The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1921-03-17

nVe RnOQe lSldnQ IeuS are set VI ue
received.
service, you never saw leader who
was not great servant, and the
greater the service rendered the great
er the honor. No man has tie right,
nor can he maintain his position of
leadership until he has convinced those
who acknowledge his leadership in the
performance IF the duties that de-
volve upon him. Therefore, the great
er service you render, the greater the
people are indebted to you en- account
of your position. You are the ex-
ponent of the best in the county. You
stand for law and order; for decency;
for education; for the best in the
home life, in the community life and
in the county and state life.
You are the expo1entS, the repre-
sentatives, of the best thought, and
the highest ideals of your people, and
when you go out in the discharge Of
your duties, you will have before you,
that wereever you go in the perform
ance of your duty, you are the en-
bodiment Of the highest citizenship,
so that yhen you lay down your duties
next year, you can feel, and the peo-
pie can feel, that the county is better
off that you have advanced it in high
thought, high morals, high conception,
and noble ideals, so that you will hand
down to the next grand jury better
government.
Now, your county government here
and your people, represent the PRO
duct of the ideals and thoughts and
actions of the pepole. Whatever gov
ernment you have here is wat you
make it, and the people that have
preceded you, and you have no better
government than the ideals of your
people. You have just such govern
ment as the ideals of your people re-
quire. If the standard is high, and
your officers live up to that standard,
and your people support them in it,
then you have efficient and enlight-
ened government. If your ideals are
low and your conception of outy is
low and small, and there is laxness
in the administration of the affairs,
and consented ard winked at by your
people, then your government will be
lax, and the protection of your people
will be insucure. Therefore, the ques-
ton is, what are the ideals of your
people? WE:t are their conceptions
of the rights of citizens with refer
ence to the community and with ref
crence to others. We claim, under our
system of government that every mar
is entitled to work out his own desti-
ny in his own way without let or hind
rance from others. That is true, Mr..
foreman, and gentlemen, provided, in
the exercise of those rights, he does
not encroach upon the rights of others.
Every man has the right to the ac-
quirement and possession of proper
ty and to work out his career in his
own way, but he has no right, in the
exercise of these rights, to go beyond
the law and invade the riSSits of
others. When he goes beyond the law
and encroaches upon the rights OF
others, then that is license and not
liberty. He becomes law-b-eaker
and not gced citizen. We have
evolved our government through the
years and centuries past. We believe
in the protection Of our property and
the enjoyment of our liberty; of what
we call inalienable rights. That is
guaranteed, or is supposed to be guar
alteed to US, by our constitution, the
enjoyment of liberty, the protection
of your person, home, property,-in-
alienable. Therefore, we have laws
constitution, statutes, common law, to
protect these rights. Now, most men
accede to that proposition and under
take to live under these laws, but there
is a certain percentage of people who
do do observe the rights of others.
These are what we call the lawbreak-
ers.
In my judgement, the greatest work
that we can Go t. ouVcolntry and to
onr fel,oTr1an is to bring about con-