Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1921-02-14
The FUTURE RELATIONS OF The UNITED STATES
And ENGLAND AS seen BY DUKE CITY ATTORNEY

Auii teNt " Tue paper Ttdu btlHib
the meeting of the Ten Dons last
week by a. B. McMillen. prominent
Albuquerque attorney, and one Of
the Ten Dons.)
The subject assigned me in
wolves not what we might
wish, but forecast of the flu
ture, and that forecast must be
made not upon temporary condi-
tions, but judged largely from the
history of the respective peoples
and their inherent qualities. 1t de-
ponds largely upon their language,
their history, their customs their
laws, their conflicting interests.
"As a man thinketh in his heart,
so is he" and it might very well
be added that the thoughts of a
man depend largely upon the Lam
guage he speaks. Students of his
tory are well advised that most of
the misunderstanding that lead to
war are racial differences, and ra-
cial differences are largely the re-
suits of differences in language.
shall attempt to show what
the Unifed States and Great Bril-
tain have in common: a common
language, common laws, common
customs: and that these are not
accidental but are founded on the
very nature of the civilization of
the English-speaking people.
Our History Not Written.
Unfortunately for US we have
no history that is essentially his
tory of the American people. Our
histories begin as a rule with the
settlement of colonies and deal
largely with wars and statistical
facts. No historians of the United
States so far as l am aware have
ever dealt with the subject as
Stubs or Green have dealt with
the development of the English
people. When the history of the
American people is finally written,
It will not begin with the discovery
of America or its colonial settle
ments, or it's revolution against the
mother country, but will begin
with the Angles and Saxons not in
America nor even in England, but
in what is now called "Schleswig" O
district in the heart of the PENN
sula that parts the Baltic from
the northern seas. That little COM
munity was famous, not for any
material accomplishments; not be-
cause of wealth or prosperity; not
because of great thinkers or writ
ers, but because there was born
in them a great idea, an inherent
character and purpose; a belief
and practice of personal liberty; a
belief and practice in representa-
tive government. I say inherent"
advisedly, because l mean that the
principles of self-government
which they have developed through
the centuries were not the result
of theorists, but inherent princi-
pies implanted in them by the
Creator, from which they could
not escape.
Early English History.
The English historian, John
Richard Green, in his history of
the English people, describes this
little commonwealth as follows:
1.-THE military organization
of the tribe thus gave from
the first its form to the civil
organization. But the peculiar
shape which its civil organi-
= cation assumed was deter
mined by a principle familiar
to the Germanic races, and
destined to exercise a vast in
fluence on the future of man
kind. This was the principle
Of representation. The four
or ten villagers who followed
the reeve of each township to
the general muster of the hum
bred were held to represent the
whole body of the township
whence they came. Their
voice was its voice; their do
ing its doing; their pledge its
pledge. The hundred-moot,
moot which was made by this
gathering of the representa-
tives of the townships that lay
within its bounds, thus be-
came at once a court of APP
peal from the moots of each
separate village as well as of
arbitration in dispute between
township and township. The
judgment of graver crimes
and of life or death fell to
its share; while it necessarily
possessed the same right of
law-makiag for the hundred
that the village moot pos
sessed for each separate viii
lage: and as hundredm
stood above town-moot, so
above the hundred stood
the folk-moot, the general
muster of the people In arms:
at once war-host and highest
law court and general parlia-
ment of the tribe. But wheth-
err folk-moot or hundred
moot, the principle of repre-
sentatlon was preserved. In
both the constitutional forms,
the forms of deliberation and
decision were the same. In
each the priest proclaimed 81.
lence, the ealdormen of high
est blood spoke, groups of
freemen from each township
stood around shaking their
spears in assent and clashing
shields in applause, settling
matters in the end by loud
shouts of Aye and 'Nay'"
Again, the author says:
at is with reverence such
as is stirred by the sight of
ty river that one looks back
to these village moots of
Friesland and Schleswig. 1t is
here that England learned to
be a mother of parliaments;
it was in these tiny knots of
farmers that the men from
whom Englishmen were to
spring learned the worth of
public opinion, of public dis
cussion; the worth of the
agreement: the common sense;
the general conviction to
which discussion leads. as of
the laws which derive their
force from being expressions
of the general conviction. A
humorist of our own day has
laughed at parliaments as
talking shops, and the laugh
has been echoed by some who
n. fN.-