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the strong injunctions of his oath of office, that he preserve, protect, and defend the constitution. The great object of the executive department is to accomplish this very purpose; without this is accomplished, it is utterly worthless for the happiness, good order, or safety of society."

James Kent, the great American chancellor, in his commentaries on American law says: "When laws are duly made and promulgated, they remain only to be executed. No discretion is given to the executive officer. It is not for him to decide upon the wisdom or expediency of the law. What has once been declared to be law, under all the cautious forms of deliberation prescribed by the constitution, ought to receive prompt obedience."

Hor. C. C. Bonney of Chicago, President of the International Law and Order League, in an address on the Executive Power says: "The constitution and laws do not say that sheriff, marshal, mayor, governor, and president shall enforce the laws and protect the people, provided that some other department of the government shall request or some particularly aggrieved citizens shall petition therefor; but the command is imperative that he shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed."

These authorities make very plain and clear the duty of the executive. There are no conditions. There is no alternative. The law must be obeyed. These authorities also rob our mayors and other executive officers of their three strong points. They forbid the executive officer to act as judge on the merits of a law; to use his discretion as to whether he will enforce the laws, or to declare that he cannot enforce the law if he would, because of opposition to it. Enforce the laws. If they are defective, amend them. If they are oppressive, repeal them. But enforce the law. This only is rational government.

Why are not the laws enforced? The reason is clear. Because the officers elected and put under oath for this pur

pose do not do their duty. It has been said that they are not elected to execute the laws against all offenders, although they are sworn to do it. Herein lies the weakness of a popular form of government when masses of the people are out of sympathy with the enforcement of good laws. The executive officer, instead of giving attention to duty, is constantly consulting the temper of his constituency. His continuance in office depends upon pleasing the people who elected him. Many of them voted for him with the expectation that certain laws were not to be enforced, and, as a consequence, they are ignored. Statesmen on the other side of the sea saw this weakness in our form of government and predicted failure. De Tocqueville declared that the growth of great cities would ruin the · American republic, unless they are kept in order by a standing army. Lord Beaconsfield affirmed that not one American city of commanding size is well governed under universal suffrage, or ever will be. Sir Robert Peel predicted that American forms of government will fail to protect life and property in crowded populations. And Lord Macaulay said, "As for America, I appeal to the twentieth century. Either some Cæsar or Napoleon will seize the reins of government with a strong hand, or your republic will be as fearfully plundered and laid waste in the twentieth century as Rome was in the fifth, with this difference, that the Huns and Vandals who ravaged Rome came from without her borders, while your Huns and Vandals will be engendered by your own institutions and within your own country." These predictions take on significance in the light of what has happened in our large cities within the last twenty-five years. Lawlessness, bribery, corruption, and misrule are fearfully prevalent in our large municipalities.

We are patriots, however, and believe in our form of government. We must remedy the evils of universal suf

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frage by universal suffrage. This can be done, for a majority of our people believe in law and order. Let our best citizens attend the primaries and nominate good men for office, and then stand by them when elected, giving them every encouragement possible in their work. Our so-called best citizens are often the worst; not intentionally, but because of their indifference. The demagogues, ward-heelers, and baser elements of society are ceaselessly active. Some of them declare that all government is oppressive, and all law tyranny; that the holding of property is legalized theft. They say that every man should be a law unto himself; that he should be allowed to do what he pleases, and take what he wants. Such doctrine is pernicious. As society is constituted, government is a necessity. universe is under the reign of law. Every star that shines, every planet that moves, every form of life in the animal and vegetable world,-all things, from the throne of God to the dust of earth to which man's body crumbles, are under the control of law. The highest happiness of all God's intelligent creatures comes in obedience to his laws. To break them is to suffer. Jesus recognizes the right of civil government, and was never guilty of violating civil law. He said, "Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's." He performed a miracle to pay his taxes, and taught his disciples obedience to law. Paul said, "Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil."

Government ought to mean something. A nation that will not defend its defenders, a government that will not protect its protectors, is a disgrace among the nations of the earth. Our government has the power, as was demonstrated during the late war, to come into your home when you are sitting by your fireside, with your little ones on your lap, and by the power of the draft compel you to go into the face of bristling steel and belching cannon in the

interest of your country. A government which does that ought to hear the feeblest wail of the weakest and most remote citizen, and defend him in all his rights and privileges. The poor emancipated black man ought to have the same protection and advantages under the law as a citizen as though he were white and a millionaire. This is true now of our government in theory. It ought to be in practice. It will be when our laws without fear or favor are everywhere enforced.

ARTICLE IX.

SOCIOLOGICAL NOTES AND REVIEWS.

HENRY GEORGE,-THE MAN AND REFORMER.

THE death of Mr. Henry George, the great apostle of single tax, will lead to a renewed temporary interest in his writings, and especially in his theory of placing all taxes on land values. The personal character of Mr. George was one thing, the character of his writings quite another. All who knew him unite in extolling his personal virtues, his amiable disposition, his lovely character. Mr. Thomas G. Shearman ranks the privilege of his friendship with that of Beecher, while such men as Bolton Hall and Willis G. Abbott are equally ardent in his praise.

Mr. George's books enjoyed enormous sales; and, in fact, his chief service to the world might be summed up in the amount and degree of intellectual activity he awakened on economic questions and especially among the common people. The clubs that are formed to study his books and propagate his teachings, their numbers and enthusiasm, are a testimony to an ability to excite interest that cannot be questioned. The explanation of this might be sought in the strong public demand for a cure for unjust social conditions, and Mr. George essayed to provide a cure for nearly all of society's ills; but his style of writing and the simplicity of his remedy lent a charm that found a great market for all that he said.

But what of his theories? It is important to distinguish between a man's personal character and the character of his teachings. A good man may teach vicious theories that, if put into practice, would end in revolution. John Bright was one of God's noblemen, the true friend of the common people, a noble friend of America; but in some of his speeches to his uneducated constituents he enunciated principles, as to the origin of value and the part labor plays in production, that were full of error, and vicious in the extreme. If he was right, his toiling constituents would have been justified in open revolution against existing conditions.

General Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. Jackson were Christian gentlemen with a sublime faith in God, and the latter went from his closet to the battle-field. It was cold comfort, however, to the Northern soldiers to know that the guns that made such fearful carnage were aimed and fired by men of amiable dispositions and lovely Christian characters.

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