Endless Ebook, One Click Away – Start Downloading at ebookname.

com

Building a Monitoring Infrastructure with Nagios

1st Edition David Josephsen

https://ebookname.com/product/building-a-monitoring-
infrastructure-with-nagios-1st-edition-david-josephsen-2/

OR CLICK HERE

DOWLOAD EBOOK

Browse and Get More Ebook Downloads Instantly at https://ebookname.com

Click here to visit ebookname.com and download ebook now
Instant digital products (PDF, ePub, MOBI) available
Download now and explore formats that suit you...

Building a Monitoring Infrastructure with Nagios 1st

Edition David Josephsen

https://ebookname.com/product/building-a-monitoring-
infrastructure-with-nagios-1st-edition-david-josephsen/

Building a Windows IT Infrastructure in the Cloud

Distributed Hosted Environments with AWS 1st Edition
David K. Rensin

https://ebookname.com/product/building-a-windows-it-
infrastructure-in-the-cloud-distributed-hosted-environments-with-
aws-1st-edition-david-k-rensin/

Nagios System and Network Monitoring 2nd Ed Second

Edition Wolfgang Barth

https://ebookname.com/product/nagios-system-and-network-
monitoring-2nd-ed-second-edition-wolfgang-barth/

Frommer s Washington State 4th Edition Karl Samson

https://ebookname.com/product/frommer-s-washington-state-4th-
edition-karl-samson/
First Drop of Crimson Night Huntress World Book 1
Jeaniene Frost

https://ebookname.com/product/first-drop-of-crimson-night-
huntress-world-book-1-jeaniene-frost/

Oil in Texas The Gusher Age 1895 1945 1st Edition Diana
Davids Hinton

https://ebookname.com/product/oil-in-texas-the-gusher-
age-1895-1945-1st-edition-diana-davids-hinton/

Building Organizational Memories Will You Know What You

Knew Premier Reference Source 1st Edition John P.
Girard

https://ebookname.com/product/building-organizational-memories-
will-you-know-what-you-knew-premier-reference-source-1st-edition-
john-p-girard/

Man Machine Dialogue Design and Challenges 1st Edition

Frédéric Landragin

https://ebookname.com/product/man-machine-dialogue-design-and-
challenges-1st-edition-frederic-landragin/

Thermal Energy Storage Systems and Applications 3rd

Edition Ibrahim Dinçer

https://ebookname.com/product/thermal-energy-storage-systems-and-
applications-3rd-edition-ibrahim-dincer/
Construction Supply Chain Management Handbook 1st
Edition William J. O'Brien

https://ebookname.com/product/construction-supply-chain-
management-handbook-1st-edition-william-j-obrien/
B UILDING A M ONITORING
INFRASTRUCTURE WITH
N AGIOS
This page intentionally left blank
B UILDING A M ONITORING
INFRASTRUCTURE WITH
N AGIOS

David Josephsen

Upper Saddle River, NJ • Boston • Indianapolis • San Francisco

New York • Toronto • Montreal • London • Munich • Paris
Madrid • Cape Town • Sydney • Tokyo • Singapore • Mexico City
Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trade-
marks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trademark claim, the des-
ignations have been printed with initial capital letters or in all capitals.
The author and publisher have taken care in the preparation of this book, but make no expressed or implied war-
ranty of any kind and assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or
consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the use of the information or programs contained
herein.
The publisher offers excellent discounts on this book when ordered in quantity for bulk purchases or special sales,
which may include electronic versions and/or custom covers and content particular to your business, training
goals, marketing focus, and branding interests. For more information, please contact:
U.S. Corporate and Government Sales
(800) 382-3419
corpsales@pearsontechgroup.com

For sales outside the United States please contact:

International Sales
international@pearsoned.com

This Book Is Safari Enabled

The Safari® Enabled icon on the cover of your favorite technology book means the book is available
through Safari Bookshelf. When you buy this book, you get free access to the online edition for 45 days.
Safari Bookshelf is an electronic reference library that lets you easily search thousands of technical books,
find code samples, download chapters, and access technical information whenever and wherever you need
it.

