Venice: around
this temple let the merchants law be
just, his weights true and his COW
enants faithful"
1t is well, then, that they should
be controlled and regulated. 1t is
time to drive the money changers out
80 10 nd tn c11hCti itnto FOR
the worship of gold the worship of
character.
On whom, then, shall our saliva
ton depend, if not upon the indi-
vidual? The many will never make
the attempt to regain their lost rights
unless they are led by man.
And the man will come. Comes
the crisis, he will not be found want
ing. There is always the great per-
sonality who shall lead his people out
of the wilderness to the promised
land. He may not be one of the
shining intellectuals, he may not be
one of those subtle and brilliant ad-
vocates that stand arrayed in behalf
of private interests against the cause
of the people; but he will have that
! quality of manliness which inspires
confidence.
Beware of those that provoke the
storm that they may reap the rain
bow.
If, then, those corporations which
have sprung like mushrooms from
the decay of public virtue reveal such
appalling defects, can we expect that
| the State, when it shall have become,
as many desire, universal corpora
| ton, will prove otherwise? Is not
| the danger in proportion to the size
of the mononoply? Will not such a
solution tend to crush that sense of
| individuality and that civic conscious
ness which is our sole refuge?
Society owes to each his oppor-
| tunity. 1t is the supreme duty of the
State to inspire ambition. To thwart,
| to limit, or to exclude by legislation
| the enterprise of the individual, is to
| deaden the worlds capacity for pro-
gress. To quench the spark of per-
sonality is to impoverish the whole
social organization.
To attempt by law, therefore, to
limit all men, irrespective of Skill
| endeavor or attainment, to common
wage would be as fatuous as it is
unjust. Personality, indeed, can be
subject only to the laws of nature
| Needless to say, the souls of men are
not amenable to statistics. You may
measure material results; you can
never calculate the aspirations of the
mind.
To bring about the readjustment
of social conditions many fastastie
remedies are proposed; but there
can be no panacea for political ills
The law never rises higher than its
source Our hope, then, is in the edu'
cation of the public through the in
iividual.
1t is for you and for me to decide
whether public opinion shall become
despotism The aim of democracy
is, take it, equality before the law
and to guarantee to each his persona
liberty = the liberty to be himself
| Wnen upon InlS Shall pe SupeIlAi
posed a burden of restrictions, hedg
ing the individual about with "thor
shalt" and "thou shalt not" ther
surely democracy will exist only IL
name. Every law, therefore, which
eneroaches upon your personal pre-
rogative as man and as citizen Il
usurpation of your individuality
To submerge the identity of the per
son in the mass is to destroy all pos
sibility for progress. This applies tt
us all. The ordinary man, indeed
may posses qualities far greater thai
those of the same nature in his more
distinguished brother, yet it is to thu
exceptional faculties Of the few tha
the world must look for it's advance
ment.
To give encouragement to person
ality, to kindle by opportunities fo1
reward the incentive to labor, and tt
nourish tenderly the progressive in
tellect, this should be at least one O.
| %lo nb;of formations of C0unrnmpnf