p. 302 | THE CANCER IN SOCIETY by Howard Crosby, D. D.

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, May 6, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 19

THE CANCER IN SOCIETY.

By Howard Crosby, D. D.

THERE is no danger to our State more threatening than the disregard of law by public officials. It destroys the very foundation of society by disheartening its virtuous and emboldening its vicious elements. It is not the wail of a pessimist that declares this evil in the ascendant in the United States, but it is the calm judgment of one who is optimistically inclined, and who has watched the conduct of magistrates and of the community toward breaches of the law for many years. I speak of magistrates and the community together, because there is a correlation between them that must not be overlooked in the study of the problem how to mend our public affairs. Magistrates could never defy the laws they are set to maintain, were not the community their virtual helpers in the matter; nor, on the other hand, would the community become so hardened to the defiance of law, were not magistrates so ready to furnish examples to the criminal classes. The chief cause of the evil is undoubtedly to be found in the demands of partisan politics. The party is placed before the State. —Howard Crosby, D. D., in Stoddart's Review.