The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1922-04-08
PRESIDENT HARDING
SPEAKS PROPHETICALLY-


SPEAKS PROPHETICALLY-
If prophetic utterance was ever
INDUCED, President Harding gave it
voice in the course of a recent dis
course before his church associates
in Cavalry Baptist church in Wash
ington, d. C. 1t is a distinct testi-
monial and one of very high order
that the chief executive senses SO
keenly the significance of the pres
ent trend of the public mind to dis
regard law and law enforcement in
this country and all people counting
patriotic impulse will agree with his
conclusion that the conditions men,
ace the continued existence of the
great American union of states.
The sweet never-minds put for
ward by millions of people relative
to the enforcement of the Volstead
act are only an incident in the
general unconcern about law en-
forcement. Had the Volstead act
been enacted quarter of century
ago it would have been enforced,
because law enforcement was a
phase Of the period, but what has
happened to this act is also happen
ing to other laws, federal, state and
city. People have come to hold
statutes in conflict with their
notions of propriety in supreme
contempt and the state of mind
forms a dark cloud on the horizon
that may well give concern.
The street corner carper talks
most about the dry laws because it
is the dry laws and their provisions
that he knows most about. He
does not know that a great number
of his fellows throughout the coun-
try are industriously engaged in de-
feating the purpose of the country's
revenue laws, but this is exactly
what they are doing. He does not
know that additional numbers of
his fellows are engaged in SNUG
Cling contrabrand goods into the
United States in order to acquire
the profits that accrue from such an
ihcSdi dSI. ilc uoco not hloW any
thing about the general disposition
to defeat the fundamental purpose
of all law enactment, but this dis
position surely exists.
For this reason the declarations
of President Harding will do a
great deal of good because they will
command the respect and attention
due the chief executive of the coun-
try. From out of it all arises the
conclusion that the United States is
fortunate indeed to have a man as
their leader of the type of the presi-
dent, whose clarity of mind and
patriotism are unquestioned. His
comment is as follows:
at is absolutely essential to
the maintenance of a secure
society and to the attainment
of a proper moral plane that
the law should be recognized as
sacred and supreme. 1t should
have at its back, and enlisted
in its support, every element
of the community that realizes
the desirability of sound, Sc
cure and stable institutions.
Disregard of one statute inev-
itably must breed a lack of
respect for the law in gener-
al. This tendency is obvious,
and ought to give the deep
est concern to people who
have seen, in this world, the
fearful results that may flow
from the breakdown of re-
spect for the social funda-
mentals.
Whatever breeds disrespect
for the law of the land, in any
particular department of our
community relations, is force
tending to the general break
down of the social organiza-
ton. If people who are known
/. as leaders, as directing influ-
ences, as thoroughly respected
and respectable members of So
ciety, shall in their respective
communities become known for
their defiance Of some part of
the code law, then they need
not be astonished if present
ly they find that their example
is followed by others, with
the result that soon the
law in general becomes to
be looked upon as a set of
irksome and unreasonable re-
straints upon the liberty Of the
individual.
Our only safety will be in
intoxicating an attitude of
respect for the law as, on the
whole, the best expression
that has been given to the
social aspiration and moral
purpose of the community.