The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1908-01-11
. . . . y . =
; THE CURSE OF =
, THE COUNTRY. =
, N o. Times-Democrat. Z
. ~>%~~%>>><<~>>>s

/ The American who listens to fad
] d1StS OF the various schools viii be
/ in the case of the Vale4udinarian who
reads many medical books and will
come to believe the nation to be sick
with all the ills that the body polite
; is heir to. The prohibitionist will tell
him that the drink traffic Is the core
F! or the cancer; the hater of corpora
tons will swear that predatory capital
/ Is the chief foe to be overthrow:
the captain of industry will protest to
high heaven that the ignorant legisla-
| tor is the main architect Of ruin
| There is, of course, a modicum of
truth in each and all of these views:
! but the prime cause of the disease
| lies deeper by far.
The world-poet says that zone touch
OF nature makes the whole world KIM"
and it may likewise be said that one
bond unites all the foes of the peo-
pies peace. The magnates of the
trusts, the traffic managers of the
railways, the incendiary tobacco farm
ers Of Kentucky, the anarchistic min
/ ers of the west and their no less an
archistic employers have that in COM
mon, that they care not for law. ex-
cept as it may be made to subserve
their own selfish ends. Nay, more; the
practical paralysis of our courts has
its root in the same stunted ideal. No
! where do we find that the common
! --ToSith smites criminals of high and
low degree, with stern impartiality. It
is not correct to say that the Ameri-
can is lawless by nature; for the races
from which he springs long ago lifted
their civilization to the lOftier plane
Unhappily, there is in the atmosphere
something that dwarfs our concept of
government and makes the official a
mere eater of taxes. Thus it happens
that we are forever battling with
some subtle despotism which lacks the
efficiency of despotisms beyond the
sea,
What was it that made Rome so
mighty of old, that makes the British
empire so solid today? Why is it that
the ideas of Napoleon prevail in the
France of the twentieth century? On
what does the power of the HohenzoI-
lern house primarily rest? The answer
is plain The Roman had faults too
obvious for comment; but the Pax Ro-
mana, beneath which the subject my
rfads toiled and accumulated in abso-
lutte quiet, was a glorious atonement
for the shortcomings OF the Eternal
City. No matter how corrupt or nerve
less the autocrat by the Tiber hap
pened to be, his proconsuls and procu-
rators held the scales of justice exact
throughout the vast realm which rest
ed beneath the shadow of the eagles
wings. The Briton is safe In body and
estate whether he live within sight
of st. Pauls dome or have his habi-
tat beyond the equator. Pax Britain
MICA is a force which none Is too
proud to Withstand, which none is
too humble to lack. SO, too, the French
man and the German know that a de-
cree issuing from Paris, or Berlin, is
valid from frontier to frontier. Admin
istrations come and go, statesmen rise
and fall, but the majesty of law sur
wives all changes of personnel. With
US, on the contrary, constitutions,
charters, and judicial judgments
quickly become waste paper We have
the shadow, but not the substance, of
freedom.
How is it that we Americans have
been shOrn, or have shorn ourselves,
of civilized mans most august her
itage? Many explanations of the par
adOx may be given, but most of them |
are too idle to get a serious hearing |
Perverse lawyers may have done much |
TO cut the sinews of the tribunals, but |
they cannot have done all-for law |
yers are, at their best or their worst, |
but creatures of the general con-
science. Then, again, judges and |
juries may be the fountains of de- |
Element, but they cannot be the |
source. When we mount to the high |
er levels, we find that It is not the |
preacher, but the congregation, that |
Is false in doctrine and sIothfui in
deed. We are thus, by irrefra gible |
logic, driven to admit that the seat of |
the disease is to be sought in the /
home and the school. The present gen.
Grafton is nl-mannered, which is but
another way of saying that it is law
less-for bad manners simply crystal
lie the belief that others have no
rights worthy of regard. Effective re-
form must, therefore, begin at the>i
fireside. Children should be taught /
that they must be as slow to infiict
wrong, as they are quick to resent it.
The mob must be shown that single
policeman has the might of an army
behind him. The greedy corporation
must be coerced into obedience, by a
process no less sure than death and
taxes. The rebeilious farmer and the |
rebellious artisan must be put down,
without stopping to count the cost
Between law and anarchy there is no
middle ground and the boundless
wealth of a continent will not COM
pensate for the moral chaos in which
we are living. Indeed, the splendor of
our outward garb does but serve to
make more squalid the tatters we