Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1923-06-01
URGES REGARD FOR
LAW BY AMERICANS
Harding Makes Appeal For
Better Citizenship
SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY
seeks Greater Personal Concern For
Welfare OF Country
Speaks At Con-
vention.
SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY

Washington.--In an appeal for
better citizenship, President Hard
ing called on the American people
as individuals to have respect foK
law in the interest of carrying out
the ideal of the preamble to the
Constitution, which set as one
aspiration of the republic the
establishment of justice.
The elaborate machinery of the
courts cannot insure justice, the Presi-
dent said. eff some individuals shall
strive for special privilege for them
selves. or seek to establish subtle
forms of injustice not specifically pro-
hibited by the letter of the law"
Mr. Harding's appeal for a more
law-abiding nation was delivered in
speech at the convention of the Ma
tional American Council, a good cit
izenship organization, which is soon
to begin new citizenship program"
of national scope.
The President said that the country
needs ito find a commanding and
dominating national interest" to re-
store the solidarity that existed dur
ing the war, and which, he asserted,
has been noticeably missing since
then.
In the preamble Of the Constitu-
ton, he said, "the fathers of the re-
public set forth the objective of this
great democracy. There is the chart
of our course. There is the inspira-
tion to every effort to make one and
all of us better citizens.
There is need to cultivate in every
citizen a sense of responsibility, OF
personal concern for the operation of
this mechanism (of state and national
law. The national ideal stated in the
preamble will be attained by us as a
nation in no greater degree than we
shall attain it as an aggregate Of indi-
viduals.
Consider one phrase in the pre-
amble to establish Justice In our
mechanism of government we have
set up an elaborate organization to
insure this; the Federal and State
judicial systems. But the courts can
not insure justice to all the commun-
ity if some individuals shall strive for
special privileges for themselves or
seek to establish subtle forms of in
justice not specifically prohibited by
the letter of law The task of the
courts will be slow, difficult, some
times impossible. unless citizens sub
ject to their jurisdiction are sincerely
desirous to do Justice and to see it
done in the affairs of day-by-day life."
The President said that it was a
common statement that democracy is
on trial.
Il have some misgivings," he said,i
about whether democracy is on trial,
but am very sure that in these times
1t Is experiencing a good many trials
Further, we will be quite safe in adj
that many Of the institutions
which have been set up in the hope
that through them the best aims Of
democracy might be realized are On
trial We will make no mistake If we
confess that the attitudes and conduct
Of many people who profess devotion
to democratic institutions are on trial.
There is much question Of ways
and means and institutions. but as to
the fundamentals. it certainly can be
said that never was our. country more
firmly committed to the broad ideals
and purposes of democracy. and never
before were so many other countries
and peoples seeking to establish like
Human society has never faced a
more complex or difficult situation,
and it is therefore. of first Importance
that all Americans be brought to
understand the underlying purposes of
this commonwealth. and to fix firmly
in their hearts the determination to
maintain institutions capable Of pro-
gressiye evolution and development,
along the lines of our fundamental
principles"