The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1922-08-12
Coolidge Addre5ses
BarAssociatiou


San Francisco Apgs 4 Vice Pres
lient cooiidgs Rddreesing the Amer
ican Bar assacietio4 .hses .tonighs, de-
clared, "it':is time 10 :aupplement the
appeal to law, wbXh is. Hyaited. WITH.
an appeal to thst Writ of the people,
which is unlimitas}N
mo reliance upch the national char.
acter has ever been betrayed" the
Vice-president asberted. "But our
countrymen must iemember that they
have and can havesno dependence save
themselves. Odrsinstitutions are their
institutions. Our Eovernment is their
government Our laws are their laws.
IL is for them to enforce, support and
obey. If in this they fail l,there are
none who can suceeed.o
Asserting thar the supreme coult
"has stood as the guardian and pro-
tector of our form OF government, the
guarantee of the perpetuity of the
constitution, and above all the great
champion of the. freedom and the lib
erty of the people," Mr. Coolidge, re-
ferring % the prppesai rto-give con-
gress power. totamake; .yalid by. reen-
actment law declared upconstitu-
tional by the supreme court declared,
"Such a provision would smake the
congress finallyssupreme.. In the last
resort its powers practically would
be unlimited, This weuld be to do
away with the great main principle of
our written constitution, which re-
CARDS the people as sovereign, and the
government as their agent, and would
then make the legislative body SOW
ereign and the people it's subjects. 1t
would, to an extent, substitute for the
will of the people, definitely and per.
manently expressed in their fritten
constitution the changing and uncer-
tain will Of the congress. That would
radically alter our form Of govern
ment and take from it it's chief guar
antee of freedom"
Citing the child labor law decision,
the vice president pointed. out that
"should the people desire to have the
congress pass laws relating to that
over which they have not yet granted
to it any jurisdiction, the way is open
and plain to proceed by amending
the constitution.
Citing the growing multiplicity Of
laws" which he ascribed partly to
"the increasing complexity of ad-
vancing civilization' and in part to
"the attempt to raise the moral stand
ard of society by legislation" he said
the spirit of reform is altogether en-
couraging' but" there needs to be a
better understanding of the province
of legislative and judicial action" and
a "wider comprehension of the limi-
tations of the law"
"There exists, and must always ex-
ist," he said, "the righteous authority
of the state. That is the sole source
of the liberty of the individual, but it
does not mean an inquisitive and of
ficious intermeddling by attempted
government action i1cciaf he affairs of
the people. There e. s.. Justification
for public interferJace with purely
private concerns"
Mr.. Coolidge compared the trend
"for the better part of century
which "the early amendments were ali
in diminution of the power of the gov
ernment and decaratory of an en-
iarged sovereignty of the people," and
the movement "in the opposite direc-
tion' during "the past 80 years" from
the interstate commerce act of the
late eighties to the recently enacted
maternity aid law.
"This has not been accomplished
without what is virtually a change
in the form, and actually a change
in the process, of our government" ne
declared, adding that it had proceed
cd "on the theory that it would be for
the public benefit to have government,
to greater degree. the direct action
of the people" In this change, he
said, "some of the stabilizing safe
guards" originally established "have
been weakened" and "the representa-
tive element has been diminished and
the democratic element has been in
creased, but it is still constitutional
government"
"It is not sufficient to secure legis-
lation' for promoting general reform
or rejecting "the raising of the gen.
eral standard of human relationship"
he continued, "and leave it to go
alone" A renewed and enlarged de-
termination to secure the observance
and enforcement of the law, is requir-
ed, he declared.
"There can be no perfect control cf
personal conduct by national legisla-
tion," he added. "Tbe people cannot
divest themselves of their really great
burdens by undertaking to provide
they shall hereafter be borne by the
government"