Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1915-03-23
ATTORNEY GENERAL
COSS0N'S ADDRESS
Speaks Under Auspices Of the Mems
League of the Congregational
Church.

s Attorney General Geo. COsSO1
spoke Sunday night at the 'Congre
gational church under the auspices
of the mems league of that society
Good music, large attendance and
an interesting address made the oc-
casion one well worth while. Mr.
Cosson spoke on the subject of JUS
tice and law enforcement, his re-
marks being based upon the scrip
tural text-"Do justice, love mercy
and walk humbly before thy God"
Following is brief extract from his
address:
Our Declaration of independence
with it's doctrine of equality and our
articles of confederation were insult
ficient upon which to found a great
nation. The constitution was neces-
sary upon which to base nationality
and the very first object and condi-
tion upon which to build great civ
ilization and great nation as stated
in the preamble of our constitution is
the establishment of justice. eve,
the people of the United States, in
order to form a more perfect Union,
establish JUSTICE" ETC., that is the
basis, the foundation, the corner
stone upon which to build sovereign
ty, empire or nationality, and all
that is implied in the word "civiliza-
ton" Justice-political, social and
industrial; justice-local, municipal,
state, national and international. In
spite of the conflagration in Europe,
internecine war and anarchy in
Mexico, labor disturbances in Colora-
do and Michigan, and the hordes of
the unemployed in every city of the
United States demanding work, if not
work, bread, the demand and mean
ing of the age is justice.
We are in transition period.
Municipal, township, county, state,
and even our national government
was conceived upon the lines OF pi-
oneer day. The transformation OF
our population from rural to urban
and the miraculous changes wrought
by labor-saving machinery, with
resultant change of individual into
corporate ownership, has introduced
problems undreamed of by our fore
fathers. Problems in local govern
ment, in law enforcement, in the
conflict between state and interstate
commerce, the proper share which
labor shall receive and bear in the
profits and losses of industry, the
problems incident to transportation
and distribution, our duties to other
people and to other natiOns-these
problems, the most complex in the
history of the world, require states
manship of the highest order. Keen
insight, broad sympathies and a
sense of fairness must underlie all
our actions.
Ill " any 'i
equality or cure any evil, the first
suggestion is for additional legisla
tion.
The American people have an
abiding faith in the efficacy of legis-
lation as a means of curing all social
evils. There has been vague but
deep-seated conviction among our
people that if law covering a par
ticular subject matter was once plac-
ed upon the statute books, the evils
sought to be remedied would be elm
mated and the problems solved.
Senator Root in his address before
the American Bar Association calls
attention to the fact that according
to account made in the Library Of
Congress our national and state leg
islatures passed 62,014 statutes dur
ing the five years from 1909 to 1913
inclusive. This mania for legislation
seems to be on the increase for ex-
pl AT loi tiS
statement that during the last four
years $4,000 statutes have been pass
ed by our national and state legisla-
lures.
The result of these miscellaneous,
ill-considered, carelessly drawn stat
utory laws has caused us to realize
that it is not so much additional leg
islation that we need as it is a whole
some respect for law and wise,
fearless, judicious enforcement of
law The very basis of justice and
the beginning. of the elimination of
crime is a wholesome respect for law
and the enforcement of law.
We have become so accustomed to
hearing and reading of crimes
against both property and persons