If you have difficulty registering on Safari Bookshelf or accessing the online edition, please e-mail customer-
service@safaribooksonline.com.

Visit us on the Web: www.prenhallprofessional.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Josephsen, David.
Building a Monitoring Infrastructure with Nagios / David Josephsen, 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-13-223693-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Computer systems—Evaluation. 2. Computer systems—Reliability.
3. Computer networks—Monitoring. I. Title.

QA76.9.E94J69 2007
004.2’4--dc22
2006037765
Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected by copyright, and permis-
sion must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or
transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. For infor-
mation regarding permissions, write to:
Pearson Education, Inc.
Rights and Contracts Department
75 Arlington Street, Suite 300
Boston, MA 02116
Fax: (617) 848-7047

ISBN 0-132-23693-1
Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at R.R. Donnelley & Sons in Crawfordsville, IN 60#
in Williamsburg
First printing, February 2007
For Gu, for enduring and encouraging my incessant curiosity.
And for Tito, the cat with the biggest heart.
This page intentionally left blank
 CONTENTS

Acknowledgments xiii

About the Author xv

About the Technical Reviewers xvii

Introduction xix
Do it Right the First Time xix
Why Nagios? xx
What’s in This Book? xxii
Who Should Read This Book? xxiv

CHAPTER 1 Best Practices 1

A Procedural Approach to Systems Monitoring 1
Processing and Overhead 4
Remote Versus Local Processing 4
Bandwidth Considerations 4
Network Location and Dependencies 6
Security 7
Silence Is Golden 9
Watching Ports Versus Watching Applications 11
Who’s Watching the Watchers? 11

CHAPTER 2 Theory of Operations 13

The Host and Service Paradigm 14
Starting from Scratch 14
Hosts and Services 15

vii
viii Contents

Interdependence 16
The Down Side of Hosts and Services 17
Plugins 18
Exit Codes 18
Remote Execution 20
Scheduling 23
Check Interval and States 23
Distributing the Load 26
Reapers and Parallel Execution 27
Notification 28
Global Gotchas 28
Notification Options 29
Templates 30
Time Periods 30
Scheduled Downtime, Acknowledgments, and Escalations 31
I/O Interfaces Summarized 32
The Web Interface 32
Monitoring 33
Reporting 36
The External Command File 37
Performance Data 37
The Event Broker 38

CHAPTER 3 Installing Nagios 39

OS Support and the FHS 39
Installation Steps and Prerequisites 41
Installing Nagios 41
Configure 42
Make 44
Make Install 44
Patches 45
Secondary IP Patch 46
SNMP Community String Patch 46
Colored Statusmap Patch 46
Installing the Plugins 47
Installing NRPE 48
Contents ix

CHAPTER 4 Configuring Nagios 51

Objects and Definitions 52
nagios.cfg 54
The CGI Config 57
Templates 58
Timeperiods 60
Commands 61
Contacts 62
Contactgroup 64
Hosts 64
Services 66
Hostgroups 68
Servicegroups 69
Escalations 69
Dependencies 70
Extended Information 72
Apache Configuration 72
GO! 73

CHAPTER 5 Bootstrapping the Configs 75

Scripting Templates 76
Auto-Discovery 79
Nmap and NACE 79
Namespace 81
GUI Configuration Tools 82
Fruity 82
Monarch 83

CHAPTER 6 Watching 85
Local Queries 85
Pings 86
Port Queries 88
Querying Multiple Ports 90
(More) Complex Service Checks 92
E2E Monitoring with WebInject 94
x Contents

