Duties of Citizenship

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Duties of Citizenship

BY HON. D. N. STRAUP, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT, STATE OF UTAH

["The following speech was delivered by Chief Justice Daniel Newton Straup before the graduates of the University of Utah, and a large audience of alumni and friends, on June 7, 1916. It expresses thoughts and ideas on the duties of citizenship which it is my hope and desire may be read by every young man and young woman, not only in the state of Utah but throughout the whole Church. The senti- ments expressed are thorouhgly patriotic, socially sane, and sure to awaken in every reader a better and truer appreciation of the priv- ileges of citizenship in our glorious country." Ppresident Joseph F. Smith.]

I appreciate the request and privilege, in the absence of His Excellency, our worthy governor, to add a few words. From the printed program, I presume what I say will be about the last of this commencement. You may be thankful for that. As luncheon awaits you, my remarks shall be brief. They are chiefly directed to you who are about to enter upon a new life. First of all you are to be congratulated on the privileges and oppor- tunity afforded you by the state and this institution, your Alma Mater. They have done not all they would, but all they could. Our state, though great in territory and in undeveloped re- sources, yet, in comparison with many states as to population and taxable property, is quite diminutive. For that reason our awards for the maintenance of our university are much less than those made to many similar institutions elsewhere. The press dispatches this morning tell us that the Chicago University last year was awarded three million dollars in gifts alone. But I believe no public awards are greater — I am told not as great— in proportion to the taxable property of the state and of the rev- enues derived therefrom. As you know, it is from that source that this institution mainly is supported. Grateful, indeed, should you be to the people of this state who willingly tax them- selves to give you the best within their means. Our Board of Regents, faithful to its duties, and diligent in its efforts, has stretched every dollar as far as possible without tearing or break- ing it. Notwithstanding our unavoidable inadequacy of needed funds, yet, our university, slowly but surely, has advanced step by step from infancy to manhood, and today takes high rank with universities of our sister states. Let it be conceded, some be- cause of greater awards may outrank us as to special work, still,

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for general university work, few have greater facilities or ad- vantages than has ours, at our own door. To obtain a general higher education there no longer is any need of our young men and women going elsewhere. I would like to see the day,— and — not here now is near at hand when all highschool grad- if it is

uates of the state, instead of going elsewhere, will attend and patronize the higher institutions of learning of our own state. You who are about to go forth can do much to help in this re- spect. You need no admonition to insure your support and your loyalty in that direction. One of the chief offices of a higher education is to better equip you for your life's work. These advantages you have enjoyed. You are now about to leave your college days, to part from your teachers and professors and to take your own path in life. Let me extend to you the right hand of fellowship and bid you Godspeed. This, in some respects, is the most trying and critical period of your life. To a large extent your characters have already been formed. You are now to hew your own statue, and to carve your own fortune. Thus far you have been aided by friendly teachers and professors. Where, heretofore, you have faltered and stumbled, they have lifted you up and helped you onward. They have pointed out the path and now leave you alone to travel it. It is said the lioness, in certain stages of development, takes her young into the depth of the forest and there leaves them alone with gnawing hunger and the desolation of the wilderness to struggle for themselves. So your teachers have now led you to the forest of your life's work, there to leave you alone to battle with the world. Some of you, like him lost in the forest, and endeavoring to find his wav out, will but tramp in a circle. Perhaps in time a few of you, like a Mor- gan or a Rockefeller, may own the forest, while others will be holding flags for them at railroad crossings, or pumping gaso- line at street corners. Still others may find their way back to their parents, or to a friend for now and then a five or a ten. Some of you may stumble into pitfalls or get lost in jungles or in canyons. Your path, no doubt, will be rugged enough. At first you will find few flowers strewn along the way. Flowers rarely bloom in the first of the year to any of us. They gen- erally do not come until in June, about the middle of life's jour- ney. To some, nipped by the biting frost of adversity and dis- appointment in early spring, they never come. But diligence, determination, and perseverance will bring success of some sort to all of you. You have just been through a great trial. You have been tested and, so far. found not wanting. Today ver- dicts have been rendered and judgments awarded in your favor bv your honored president who is about to go out with you. In going, you need no stock instructions or suggestions as to

890 IMPROVEMENT ERA your future behavior. Let it be assumed that your lives will be pure and simple, of good morals, good habits and of righteous- ness. Unless you so live, what has been taught you is in vain. Nor need I admonish you as to your duties of citizenship and patriotism. Let me, however, remind you of the great domestic and civic work awaiting you in whatever community you may be. The fundamental problem of good government is an educational one. The standard of every state and country is dependent upon the tone of its communities. You may say, What can I do ? A thousand things await you. Do not try to stem the river at its mouth commence at its source. ; Help to improve the con- ditions and morals of your town and community and to awaken civic apathy on all questions of morals and economics. Be a teacher and a leader in your neighborhood. No one can doubt the general lowering of good taste and of moral tone that comes from daily education in the more notorious and less decent aspects of life, anti-social conduct and criminal behavior so prominently displayed in news columns and so freely read by the public. Do your part to teach and influence the press that your community is interested in something higher than graphic accounts of crim-

