Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 257, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1920 — Americanism [ARTICLE]

Americanism

By LEONARD WOOD

Where law end* tyranny begin*. — William Pitti Speech, January 9, 1770. LAWS companion is order. There la no tyranny like the tyranny of the mob. Americanism means law, and law means Americanism. Without it there is first chaos and then for out of disorder comes that type of government which, while In a way restraining us, destroys liberty under. the law. Such a condition Is almost the inevitable consequence of departure from the law Into the realm of unrule. Law and Liberty are inseparable. Liberty lovers can be depended upon to see to It that there is not too much law. The people in a republic are-the writers of the laws. They can be trusted to secure Just that measure of regulation consistent with order and inconsistent with the tyranny of too : much restriction of the popular rights. In America in those places where there have been outbreaks, where the people have taken, as it ia called, the law Into their own hands, tyranny has shown itself. Happily its rule has been only temporary. The spirit of the mob is despotic. The spirit of the law is democratic.

Americanism means obedience to law. The Fathers of the republic knew this and laid stress upon it They built upon the foundation of law and they built an orderly structure. When the foundation is destroyed the, structure falls and It -cannot be reared again except upon foundation stones of the kind first used. Law is government and there can be no Abraham Lincoln’s government of the people, by the people and for the people unless law enters into it as a constituent. The flag of the American republic represents law just as truly as it represents liberty, for there can be no liberty without the law. Proper laws safeguard freedom and never menace It. When the enactment of laws goes beyond reason there is the repeal. The people are the judges of the limits of legal restraint. Americans know how much law is needed to give them full liberty and yet save them from license. The American flag stands for the nation —it ranks everything else in America. All salute it, from private to president. The flag of a country, however, can represent nothing except what the country is. When we teach respect for our country’s colors, we must bear in mind that respect can be instilled only if the institutions for which the flag stands are maintained In the integrity which the Fathers gave to them.