Watching Windows 98
The Windows Scripting Environment 98
COM and OLE 100
WMI 101
To WSH or not to WSH 105
To VB or Not to VB 106
The Future of Windows Scripting 107
Getting Down to Business 109
NRPE 109
NSClient/NSCPlus 111
Watching UNIX 112
NRPE 113
CPU 113
Memory 116
Disk 118
Watching “Other Stuff ” 119
SNMP 119
Working with SNMP 122
Environmental Sensors 126
Stand-alone Sensors 127
LMSensors 128
IPMI 129

CHAPTER 7 Visualization 131

Foundations, MRTG, and RRDTool 132
MRTG 135
RRDTool 135
RRD Data Types 136
Heartbeat and Step 137
Min and Max 139
Round Robin Archives 139
RRDTool Create Syntax 140
Data Collection and Polling 145
Shopping for Glue 145
NagiosGraph 146
Front-Ends and Dashboards 149
RRDTool Graph Mode 149
Contents xi

RPN 152
Shopping for Front-Ends 154
drraw 155
Management Interfaces 158
Know What You’re Doing 159
RRDTool Fetch Mode 162
The GD Graphics Library 164
NagVis 166
GraphViz 167
Sparklines 169
Force Directed Graphs with jsvis 171

CHAPTER 8 Nagios Event Broker Interface 173

Function References and Callbacks in C 173
The NEB Architecture 175
Implementing a Filesystem Interface Using NEB 178

APPENDIX A Configure Options 193

APPENDIX B nagios.cfg and cgi.cfg 197

APPENDIX C Command-Line Options 207

Nagios 207
Nagios Binary 207
Plugins 208
check_ping 208
check_tcp 209
check_http 211
check_load 213
check_disk 213
check_procs 215

Index 217
This page intentionally left blank
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I’m terrified to think of the wrong I might do by leaving someone out of this section. Though
I’m tempted to give in to that fear and abandon the endeavor entirely, it wouldn’t be fair
because the wisdom, encouragement, and time I’ve received from those around me are gifts
that cannot go unacknowledged.
First in line is my wife Cynthia, who has put on hold a year’s worth of projects to make
time for me to write. She is patient and encouraging and pretty, and I love her.
Thanks to my parents for being so thrilled and supportive throughout the duration.
To my surrogate family: Jose, Elodia, Claudia, and Ana, for their warmth and well
wishes.
Tito, Chuck, Lucas, Gillie, Thunder, Daemos, Phobos, and Gus, who brighten my
days and have had to make due with a small house until I could get the time to fix up
the new one.
Jer, the best co-author, mentor, and friend a guy could ask for.
I owe my boss at DBG, Todd Rowan, more than a little time and attention.
The tech reviewers on this project were outstanding. In no particular order: Russell
Adams, Kate Harris, Chris Burgess, and Taylor Dondich. I want you guys to know that I’m
working on figuring out the difference between “weather” and “whether” and shortly there-
after, I plan to tackle the intricacies of the apostrophe.
Lastly, my editors at Prentice Hall have been great. They aren’t at all like the editors in
Spiderman or Fletch, which is what I was expecting. Catherine Nolan, Raina Chrobak, and
Mark Taub are an amazingly hardworking, on-the-ball, and clued-in group of professionals.
They’ve been patient and helpful, and I appreciate their time and attention.
Thanks.