inalistic and sensational anti-social affairs, and the young people of your neighborhood not to feed upon them nor to waste their time and pervert their morals on pernicious stories and blood- and-thunder literature. Do what you can to re-establish the rhythmic spirit of the graceful minuet in place of the boorish tangoes, gawky turkey-struts, lubberly fox-trots, and clownish cake-walks. There are also the moving pictures which, if direct- ed in right channels, are of great educational and moral value. Tn nearly all people visual memory and visual imagery play an important dynamic part in mental and moral life. See to it that in your communities you have something exhibited on the screens better than the silly pranks of a Charlie Chaplin, a stage coach hold-up by Idaho Petes, or a caravan perishing on the desert. Use your influence to re-establish the sublimity and high qualities of the drama in place of the witless nonsense of usual vaudevilles. Help the women of your town to keep their clothes on when on the street, not to shop in decollete attire, nor to promenade the streets garbed like ballet-dancers. And then there is a greater work of civic problems. Of recent years a high tide of misconceived popular democracy has flooded our country. Most revolutionary changes in our system of government have been suggested, and in some instances and in some sweeping changes have already been made. sections Some may be wholesome enough others are and can be but sub- ;

versive of good government. Realizing as you do that the weakness of a pure democracy lies in part in the lack of intelli- gence of the citizens, in civic apathy, wrong motives, and an

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absence of essential qualities of good citizenship, there will be much for you as citizens to do in the great civic work of life in whatever community you may be. In the discharge of your duties in such respect, I have but one admonition Be loyal and faithful to the fundamental laws of the land, the Constitution of our country under which you and I and all of us live, and which we all as citizens are sworn to protect and defend. Let me here say a word about that. Do you fully realize and appreciate that the citizens of this country are the only people whose individual rights are protected by constitu- tional provisions, unchangeable by legislative whims ;ours, the only real written Constitution giving personal guarantees to our citizens not granted any other people ; we, the only people pro- tected from wrongful actions of their own government? We hear so much of the famous boasted Magna Charta yet it is ;

nothing but an Act of Parliament, analogous here to an Act of Congress. The same legislative body which adopted it may also, without the voice of the people, modify and abrogate it. So, too, in France where, though they have a written constitution, still one adopted only by the General Assembly and which by the

same legislative body also is subject to modification and repeal at any time. So in Germany, where the Imperial Legislature adopts, modifies and repeals the fundamental law, and where the Emperor himself interprets it. Here, the people have reserved unto themselves certain inalienable rights and privileges upon which the legislative and executive authorities may not trespass and which may not be taken from them except by the people themselves. And to protect a minority against an unreasonable majority, our constitutional framers wisely provided that amend- ments to the Constitution may only be proposed by two-thirds of Congress or of the states, and then to be ratified by the legisla- tures of three-fourths of the states. Another most distinguish- ing feature of our constitution is the creation of constitutional courts, making them co-ordinate branches of the government. Whenever the guaranteed rights or privileges of the individual or citizen are invaded by legislative enactments or executive ag- gressions, and his liberty or property taken without due process of law, or his property taken or damaged without just compensa- tion, the obligations o'f a contract or the right to contract im- paired, or other encroachments made on guaranteed rights^ these constitutional courts of our country stand as a bulwark, in de- fense of such rights and check and prevent the invasion and aggression. This provision of our Constitution, said Lord Salis- bury, was to him a subject of the greatest envy, and the most commendable of all provisions of any of the constitutions of any country. It's found nowhere else. It is not found in the Magna

Charta, the unwritten constitution of England, nor in the written

892 IMPROVEMENT ERA constitution of either France or Germany. There, by legislative enactment, property of the individual may be taken without com- pensation, or his liberty deprived without due process of law, and any and all personal and individual rights and privileges invaded, by Acts of Parliament, the General Assembly, and the Imperial Legislature, without negation or redress whatever. The aggrieved party is compelled to bow in submission and to yield obedience to the mighty and unrestrained power of such legisla- tive bodies. Notwithstanding these cherished and beneficent provisions of our own Constitution, there are fiery orators and agitators on soap boxes, knowing little of the purpose or the meaning of the Constitution, and others of avowed political creeds who seek to destroy these safe-guards and more particularly the constitu- tional restraint upon the legislative branch of the government, and who, in such respect, but feed fires of unrest, discontent and even of rebellion. The poisoning sentiment of these propa- gandists has so spread of recent years as to become a menace to good government and to law and order. Let me remind you that it is your bounden duty, as young men and women going forth and entering upon a new life, as well as of every other good citizen of our country, to voice your protest against such heresies and to protect the fundamental law of our land from such virulent attacks and encroachments. I do not mean that you or another may not advocate and join in demands for re- forms of existing evils which are feasible and consistent with our form of government. Nor that you may not, where you be- lieve evil exists in the administration of justice, endeavor to work out reforms upon methods consistent with our system of gov- ernment. I refer to those who have for their basis, doctrines de- structive of the Constitution, abrogating rights and powers safe- guarded by its provisions, those who characterize our constitu- tional courts, when they but exercise their constitutional p'ower and but perform their constitutional duty, as usurpers of power, and holding them, their decisions, the Constitution and our form of government up to public derision and contempt. Let it be hoped that none of you will ever be found disciples of these. — — And if let us pray the day may never come when our Consti- tution shall be stabbed to death by its foes, let not its expiring spirit cry aloud to you in rebuke and in disappointment, et tu, Brute.