TEXT
"Law and Order"
It is preeminently the province of government to protect
the weak. The average citizen does not lead the life of
independence that was his in former days under a less complex order
of society. When a family tilled the soil and produced its own
support it was independent. It may be infinitely better off now,
but it is evident it needs a protection which before was not
required.
Let Massachusetts continue to regard with the greatest
solicitude the well-being of her people. By prescribed law, by
authorized publicity, by informed public opinion, let her continue
to strive to provide that all conditions under which her citizens
live are worthy of the highest faith of man. Healthful housing,
wholesome food, sanitary working conditions, reasonable hours, a
fair wage for a fair day's work, opportunity -- full and free,
justice -- speedy and impartial, and at a cost within the reach of
all, are among the objects not only to be sought, but made
absolutely certain and secure.
Government is not, must not be, a cold, impersonal
machine, but a human and more human agency: appealing to the
reason, satisfying the heart, full of mercy, assisting the good,
resisting the wrong, delivering the weak from any impositions of
the powerful. This is not paternalism. It is not a servitude
imposed from without, but the freedom of a right to self-direction
from within.
Industry must be humanized, not destroyed. It must be the
instrument not of selfishness, but of service. Change not the law,
but the attitude of the mind. Let our citizens look not to the
false prophet but to the pilgrims. Let them fix their eyes on
Plymouth Rock as well as Beacon Hill. The supreme choice must be
not to things that are seen, but to things that are unseen.
Our government belongs to the people. Our property
belongs to the people. It is distributed. They own it. The taxes
are paid by the people. They bear the burden. The benefits of
government must accrue to the people. Not to one class, but to all
classes, to all the people. The functions, the power, the
sovereignty of the government, must be kept where they have been
placed by the Constitution and laws of the people. Not private
will, but that public will, which speaks with a divine sanction,
must prevail.
There are strident voices, urging resistance to law in
the name of freedom. They are not seeking freedom for themselves,
they have it. They are seeking to enslave others. Their works are
evil. They know it. They must be resisted. The evil they represent
must be overcome by the good others represent. Their ideas, which
are wrong, for the most part imported, must be supplanted by ideas
which are right. This can be done. The meaning of America is a
power which cannot be overcome. Massachusetts must lead in teaching
it.
Prosecution of the criminal and education of the ignorant
are the remedies. It is fundamental that freedom is not to be
secured by disobedience to law. Even the freedom of the slave
depended on the supremacy of the Constitution. There is no mystery
about this. They who sin are the servants of sin. They who break
the laws are the slaves of their own kind. It is not for the
advantage of others that the citizen is abjured to obey the laws,
but for his own advantage. That what he claims a right to do to
others, that must he admit others have a right to do to him. His
obedience is his own protection. He is not submitting himself to
the dictates of others, but responding to the requirements of his
own nature.
Laws are not manufactured. They are not imposed. They are
rules of action existing from everlasting to everlasting. He who
resists them, resists himself. He commits suicide. The nature of
man requires sovereignty. Government must govern. To obey is life.
To disobey is death. Organized government is the expression of the
life of the commonwealth. Into your hands is entrusted the grave
responsibility of its protection and perpetuation.
Listen to this recording.
Listen to this recording.