xiii
This page intentionally left blank
Other documents randomly have
different content
of 90,666, and the Progressive primary vote was only 6,972 out of a
total enrollment of 19,705 and a vote in November of 5,604. It will
be readily perceived from these figures that a small minority of the
voters in each party took the trouble to participate in the direct
primary elections, even in the case of the nomination for governor of
our state, as to which there was an exciting contest in each party.
An examination of the figures throughout the entire state will show
that the voters in nearly all districts took less interest in direct
primary elections for nominations than they were accustomed to
take under the old convention system and that the controlling power
is still being exercised by the organization, but now acting in secret
and utterly irresponsible. For example, the Republican primary vote
for governor in Bronx county was 5,276 against a Republican vote of
29,865 in November, and in Richmond county the Republican
primary vote for governor was 984 against a Republican vote of
5,477 in November. It is probably correct to assume that not one-
half of the Republican or Democratic voters now enroll, and that, on
an average, less than one-half of the enrolled voters take the trouble
to go to the primaries, even when there is a serious contest, as was
the case last year for governor. There were then three proposed
Republican candidates, Whitman, Hedges and Hinman, and the
result was that less than one-sixth of the Republican vote in
November might have been sufficient to carry the primaries, the
total Republican vote for governor having been 686,701 as against a
total primary vote of 226,037 for the three candidates. Under the
present direct primaries, the voters of a small portion of the state
can put a candidate in nomination by petition; any number of names
may be put on the official primary ballot, and a candidate may be
put in nomination by a very small minority vote confined to a single
locality. In fact, twenty or more names can be placed by petition on
the official primary ballot of any party as candidates for any elective
office, and the name of the person receiving the largest number of
votes will be that of the candidate of a great party, to whose support
the party will be committed and for whose conduct in office the
party will be responsible, although the successful candidate may be
entirely unknown to nineteen-twentieths of the voters at that
particular primary. Under the present primary system, in view of the
small number of those participating in primaries, an insignificant
percentage of the voters at a primary could nominate a candidate of
whose qualifications and personal character the majority of the party
were wholly ignorant, or a candidate whom an overwhelming
majority would utterly repudiate. Sulzer came very near carrying the
direct primary of the Progressive party. This shows how readily the
direct primary system engenders factions and irresponsibility, and
how unfit it is for securing the expression of the intelligent and
instructed will of the majority of any party. Moreover, there is no way
of ascertaining for whom petitions are being circulated; no publicity
is required even after the time for filing petitions, and the great
majority of enrolled voters generally have no idea of the candidates
for office on the official primary ballot until they open the official
ballots at their polling-places. The press is either uninterested or
partisan, and it fails adequately to discuss the qualifications and
character of candidates.
I submit that it is absurd to claim that such a method of nominating
state officers to administer government for a population of over
10,000,000 is more likely to secure competent and trustworthy
candidates, or to express the real preference and the sober and
intelligent judgment of the majority of the voters of each party, than
the old method of nominating state officers by public conventions
composed of delegates and representatives of the voters from each
assembly or election district of the state, proceeding in the open
with full opportunity for investigation, discussion and criticism.
The conventions of the two great political parties held at Saratoga
last year, at which the party platforms in respect of the approaching
Constitutional Convention were adopted and fifteen delegates-at-
large "recommended," were wholly unofficial and unregulated by
law. What was practically the nomination by the conventions of
candidates for delegates-at-large was unauthorized and operated
only as a mere recommendation. They had to be nominated by
petition as fully as if the conventions had never met. These
conventions thus nominated delegates because they realized, and
every thinking man in the state appreciated, that it would be
preposterous to leave the selection and nomination of fifteen
delegates-at-large to the mass of enrolled voters who would have no
opportunity for conference and exchange of views in respect of the
qualifications and character of the candidates. Some informed,
responsible and representative body of men had to act, and
therefore the conventions acted—in the very teeth of the law. They,
however, refrained from considering candidates for the great office
of governor, on the theory that it would be violating the spirit and
intent of the Election Law to take any action in regard to candidates
for that office! What inconsistency! The most important and vital
subject of the governorship was left to the hazard of petitions
circulated among the enrolled voters throughout the state. There
were no organizations of any kind among the voters, except what
