Job Elmer Hedges
Published: 2017-10-31
Total Pages: 26
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Excerpt from Government by Default: Address Before the Association of Life Insurance Counsel at Washington, D. C., May 12, 1920 Thou shalt not steal and Honesty is the best policy unindicted men have lived their lives. In final essence we may well study, as in fact we must, the psychology of the public at large in its relation to government and law in addition to increasing our specialized knowledge. This suggestion brings me face on to what seems to me a reversal of the theory of the fathers and which may well be termed Government by Default - the subject of my paper. Ourcivic progenitors did not have, nor could they have had, a full comprehension of the development of this country. Could they have imagined either its numerical size, its material growth or its complicated present-day questions, they might well have hesitated ln launching the small, but sturdy, bark of the Constitution upon the tempestuous seas of uncertainty. Their wisdom, however, -without comprehensive forecast, of present conditions, was greater than is ours who live in the midst of those conditions. They sought a few general fundamental ideas, capab1e of growth, broad enough for unlimited expansion With provision to meet them as they occurred. It remains with us to solve these problems and, however great our intelligence and experience regarding them may be, the lamp to our feet and the light to our path require the most absorbing study, analysis and appreciation of the conceptions of the fathers. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.