Part 33 (2/2)
PUBLIC PROPERTY is often more likely to suffer from vandalism than private property. Some people will mar the walls of public buildings, or make their floors filthy with expectoration, when they would not think of doing so in private buildings. They will break shrubbery in public parks, or despoil public flower beds, when they would not think of entering private premises for such purpose. There seems to be a feeling that public property belongs to no one, or else that, since it is public, any one is at liberty to do as he pleases with it. This, of course, is foolish. It is as if a stockholder in a business corporation should injure or destroy the corporation property, forgetting that he owned a share in it and suffered a share of the loss.
Investigate and report on:
Organization of police protection in your community.
Organization of a police department in a large city.
The Mounted Police of Canada and their work.
The Texas rangers.
The state police of Pennsylvania.
Vigilance committees in frontier towns of former times.
Why lynching is wrong.
The promptness with which justice is meted out in the courts of your state.
The extent and causes of vandalism in your community.
Is vandalism justifiable on Halloween?
Inspect the courthouse and other public buildings in your community and report as to whether they are disfigured in any way.
THE SACREDNESS OF PROPERTY RIGHTS
When a thief or vandal takes or destroys another person's property, the loss of the property is not the worst thing that happens, but the attack upon PROPERTY RIGHTS. The right to security in one's possessions is among the most sacred rights of a free people, being cla.s.sed with the right to life, the right of free speech, the right of pet.i.tion, the right to freedom of religion. It is by securing these rights that the law makes us free. The sacred right to property is as truly violated by one who steals a nickel as by one who robs a bank of a thousand dollars, by one who ruins our flower bed as well as by one who burns our house. The amount has nothing to do with it. The tax which the English government imposed on tea imported by the American colonists was not a heavy tax, but the colonists objected because it was imposed without their consent.
CONSt.i.tUTIONAL GUARANTEES OF PROPERTY RIGHTS
The citizens of a free country require protection of their property rights against infringement by their government as well as by one another. The Revolutionary War was fought in defense of this and other rights against violation by the English government.
When the Const.i.tution of the United States was framed, the people refused to ratify it unless amendments were added guaranteeing these rights. Thus it was provided that ”no soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law” (Amendment III); that ”the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ...”
(Amendment IV); that ”no persons shall be ... deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation”
(Amendment V. See also Chapter XIV, p. 207). The Const.i.tution also provides that ”no state shall ... pa.s.s any ... law impairing the obligation of contracts” (Art. I, sec. 10, clause I), and in various other ways protects our property rights. Our state const.i.tutions contain many similar provisions. Our governments have the power to take property in the form of taxes, but under certain restrictions imposed by our const.i.tutions to safeguard the rights of the people (see Chapter XXIII).
OUR NATIONAL ARMY
It is to protect these RIGHTS, rather than property itself, that communities have their police, that states have their militia, and that the nation has its army and its navy. Among the chief causes that led us into war with Germany was the fact that Germany was violating the property rights of our citizens. While our Const.i.tution provides for state militia and a national army for the defense of our rights, property rights included, it has always been our national policy to maintain as small a standing army as is consistent with the national safety; and this for the very reason that a large standing army and a large navy are not only a great burden of expense, but also, as the founders of our nation believed, a menace to the liberties of the people and to the peace of the world.
THE SERVICE OF THE COURTS
We have seen that no person may be deprived of property by the government ”without due process of law.” This means that the procedure provided by law must be followed, and that the citizen whose property is taken may have his side of the case presented, the value of the property in question appraised by impartial judges, and so on. It is the business of THE COURTS to see that justice is done. They inquire into the facts in the case, and interpret the law bearing on it. The courts are the final safeguard to our liberties. Our government comprises, therefore, not only a law-making branch and a law-enforcing branch, but also a LAW-INTERPRETING, OR JUDICIAL, branch--the courts.
THE RIGHTS OF ACCUSED PERSONS
The Const.i.tution guarantees justice to persons accused of violating the property rights, or other rights of citizens, by theft, fraud, or otherwise, as well as to the citizen who has been wronged. ”In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed ...
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