are known as the political organizations, and no other means of
communication and exchange of views or debate. Of course, it was
confidently anticipated that the organization in each party would
determine, or at least would have it within its power to determine,
who should be the candidates of that party. Such proved to be the
case. No candidate was nominated at the direct primaries for a state
office unless he was supported by the regular organization or
machine of his party. And that, I believe, will be the practical result
of direct primaries in nine cases out of ten, and more readily and
frequently and unsatisfactorily than under the old convention
system.
Careful observers of the operation of the primary law last year in this
state, and for several years in other states, have become convinced
that the result of this so-called reform has been not only to increase
the power of the regular organization or machine but to render it
utterly irresponsible. The organization now acts in secret behind
closed doors and without accountability to any one except its own
inner circle. The leaders have only to whisper their orders over the
telephone to the workers in each district, preserving no record, and
the desired result is accomplished. If an unfit and improper
nomination is made, the leaders can disclaim all responsibility and
say that such is the will of the sovereign people. As the vote at the
primary is secret, no one can be blamed; there is no individual or
group of individuals upon whom responsibility can ever be fastened.
If it be argued that there is actual responsibility and that everyone
knows it, then I answer that this is only by admitting that, after all,
the secret machine or boss is in fact responsible and still rules, and
now more effectively than ever.
As has been pointed out by many able writers, the convention
system in the past has been of inestimable service to this country.
With all its vagaries, it afforded the highest test of a political
representative institution in a democratic community and the
soundest and purest application of the principle of representation or
delegated authority; it operated to bind party elements firmly
together; it afforded full opportunity for exchange of views, criticism
and debate, for the propagation of principles, for the conciliation of
factions; it inspired enthusiastic party life. The convention, if
honestly conducted, was a thoroughly representative and
deliberative body, and it was the true cause of party success and of
the maintenance and perpetuation of party principles and policies, as
well as political faith and devotion. In a word, the convention was
and still is the best instrument ever devised for securing concert of
choice and responsible and intelligent action by large bodies of
voters belonging to the same political party and believing in the
same political faith, principles and policies.
I am not at all blind to the fact that there have been great abuses in
the convention system, and that conventions have been at times
corruptly organized or conducted. But I know of no form of abuse or
corruption which could not have been remedied by appropriate and
intelligent legislation, or which could not have been prevented in
New York by action of the voters if the legislation of the past twenty-
five years had been generally availed of by the majority in each
party. The control of all nominations was in the hands of the
majority, if they had only taken the trouble to enroll and vote for
competent representatives at primary elections. There is no practical
remedy for abuse of power, fraud, or corruption in nominations for
office but the participation in politics of all voters as a duty of
citizenship. The notion that the direct primary would eliminate the
professional politician and the boss has been shown to be false in
every state where the scheme has been tried. Indeed, quite the
contrary has been the result, and the last condition is worse than the
first; for, to repeat myself, manipulators, wire-pullers and political
bosses now work in secret and by underground channels without
any responsibility or accountability whatever, and are, nevertheless,
able cynically to point to the direct primary as the expression of the
people's sovereign will—a primary which may be carried by a very
small minority of the party.
I assume that all the members of this Constitutional Convention
believe that the existence of political parties is essential to the
success of free government and to permanence and stability of
political policy, and that the perpetuation of party government is
desirable for the welfare and best interests of this state. Men cannot
secure results and compass their ends in politics, any more than in
most other human concerns and matters requiring concerted action,
except by organization, cooperation, discipline and responsibility. The
value of the service rendered to the American people by the great
political parties is incalculable, and if these parties are to be
disrupted and their organization and cohesiveness undermined, the
result must inevitably be a most serious injury to the body politic.
Whether we regard political parties, on the one hand, as
organizations of men believing in the same political faith, principles
and policies and uniting to introduce or uphold those principles and
policies, or, on the other hand, merely as organizations to secure
office and administer government—both of which aspects present
patriotic motives—it is desirable for the permanent welfare of the
people of every free country that parties should be maintained, and
particularly that there should be two great responsible parties, each
