permits us to read, we daily wade through columns of print going to the very verge not of freedom, but of license. And this free discussion will go on unchecked, except as the Supreme Court recently said, that the law will "not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic."

Now look at the other side of the picture.

Seventy bills are introduced in Congress, inspired by a determination to suppress by the most violent permissible means the menace of Bolshevism. Acts classified as sedition are by some of these bills even declared to be treason and punishable by death. Socialist assemblymen are put to the proof of their patriotism before being permitted to represent their constituents. And radicals all over the country are herded in one grand spectacular roundup.

But no accused person can suffer unless he not only intends, but attempts by violence, to overthrow our institutions. None of the seventy bills has been passed, nor will any one find himself in jail until the Supreme Court says they are constitutional. The herded Bolshevists are entitled to writs of habeas corpus, whether they are citizens or aliens. And the Assemblymen may acquire such fame as martyrs as they never before dared to aspire to.

Such agitations are not a menace to our institutions. They test their value. Only by discussion of some concrete question can the interest of the American people as to the meaning and application of the Constitution be aroused. By that process, however, they can always be depended upon to understand the nature of our institutions. We must not, therefore, despair if in open discussion there is exaggeration and if desperate remedies are suggested. That is inevitable. But by

the ultimate settlement of the ever-recurring problems of government by constitutional methods, our institutions constantly gain in stability.

We hear much in these post-war days of Americanism. But mere emotional response to noble sentiments of patriotism will not avail to protect the body politic against assaults upon our institutions, unless they be followed by enlightened constructive effort. Insidious influence sometimes emanates even from pulpits, colleges and public prints. The parlor Bolshevists add a gloss of respectability, of culture, of religion, and even of a spurious patriotism, to the efforts of both the ignorant alarmist and the disloyal agitator. Too often they confuse the Soviet Ark with the Mayflower.

With such influences at work the most useful kind of Americanism that I know is that which, inspired by adherence to our national traditions, insists upon sanity in counsel and steadiness in act. And there is no class in the community so well fitted by education, experience and temperament as lawyers for the discharge of that lofty function.

ADDRESS AT THE DINNER TO JUDGE O'BRIEN

XV

ADDRESS AT THE DINNER
TO JUDGE O'BRIEN 1

THE Committee which arranged this dinner has had some troubles, and its chairman has asked me to announce that several disquieting things have happened without its fault. The purpose in giving this dinner was to tender a tribute to the Honorable Morgan J. O'Brien, and yet the committee feels much aggrieved to find that Hamlet doesn't figure on the first page of the program, and the chairman has asked me to announce that this is entirely through a printer's error. However, I think that is a matter which the honorable gentleman can outlive.

There is another subject which causes us all keen regret, and that is the enforced absence of the honored president of this association, Judge Cullen. He certainly is the "grand old man" of this organization and, barring the question of age, may be deemed to be one of the grand old men of our profession. At the last moment however, he was obliged to give up being here because a sickness which has detained him at home for some days finally led the doctor to advise him that he must seek another climate. The sudden call upon me as vice president of the association to take Judge Cullen's place raised with me the question which has excited so much attention lately; that is, the question of preparedness, and I have really never had so much apprehension about it as I have

1 Remarks of Mr. Taft, toastmaster, at the Annual Bar Dinner of the New York County Lawyers' Association, given in honor of Hon. Morgan J. O'Brien, February 26, 1916.