The Devils Lake world., 1922-01-18
CASES INVOICE
OF DEVILS Lake
SHOWS DEFICIT
IF MORALITY WERE FIGURED
IN DOLLARS, THERE'D BE
NO INCOME TAX
TO PAY.

A supreme disregard for the law
as a characteristic of these latter
days, was the text for the sermon by
Rev. P. H. Case at the Presbyterian
Church Sunday evening.
"Who is to blame" was asked and
answered by Mr.. Case. We are un-
able to give space to the entire SER
mon, but the quotations made shows
his line of argument, which we can
heartily endorse.
"The nations of the world are
standing, today in the afterglow of
the world war; They are all influence
ed by tremendous reaction from
those days Of emergency service and
sacrifice. During the war "Emer-
gency" was the key word to most of
our life and thought. Emergency"
called the honest and the heroic to
exemplify the highest type of splen-
did Americanism. Emergency" also
called the crooked and the dishonest
to prey upon these who were engaged
in winning the battles that saved civ
ilization. either upon the front line
of battle or upon the secondary lines
of faithful home endeavor and service.
To some Emergency" spelled an op-
portunity for great service; to others
Emergency" meant an opportunity
for "easy money" as in the case of
one business man Of this community
whom was told bought consign-
1nent of mems suits for 5000 a suit
and sold them for $65.OO suit. Then
the emergency passed. Those whom
1t had called to high endeavor laid
down their arms both actually and
figuratively. Those who had only
heard call to personal profit and
private gain carried on their little
war for their own agrandizement.
The swing of the pendulum set in and
the Reconstruction Period" was upon
us.
characteristic of these latter days
is supreme disregard of law. The
criminal classes are insolently bold
in their operations; and many Of
those who hitherto have been law
abiding citizens have been caught in
the whirlpool Of selfishness and find
it convenient to disregard the law.
This is especially true Of the Prohi-
bition laws. But do not forget that
the Prohibition law is not the only
law that is difficult to enforce at the
present time. We are living today in
a period disrespect for all law such
as this nation has never seen before
"First of all we must "take stock"
and see just where we stand. That
is just what the business men of the
country are doing today. I imagine
that the results of some Of the Janu-
ary inventories will cause many of
our business houses some bad half
hours. But they are necessary that
the business men may know just
where they stand. So with us; we,
too, must take stock. We must know
where we stand. And first of all we
must take an inventory of our own
hearts and lives. One thing that we
must not do is to lose our perspective.
Men are not divided into two classes
good or bad. We are too apt to
thus label our fellows and of course
We place ourselves on the "good"
class. Men are all good and bad.
There is world Of truth, too, in the
motto of the "Owls";-
"There is So much of good in the
worst of US,
And so much of bad in the best
of US;
That it scarcely behooves any of US,
To think i'll of the rest Of us"
We all know that no one has a
monopoly on those characteristics of
real manhood and womanhood such
as honesty, virtue, truth and respect
of law; nor are any of us entirely
free from the reverse of these virtues.
SO let US first search our own souls.
Are we all that we can and therefore
should be
"Then in the spirit of brotherlness
that was such an outstanding charac-
teristic of Jesus Christ we "take
stock" of life as it is lived in our own
community, for we are primarily re-
sponsible for the tone of that life,
Burke has said, "There never was
long corrupt government of vir-
tuous people," 1t is because that !
realize the truth of that statement
that l am trying to arouse the people
of this community to realization of
the extent of our community sin and
to sense of responsibility for it,
"Let us now proceed to stake
stock" of ourselves. We are not as
community upholding the law by
precept and example. Nor are we as
citizens demanding that the officials
of this community enforce the law.
was talking with professional mar
who has been active in the life of this
community for years. He said to me
-Mr. Case, it is no use, the people OF
this community do not want the law
enforced. l do not think that he is
right. I believe that down deep il
their hearts the people of this city dc
h.