Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-04-29
FEDERAL JURIST
| IN WARNING NOTE
Martin J. Wade, Of Iowa, in Address
Before Bluff Mems Club Points
to Danger Nation Faces.
SPIRIT OF REBELLION is MENACE
United States Must fall Ii Laws WOr.
thy of Enforcement and Respect
for Same are Not Forthcoming.

struggle upward through a drama OF
progress with bloodshed and war and
triumphant brute strength playing in
the foreground-wi last just as long
as there is a spirit Of submission to
law and faith in government among
the people.
And the greatest danger menacing
this republic today is the spirit of sup
pressed and smothered rebellion
which is constantly breaking out.
There is a constant reaching for the
unattainable on the part of an enor
nous portion of our citizenry today
the ideal Of reforming conditions and
reaching a goal, impossible in the
nature of human things, through a
revolution andsrecreation of govern
ment rather than through a direction
of their natural energies in constitu
tional channels, where their POSSIBLE
tiles for working betterment of con-
ditions would be unlimited.
These are the greatest dangers to-
day threatening the United States,
according to Judge Martin ]. Wade of
the federal court of Iowa, eX-member
of congress from that state, speaking
on Human Government" before mem
bers of the Moline Bluff Mems club and
their wives in the Second Congrega-
tional church last evening.
Our duty, therefore, if we truly
reverence the republic established
with ideals which had never been in
| corporated in the national creed Of
another power, is twofold, said the
Iowa jurist. 1t is:
! To see that the laws made for the
nation, the state and the lesser
! branches of government are laws
which ought to be enforced, and
To live with respect to those laws
and practice submission to them.
If these two things are done. there
is no doubt that the United States
will be a bigger, better nation, more
capable of bringing out all that is
best in humanity; if they are not,
| there is equally no doubt that the re-
public will join that long procession
of powers which have risen and then
fallen through internal dissension.
Judge Wade, in introducing his sub
/ ject of human government, carried
his audience back to the foundation
| of this nation upon the eastern coast
/ of the continent and showed how oul
| fathers then drew the curtain on the
past and started anew with what
| should truly have been, he said, an
ideal republic From this point, he
! carried his audience forward again to
/ the present time and then gave them
| a glimpse into the future. And yet,
| during the whole course of this trans
versal of history, brought out the
| theme of the two courses now open
what the nation may be if the highway
of lawfulness and respect is followed
and what there is a danger Of it being
! if an opposite course is followed.
! The responsibility for choosing
which way the government will travel
rests with the people OF the present
time. he said.
There is danger of our losing many
of the safeguards in love of law, he
said, through conditions of the age in
| which we live. 1T is an age of cul-
/ ture and refinement. knowledge is
! free" was the way he brought oui
the idea. We have studied all the
theologies and isms and yet there are
many things we don't know. Many
of the things we should know, W:
don't. OF 90,00O,000 people, $4,000,
600 think one way and 45,000,00t
another on the greatest problem:
upon which our future depends"
Law Enforcement Big Subject.
If there is any one subject upor
which misapprehension exists, it Il
the subject of law and its enforce
ment, said the federal judge Thu
law, lawyers and the courts have al
been so misrepresented that it is M
wonder there is a tendency to los'
respect for them.
But why have law? was his ques
ton. Law is the very order of things
Mans pathway is hedged by law
from the cradle to the grave, he said
because it is necessary to have som
visible expression of the order O
things.
And what is law? Law is the Sc
of simple rules of human condnc
that have grown up with the progress
of the human race and have becam
binding. If law rs sometimes com
pick, it is because of the complexit,
of human nature.
Law is necessary because all me,
are not equal, The declaration il
the Declaration Of Independence AM
in the constitution of the Unite,
States means that men are equal il
one place-before the law 1t is alb
surdity to say that all men are equa
mentally, physically and moral,
They are all members OF organized 50
ciety. however. and there must b
laws to restrict the bad man and pro
tect the good man. The laws them
selves in a democracy, are the crys
utilization of public opinion.
The future depends upon ourseIve
and the teachings of submission t
law to the children, was the conclud
ing thought. There can never be any
thing good accomplished throug