The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-02-27

ened and enhanced IN VaIue Win tne
passage of time. OF these the con-
stitution of the United States is one,
is something that is too seldom even
in mind, particularly OF the younger
generation, of the men and women who
are more oraless active in the affairs
of the present. The constitution is
something so old that they fail to re-
alize its Importance and its value.
It is well, therefore, that one who
has lived through many years OF the
time in which the fundamental law
of our country has functfoned, one
who still lives, revered and respected
for his preeminence no less as a cit
izen of the United States than as an
ecclesiastical parsonage of world wide
renown, it is we'll, we repeat, that a
man of such prominence as James
Cardinal Gibbons should call atten-
tion. in the, rnasterful way that is his
t othe constitution and what it stands
for.
To the generation now about to en-
ter upon the duties of citizenship,
male and female, as well as to those
Of maturer years, Cardinal Gibbons
brings the constitution fthc United
States as something old but all the
more to be appreciated because it
stands as the greatest safeguard of
human liberty ever erected by man
kind.
In the opening paragraph of the
copyrighted article which Cardinal
Gibbons hes given to his fellow citi-
zens, through the Metropolitan Pub
fishing company and the Baltimore
Catholic Review, he states IN few but
comprehensive words his estimate of
the strength and value of this funda-
mental law of the land, saying:
CAS- the years go by am more than
ever convinced that the constitution
of the United States is the greatest
instrument OF government that ever
issued from the hand of man. Drawn
up in the infancy Of our republic, and
amid the fears and superstitions and
oppositions of many patriotic men, it
has weathered the storm periods of
American public life, and has proved
elastic enough to withstand every
strain put upon it by partS spirit
western development, worldwide i'm
migration, wars little and great, far
reaching social and economic changes,
inventions and discoveries, the growth
of individual wealth and the vagaries
of endless reformers. That within the
short space of 100 years we have
grown to be great nation, so much
so that today the United States is
rightly regarded as the first among
the nations of the earth, due to the
constitution, the palladium Of our lib
critics and the landmark in our march
of progress.
The man, the citizen, who wrote
these worlds is what the world terms
an old man. But Cardinal Gibbons
is only old in years, shaving been born
in 1884. He is just as young and Wig
orous in intellect as in the earlier
days of his remarkable career. What
he says now is all the more valuable
because 1t is enriched by experience
such as comes to but few. men, how
ever prominent. He, for instance. has
known personally all the chief Justices
OF the supreme court of the United
States, they upon whom devolves final
decision of all constitutional questions
He may be said, therefore to have
first-hand knowledge of the interpre-
tation and enforcement of the provis-
ions of the constitution which. as
above quoted, he designates as "the
greatest instrument of government
that ever issued from the hand of
man"
And is not this designation such as
to make all Americans, and those who
desire to become citizens of.this coun-
Try desire to know explicitly what
this instrument is and to abide by if
and under its protection as by and
under none other of human promul-
cation?
1t is well, therefore, that from this
aged man there comes a call. to those
OF his fellow citizens who are young-
er' TO reverence and respect that law
on the land upon which has been rear
ed the structure of a nation praates+
among those of the earth, and where
oy IS the greatest guaranty of free
aom under the law that mankind eva
has had.-Times- Union.