Evening star., 1927-11-10
Government Depends
On Judicial Tribunals
To the Editor OF The Star:

events coupled with repetition OF
past utterances are deemed to be
appropriate for the people to know in
order to give proper consideration to
and correct disposition of the pend
ing problems confronting law and
order in the Capital of the United
States.
II is not difficult to understand why
the fathers intrenched the right to
trial by jury in the Gupreme law of
the land. They regarded the recog-
milton and exercise of that right as
vital TO the protection of liberty
against arbitrary power
AS early as the reign of Henry VII
one Of the essential checks upon
royal power was that "the fact of
guilt or innocence on criminal
charge was determined in a public
court, and in the county where the
offense was alleged to have occurred,
bv a jury of 12 men, from whose
unanimous verdict no appeal could
be made"
1t is an interesting fact that the
first ordinance adopted by the Plym'
outh Colony in 1923 was one de.
cIaring among other things that "all
the verdict of II honest men to be
mpaneled by authority. in form of
a jury upon their oaths"-the trial
Judge of today having the discre-
tionary power and right to see that
persons of intelligence are accepted
as jurors.
The great object Of n trial by jury in
criminal cases Is to guard against u
spirit Of oppression and tyranny on
the part Of rulers, and against spirit
Of violence and vindictiveness on the
part of the people. Indeed. it is often
more important to guard against the
latter than the former.
The Government Of the United
States has been emphaticaly termed
government of laws and not of men.
If the law could lay no restraining
hand upon Congress. Congress would
no restraining hand upon the Presi
dent and the members of his cabinet
they would he despots.
1t Is because neither the President
nor Congress. nor the highest nor the
humblest citizen of the land. is either
above the restraints Or beneath the
protection of the law that ours is des.
tined to be the final form of govern
ment, as. Notwithstanding all its de-
fects. it is by far the best form of gov
ernment under which men have evtr
been permitted to live.
For of law in its widest sense, in
Guiding the process of evolution. not
only in the material universe. but in
the moral and spiritual universe as
we'll, the familiar words of Hooker are
always true: There can be no less ac-
knowledged than that her seat is the
bosom of God, her voice the harmony
of the world. All things in heaven
and earth do her homage, the very
least as feeling her care, and the great
est as not exempt from her power
John Marshall, when Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court of the United
States. said. II have always thought.
from my earliest youth till now that
the greatest scourge an angry Heaven
ever inflicted upon an ungrateful and
a SHINING people was an ignorant. d
corrupt or a dependent judiciary
Let us fervently hope no such curse
may ever be drawn down upon the
United States. In popular govern
ment like ours resting upon manhood
and womanhood suffrage. the forces of
the reserve i'm the army of civilization
must always he the judicial tribunals.
1t is upon them as our only refuge in
the days of evil fortune that our rights
to property, to liberty and to life
must in the last resort depend. and as
long as the plain people have undimin
ished confidence in the integrity and
impartiality of their judges and the
courts of the land. those rights will be
secure. but no longer.
We should recognize as literal prac
tical truth that. however we may
strive to persuade ourselves to the con.
trary. no nation ever has gathered or
ever will gather grapes Of thOrns or
figs from thistles: and. as the sense OF
separation OF the world In which we
are from the world whittier we are
going lessons day by day. we come at
last to believe with faith which
never can be shaken that the true mis-
sion of nations as of men is to pro
mote righteousness on earth: that new
friends are better for us than new
markets: that love is more elevatins
than hatred: that peace is nobler than
war; that the humblest human life is
sacred: that the humblest human
right should be respected.
1t is only by recognizing these
truths. which can never fail TO be true.
that our own beloved country can
worthily discharge the sacred mission
confided to her and maintain her true
dignity and grandeur. setting her feet
upon the shining pathway which
leads to the sunlit SUBMITS of the olive
mountains and taking abundant care
that every human creature beneath
her starry flag, of every color and
condition. is as secure Of liberty. of
justice and of peace is in the Repub-
lie of God.
WILLIAM MEYERHOFF.
-S-a~D~