Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-10-20

which is slowly working it's will upon
the world, and what we. should be
watchful of is not SO much jealous in
terests as sound principles of action.
The disinterested course is always the
biggest course to pursue not only, but
it is in the long run the most profit
able course to pursue. If you can es
tablish your character you can eStab-
lish your credit.
What l wanted to suggest to this as
sociation in bidding them very hearty
welcome to the city is whether we sufi-
GENTLY apply these same ideas to the
body of municipal law which we seek
to administer. Citations seem to play
much larger role now than principle
There was time when the thoughtful
eye of the judge rested upon the changes
of social circumstances and almost pal
pably saw the law arise out of human
life. Have we got to a time when the
only way to change law is by statute?
The changing of law by statute seems
to me like mending a garment with
patch: whereas law should grow by the
life that is in it, not by the life that
is outside of 1T.
Interpretation by a Lawyer.
Il once said to lawyer with whom
was discussing some questions OF
precedent, and in whose presence
was venturing to doubt the rational
validity at any rate of the precedents:
After all, isn't our object justice?
And he said: God forbid. We should
be very much confused If we made
that our standard. Our standard is
to find out what the rule has been
and how the rule that has been APP
piled to the cause that is" I should
hate to think that the law was based
entirely upon 'has-beens.' I should
hate to think that the law did not
derive it's impulse from looking for
ward rather than from looking back
ward. or. rather. that it did not derive
it's instruction from looking about and
seeing what the circumstances of man
actually are. and what the impulses
of Justice necessarily are.
Understand me, gentlemen. I am
not venturing in this presence to i'm
the force of circumstances 1 am In
part the embodiment of the law and it
would be very awkward to disavow
myself But I do wish to make this
intimation. that in this time of world
change, in this time when we are go
ing to find out just how. in what par
ticulars and to what extent the real
facts of human life and the real moral
worth while looking inside our munich
pal law and seeing whether the moral
judgments of mankind are made
ments of the law itself. For ne believe sdeE
that we are custodians, not of COM
mands. but of a spirit. We are Gus
todlans of the spirit of Righteousness,
of the spirit of eQual-handed justice,
of the spirit of hope which believes in
the perfectibility of the law with the
perfectibility of human life itself.
Belief in Beauty Of Human Spirit.
Public life. like private life, would
be very dull and dry matter If it were
not for this belief in the essential
beauty of the human spirit and the be-
lief that the human spirit could be
translated into action and into ordi-
nance. Not entire You cannot go any
raster than you can advance the aver
age moral judgment of the mass, but
you car go. at least, as fast as that.
and you can see to it that you do not
lag behind the average moral judg-
ments of the mass. 1 have in my life
dealt with all sorts and conditions Of
men. and have found that the flame of
moral judgment burned just as bright
In the man of humble life and limited
experience as In the scholar and the
man of affairs. And I would like his
voice always to be heard, not as a wit
ness, not as speaking in his own case,
but as II he were the voice Of men in
general, in our courts Of justice, as
well as the voice of the lawyers, re-
memoerlng what the law has been. My
nope Is that being stirred to the depths
by the extraordinary circumstances Of
the time In which we live we may re-
cover from those depths something Of a
| renewal of that vision of the law with
which men may be supposed to have
started out in the old days Of the
oracles, who communed with the init.
nations of DIVINITY