The Cordova daily times., 1922-07-20
THE AMERICAN IDEAL

The following address was given by the Hon. Guy D. Golf, Assistant to the Attorney
 General and was delivered before the National Law Enforcement Convention held in Wash
 ington, D. C., last December::
 ''The American ideal conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men
 are born with equal rights, is the most potent
 and moral ideal in all the world. All this coun- try needs is to be true to herself, and she will
 save and lead mankind. No one knows these facts better than the American citizen who thinks and reflects for himself. The future rests with us The fate of humanity may be in our hands, because democracy can save or destroy the world, The pleading voice of a war-torn world, checked with the sob of the
 ages, is lifted to us. It beseeches us, in the name of God in the name of charity, ill the name of freedom, in the name of justice, to be consistent, law abiding generous, and true, lest we, too, may go the way of the earlier na- tions And it is just at this point that l would emphasize hat the Republic needs men, God gifted men, of character, purity, vigor, and judgment It needs men to stand in the hard places and fight the hard battles It needs men to answer its questions and to solve it's prob lems. It needs men whose lives appeal to our intellect, arouse our ideals, and touch the best in all of us In short, this nation today needs men who are not afraid of the demagogues and the unprincipled politicians, who for self ish and sordid reasons tell the people that they are continually being cheated deceived
 and tricked, until confidence Is destroyed and honor always questioned. It needs men with initiative and convictions. It needs men who have ideals, and who rely upon them for sue cess It needs men who will not disturbe the public mind by teaching it to want. It needs men who will not disappoint the people with
 the promise of things they cannot have, and which they should not have It needs men who will always do the very best they can, just where and as they are; men with sufficient self -abnegation to permit their laboring in obscurity, smiling in diversity, and waiting in patience We have had altogether too much of leadership that sees in every public ques- tion or national law the opportunity to make the public subservient to its private personal interest. We must look to the young men of ideals, men yet unspoiled by the cynical touch of the sordidness of the world, men who have
 courage and are capable of tremendous sell sacrifice We should make it oar duty to ind such men among the mentally and spiritually voung Such men will proclaim and teach that American institutions and American law
 are the great bulwark behind which the fore es of liberty are intrenched, and that the Am erican Constitution is the outward and visible means by which the blessings of liberty have been secured. Such men will impose the prln- ciples of Americanism upon all newcomers,
 and defend those principles against all at tacks. Such men will do their work with en-
 thusiasm, not for gain, but because it is part
 of the plan Such men will quit their obliga- tions to the commonwealth, and render good
 account of themselves when the "Master of
 all good worl1-men" shall sum up their lives y
 Was the announcement that he was going