The daily commonwealth. (Greenwood, Leflore Co., Miss.) 1916-1919, 1919-04-08
Discusses At Length the
Covenant of League
of Nations.
SAYS MAJORITY
POLITICIANS GOOD
Urges the Laymen to
Stand Pat For the
Truth.

Congressman B. G.. Humphreys,
representative from the Third Dis
trlct, by special invitation, spoke to
a Greenwood audience here Sunday
night in the auditorium of the Epis-
copal church. The address was one
OF the most .guent and forceful
speeches whic s been made in
Greenwood IN rne,..y months. His ad-
dress follows in full:
Ladies and Gentlemen:
| have been invited to talk tonight
on the subject 'The duty of the lay
man to the Church." A broad sub
Ject, certainly, .and like the scrip
tIral cloak, broad enough to cover a
multitude of sinners. AS | am of
that particular sect of laymen, which
Is usually set apart, in public esti-
nation, as the one most lacking in
grace, l assume it will not be in
appropriate for me to talk about the
politician and comment somewhat
upon his duty to the Church. Most
men who hold public office and prac-
ticaily all men who are trying to es-
tablish that relationship to the public
exchequer, resent even the sugges-
ton that they are politicians con-
less that l have never understood
just why any public official, who had
honestly and earnestly endeavored to
faithfully discharge the duties of his
office, should object to being called a
politician By your partial judgment
and generous forbearance, l have been
holding political office for TWENTY
seven of the fifty-four years of my
life, and az our English cousins would
say Il still have hopes" During these
years | think few sane men could
nave made more mistakes than |
have. l have done many things and
cast many votes which, l think it
would be difficult now succes ssfully
to defend; but while there is much
IN the record that | might wish were
otherwise, while l may have regrets,
l am not conscious of any official act
of which l am ashamed. And nv
experience is not unique. | believe
public officials generally can truth
fully say the same thing. The fact is
l think politicians as a rule are
pretty good lot, and | make bold to
say that right here in this holy temple
and in the presence of all you church
people.
do not believe there are manv men
who are better qualified to speak.
advlsedly on this subject than l am,
because | have been thrown into in
innate association with politicians in
all the branches of the public service,
and my deliberate Judgment is that
the man IN an office of high RESPONSE
blllty, who betrays his trust deliber-
ately, is very rare.
l think the very highest evidence
CT the honeIty and general efficiency
of our politicians, is this government
OF ours, because It was framed and
has always been administered by
them; and under the providence of
God 1t has grown in a little more
than a century to be the first in the
family of nations, not only in physi-
cal strength and power, but also in
righteousness. The unhappy and dis
tracled peoples of all the world today
are looking to this government for
hope, and on their bended knees are
praying to the God Of Nations to give
to Our representatives at Paris,
strength and wisdom and courage, to
lead this blood-soaked world into a
lasting peace.
The criticism l would make cf our
public officials is not that they lack
in hone. ty, Or high purpose, or IN pat
rleti5m; l do not believe they do. My
observation Is, aad my experience too,
because l put myself in hodge podge
: with the rest of them, that the quality
which politicians most lack, is cour-
age.
The first duty in my opinion there
fore which this particular Class of
laymen owe the Church, is to be cour-
agecus. When l say duty to the
Church l mean the church in it's
>broadest significance, as the instru-
mentality, the organized agency for
Righteousness in this world What
a contribution to the ACCOMPLISH
ments of the Church, if all the Off
GERS of this county, and all the off,
GERS of this state, and of all the
other counties and all the other
states, and over and above this. if
all the congressman from ali the
states and the senators too, should
each turn out to be another valiant
fer truth. I darecay it has been many
years since most of you read Pill
grim's Progress, and you read it then
because your olnaay School, tes,c.l-
er made you read it, and not from
choice. The truth is, Bunyan did moi
write that book for children, he wrote
it for old sinners who could understand
it. But many of you still rem embe,
the story of Valiant for, Truth, and
how he fought for righteousness un.
til his sword cleaved to his hand, un.
til they were joined together as if the
sword grew out of his arm.
When / say courage, mean cour.
age, l do not mean mere boldness te
defy public opinion; to strut around il
utter disregard Of all right thinking
proclainiing that 81 am the master q
my soul' like Ajax defying tn,
lightning. have known lots Of dem
agogues to do that. That is not cour
age. that is sheer impudence.
mean the kipd Of courage that Wash