The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-07-18

prosperity to invention and discovery, to the steam
engine. the telegraph, the cotton gin to railroad
biIdingto the winning of the west to the horseless
carriage the airplane the radio; to building sky
scrapers and bathtubs and the multiplication Oh
human wants; to making the luxury OF one year the
necessity Of the next TO -productlon 70 anuSe-
ments football games with 10000 in attendance. prize
fights al $40 a seat baseball and Babe Ruths, the
movies and Holywood-to all the multitude OF allure
ments that gather in young and growing and care
free country to which that elemental thing called
Justice had been assured forever.
And so it came to pass that justice, the subject
which for century after century had been dominant
in the minds and hearts of the peoples of the world,
got short shrift in Americas attention. FOR America
took Justice for granted.
In so doing, America overlooked one most impor-
tant thing and that is-that nothing is fixed in this
life The essence of life is change Life is matter
of to have and to hold Ana the price of justice, or
anything else, is eternal vigilance.
So after century and half, America has grown
more and more apathetic toward justice as primary
national principle. Hence Hoover law COM
missions searching in a bewildered way for the why
of lot of things that are happening now, things
which couldn't have happened in the days when
Justice was the all-absorbing topic OF people IS
concern.
Sacco and Vanzetti were executed under cloud of
reasonable doubt and public sentiment Says-"Well,
maybe they weren't guilty. but anyway, we're tired OF
these foreigners coming in and always stirring up
trouble
Mooney and Billings spend thirteen years in prison
under the same cloud of doubt, and the public re-
marks-"whether they're guilty or not, they're bad
actors"
Those cases are merely straws that show the vital
ty or lack thereof of the wind that is carrying
democracy through her sea of trouble.
In the meantime, over the world other winds are
stirring.
Democracy let it be remembered isn't the only
form Of social control devised There are others.
And the others scott and sheer at democracy, and
work for democracy's overthrow.
Dictatorship in one form or another is the ancient
foe of democracy, the foe against which the lovers
of Justice fought during all those centuries And
dictatorship today in the saddle in many parts of
the world Whether it be the Communistic dictator
ship of Russia or the Fascist dictatorship of Italy it
is all of the same piece, and it is, the ancient
foe.
And whether in a democratic country weakness
appears that counts point in the game OF dlcta-
torial advance Whether the weakness be crooked
magistrate in Manhattan, grating police official in
Detroit racket in Chicago, raid without search
warrant in Atlanta Sacco-Vanzetti case in Boston,
Mooney Billings case in San Francisco, any other
short-circu of good government and abstract justice
that is welcome news to the Stains and the Musso
nis; that is water on the wheel of those who believe
in the rule of the few against the rule of the
In democracy the power to govern lies in the peo-
pie. Theirs is both the authority and the response
bility. And theirs the result-the failure.
If they, as a whole wise. it will be success. If
unwse careless apathetc, cocksure in the idea that
matters of justice settled forever for us by our
ancestors obvious of the fact that vigilance is
Sary preserve justice Or anything else then the out
come ultimately will be failure. and, again, we,
the people, will do the goosestep to the command of
a sovereign.