Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-02
OBSERVE WISCONSIN
DAY AT EXPOSITION
BADGERS, CELEBRATE WITH A
FINE PROGRAM
Former Assemblyman Levi H. Bancroft
Discusses Iconocastic Doctrines
and So=CaIled Abnormal
Tendencies of Reform

SEATTLE, Wash, Sept. There
are $4,000 former Wisconsin people res
ident in the state of Washington, of
whom 11,000 live in Seattle, according
to statistics gathered recently by the
Wisconsin club of this city, which di-
rected today's celebration of Wiscon-
sin day at the Alaska Yukon-P Pacific
exposition.
There was general assembly of
Wisconsin people this morning at the
head of the Cascades, then a basket
picnic at Lakeside park.
In the afternoon there were speeches
and music in the Auditorium. Pres
ident j. r. Chilberg of the exposition
welcomed the Wisconsin people, as did
Governor Marion e. Hay of Washing
ton, a former resident of Wisconsin.
The orator Of the day was Levi H
Bancroft, speaker of the Wisconsin
assembly and former state senator.
Judge Bancroft said in part:
"This is an age of strange creeds,
engendered by selfishness and fostered
by credulity, and it is perhaps
natural condition of our social evolu-
ton that untutored egotism should
proclaim a new political dispensation
and seek to impose its revolutionary
theories upon society.
1.-THE fundamental laws of society
cannot be safely altered to meet con-
ditions, but conditions may be changed
to meet constitutional requirements
Justice Retarded
Assaults upon courts and tribunals
and ministers of justice can never as
sist, but they may seriously retard the
administration of justice. The super
heated and abnormal sentiment OF an
oVerwrought proletariat is as danger
GUS and as far removed from the calm
level of judicial impartiality as big
otry and fanaticism are removed from
the tents of the golden rule.
Indifference to questions of great
public interest and concern Is a de-
plorable condition on the part, of the
large proportion of American citizen
ship, but it Is not as dangerous to the
administration of justice or the per-
petuity of republican institutions as
that frenzied zeal which is born of
passion and prejudice and which, re-
gardless of precedent or condition,
sweeps before it every barrier to the
accomplishment of its will.
''It is not the province of courts to
listen to the clamor of the excited pop
ulace or to render their decisions in
conformity with the sentiments of the
passion blinded degenerates and SEN
sation mongers who crowd the court
rooms.
"These sorry experiments in govern
mental affairs which make of patriot
ism an exile, which destroy faith in
men and which tend to create a NOR
bid public sentiment, which looks upon
the man who holds a public trust as
a suspicious character and upon every
successful business man as a criminal,
are more dangerous to the public peace
and to the perpetuity of republican
institutions than are the armed enc
mics of the republic.
Enemies of Freedom
'DThat insidious hypocrite who, seek
ing notoriety, creates prejudice by
inciting men against their fellow men,
who plays on human credulity and
passion for self-seeking purposes, is
an enemy of free institutions infinitely
more dangerous than the brazen type
which plants it's red banners in the
open places and breaches its doctrines
Of shame and ignorance in open de-
fiance of the laws of society," for, in
its final analysis, liberty is a condi-
ton of the public mind.
"What this country needs today is
to purge its national life of every stain
of pretense and moral ostentatlon;
what it needs to give it* life and i'm
mortality is not a change in its or
ganic law, but a return to fundamental
principles. 1t needs an exemplifica-
tion in civic life OF that patriotism
which tested the manhood of the ma
ton in that hour which tried mems
souls. 1t is not a lust for glory or
emolument. 1t is that absolute re-
nunciation of self which identifies the
Individual with the glory of the nation.
''We need in public life men with less
hvsteria and more thought; men With
less selfshness and more of justice;
men with less knowledge of war power
and more knowledge of the power of
peace and righteousness"