Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-20
Richie Address to Bar
atlantic City Banquet Told Enlightened Leadership
Is Need Of u. S. in Face Of Strain Upon Efficiency
of Business and Industry Lawyers Pathfnders.

ouet of the American Bar Associa-
ton here this evening follows:
It is q platitude to say that we are
ON the threshold of new age, with
new and strange forces moving across
the horizon Of the world.
We have crossed many such
thresholds since reconstruction, and
witnessed more than one revolution In
our governmental relationships.
First, the growth of wealth and capt.
talistic power seemed to be crushing
the free spirit of individual initiative
and opportunity, and while the forms
of popular government remained, the
real mastery as passing from the hands
of the people to a narrow plutocracy
Then a rev social order asserted
itself, and government interviewed
through forms OF corporate regulation
and control, measures In the interest
Of a broader freedom for business and
provisions for the health and safety
and social welfare Of the people.
The pendulum swung too far, and
government. not content with curbine
special privileges, injustice and ex-
pioitation, became suspected Of at
lacking business just because it was
big,
and we began to see that business, If 1t
engages in no unfair practices, and
leaves the door Of opportunity open for
all to enter, has Just as much right
to grow big as it has to stay small
and that enforcing artificial competi-
ton may be more costly to the con-
sumner than combination.
Ne Fields Explored.
During the World War, under the
stress of absolute demand as well as
patriotism, there was a period Of united
action and corporation, accompanied
by the discovery of hitherto unknown
and unexpected fields for efficiency and
conservation.
The war over, production, which had
been stopped or cJrtatled, started up
again. Our machine age was succeeded
by an age of mass production, and we
entered upon an era Of money making,
reckless spending, credit buying, over
expansion and paper profits. Success
seemed to be measured by the standard
Of money only.
We were creditor nation, needing
worlds markets for our surplus supplies.
but the worlds capacity to consume was
overtaxed. Then came the inevitable
awakening and the crash.
Now we are confronted with prob
lens both at home and abroad as mo-
mentous and perplexing as any We have
ever faced.
At home, the millions of people who
want work and need it, but cannot get
It, constitute the strongest argument
against our capitaliStic form Of gov
eminent which Socialism and Com
munism have ever had in our day.
Abroad, we see Europe almost in
economic revolution, and although q
tariff so high that it shuts the door
on some Of our best national custom
erS and invites their reta1iationS and
reprisals would hardly indicate it, yet
believe our Government is at last
coming to realize the economic interde-
pendence Of the nations Of the West
ern World, and to see that America
cannot prosper If Europe Is PROSTATE.
We cannot be Indifferent to the fate
and fortune of other nations, because
it may involve our own.
Necessity Of Leadership.
have no thought of attempting any
diagnose or prognosis Of all these
things, but viii only venture q few
words as to the spirit of enlightened
leadership-not individual leadership,
of course, but collective necessary to
meet the exigent problems and difi-
culties to hich this present era gives
rise.
In every period Of governmental
crisis, one is in the habit of looking
first to the national foundation on
which the superstructure rests. So
economists and lawyers and public
leaders ask, are these strong enough?
VIII they Withstand the strain?
They win, Of course, although we
seem TO be trying assiduously to
weaken them by converting the great
system Of American law into a
scheme Of social and moral control,
and by looking to legislation as the
great remedy for all ills.
But let me remind you that it Is
not enough to examine the arch on
which American institutions rest, and
pronounce It, while Clipped here and
there, sound and solid In the main.
It may be a paradox, but II the en-
during stability of our country de-
ponds on the stability OF its founda-
tional institutions, 1t is none the less
true that these in their turn depend
upon the stability of our people.
You cannot have a sound State
without sound people. The match
less jural system which Rome gave 70
the world and most of our own
remedial and humane principles of
law and equity originated there and
prevent the downfall and destruction
Of that imperial civilization.
Control Of Government.
We only delude ourselves If we
think that government Is controlled
by some mysterious set Of laws and
principles all its own.
Politicians, Of course, encourage this
illusion. In politics, we are strong
for formulas and phrases and slogans,
for eternal principles" for the
teachings Of the fathers" and what
not, but in the last analysis govern
the laws and functions of government
are shaped, like those Of every other
activity, by experience and by the
practical wisdom and horse sense OF
those who sit in power.
Government after all is only ap-
piled politics, and there is little that Is
mysterious about it, except sometimes
the fiubdubbery Of politicians. States
men may have their ideals, but in at
tanning them they are not guided by
fixed stars or immutable principles,
but by the realities Of experience as
shaped by purely human factors.
SO history shows only too clearly
that principles can seldom be regarded
as eternal. In the final analysis they
may often be little more than conven-
lions, created by the needs and wants
Of the times and changing to meet the
changing conditions Of changing
world.
OF course believe that the factors
and forces Of the hour can be shaped
and controlled for the common good
by American institutions better than
In any other way-for which reason I
would cling to them and apply them
and not scrap them.
High Collective Leadership.
Ny point is that sound leadership,
while following st. Paul's admonition
to prove all things and hold fast to
that which is good, must recognize that
holding fast is not sitting still. And
that calls for collective leadership Of