The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1909-06-19
"DOUNTO:
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In the House of Representatives,
Washington the other day Represen-
tative Frank NJ. Nye, OF Minnesota,
offered "a few general observations
on law and lawbreakers.' He said:
Il think sometimes this is civil
cation of property-property, proper
ty, nothing but property. We seem
to be buried and smothered at times
in vast production and vast wealth,
and to forget the inner and essential
life, both of the individual and OK
the nation.
The belief that a nations life is
existent in these material things Is
an illusion. 1t matters not what vast
commerce may move upon the land
or blossom on the sea; how abundant
are the opportunities of wealth-so
much so that all men become intoxi-
Gated if you will-still, if we forget
the principles Of humanity and good
will to men, and forget the basis and
foundation of this Republic, we are
doomed.
I'VE have ever boosted and profess
ed to be a Christian nation. Inc
real and permanent expression OF this
great law is the expression OF unity,
of the relation of all things, and OF
one common brotherhood. All Is one.
The leaf at the top of the tree may
look down to the rootlet far under
the earth and say. we are one The
spark struck from the miners nam
mer down in the chambers OF night
may flash out to the great sun and
say. we are one The little lake
hidden in the crevice of the mountain
may look over to the vast sea and
say. We are one;' continents and ISL
ands are all of one mother earth, wash
ed by one common sea; all is one.
And if we come to the blind and
selfish commercial world in which
we live we find, in spite OF, all, we
have to, in some degree, obey this
great law which compels us to rec
ognize our neighbor.
"The farmer plows and sows 10
feed the thousands he will never see;
the miner tolls down in the chambers
of night to enrich those he will new
er see: the sailor climbs the mast
above the waves to protect the lives
of those on board whom he does not
know: the physician hurries to the
bedside of the sick and dying strang-
er with the fidelity of a friend; the
lawyer pleads the cause OF the out
cast, of the vicious, aye, of the GRIM
inal. whose deeds he cannot approve,
with a fidelity born of the ethics az
his noble profession; the clergyman
breaches and prays for saint and SIN
ner alike; the mother gives her life
for her family and her children; the
father wears out his body and his
years in their support; armies OF toll
ers go to their work before the sun
rises, and return at night, obedient
to the law that man cannot live to
himself alone.
This is the supreme edict it seems
to me, of this great law-the law OF
unison. Now, who are the law-break-
ers?
"In my practise in the profession
spent most of my years in the GRIM
inal side of the court, prosecuting or
defending, mainly in prosecution. |
studied the law somewhat, but l have
studied more the ethical foundation
of our criminal law, and have come to
the conclusion that all crime, its last an
alysis is the effort Of the individual
to live to himself alone. Whether
they be crimes of malice and hate
and revenge, avarice or lust, or what
ever class, in the last analysis. from
the smallest criminal to the greatest,
he simply disobeys the great primary
law, the law which we profess is the
fundamental law of this American Re-
1mbic-to do unto others as we would
be done by."-From Speech OF Repre-
sentative Nye.