striving for control and ready to assume the responsibility of
government and of the adoption of particular measures. A public
official who belongs to a great political party and owes his
preferment to that party is under a double sense of responsibility for
efficiency, honesty and consistency in public office. He has a sense
of responsibility and duty to the state as a whole, and he has a
sense of responsibility and duty to his party, and both are moral
factors of inestimable worth in securing integrity, efficiency and
industry in public office.
In its real origin, the movement to abolish the convention system
and introduce direct nominating primaries sprang not from any hope
of reforming the existing political parties but from a desire to subvert
and destroy the American system of government by political parties.
The scheme was later taken up by men who sincerely desired to
reform party management and correct party abuses, who
conscientiously despaired of reform within the parties themselves,
and who conceived and finally came to believe that betterment could
be brought about only by uprooting and casting aside all the party
machinery, organization and discipline which had been built up by
the practical experience of over a century. The plea of bringing the
government back to the people was catching and plausible, and it
found eager response in the deeply rooted dislike of party
machinery, party discipline and party constancy on the part of those
who habitually neglect all attention to politics and the political duties
of citizenship except during periods of popular excitement and
upheaval.
Although I am one of those who believe in independence in politics
and in the right and duty of every citizen to vote against his party if
in his judgment the public interests so require, I profoundly believe
that party government and party organization and machinery are
absolutely essential under our form of government. Political parties
in America have given stability to governmental policies and have
created the only effective restraint upon disintegration and individual
caprice or demagogism. There must be coherence in political forces;
there must be concentration and direction of the political energy of
communities; there must be some systematic and practical method
of investigating the qualifications of candidates and selecting
competent public officials; there must be stability, harmony and
cooperation in governmental policies. These can be secured in the
long run only by and through permanently organized and disciplined
political parties. No other method has yet been discovered by which
effectively to express political opinion, to secure stability in
governmental administration and policies, and to effectuate the real
and permanent judgment of the people and promote their best
interests.
President Wilson some years ago, in referring to attacks upon party
government in the United States, used the following striking
language, which I think should be now recalled:
"I know that it has been proposed by enthusiastic, but not too
practical, reformers to do away with parties by some legerdemain of
governmental reconstruction, accompanied and supplemented by
some rehabilitation, devoutly to be wished, of the virtues least
commonly controlling in fallen human nature; but it seems to me
that it would be more difficult and less desirable than these amiable
persons suppose to conduct a government of the many by means of
any other device than party organization, and that the great need is,
not to get rid of parties, but to find and use some expedient by
which they can be managed and made amenable from day to day to
public opinion." "Whatever their faults and abuses, party machines
are absolutely necessary under our existing electoral arrangements,
and are necessary chiefly for keeping the several segments of
parties together.... It is important to keep this in mind. Otherwise,
when we analyze party action, we shall fall into the too common
error of thinking that we are analyzing disease. As a matter of fact
the whole thing is just as normal and natural as any other political
development. The part that party has played in this country has
been both necessary and beneficial, and if bosses and secret
managers are often undesirable persons, playing their parts for their
own benefit or glorification rather than for the public good, they are
at least the natural fruits of the tree. It has borne fruit good and
bad, sweet and bitter, wholesome and corrupt, but it is native to our
air and practice and can be uprooted only by an entire change of
system."[67]
For these reasons I earnestly urge upon the Constitutional
Convention of the state of New York the restoration of nominating
state conventions for elective state offices. I do so because I believe
that they are the best means of maintaining political parties, of
formulating their principles and policies, of purifying and disciplining
their management, of stimulating political enthusiasm and
disinterestedness, and of selecting and nominating fit and
representative individuals as candidates for high public office. I
further urge that the nominees of any such convention should not
need any further designation than the filing of a certificate by the
proper convention officers. If it be concluded, however, that the
direct primary system should be continued for the purpose of party
nominations, then it should be provided that the name of the
nominee of the convention should be placed on the official primary
ballot with the designation "nominated by convention." This would
enable the enrolled voters to ratify or overrule the action of their
convention. I am, however, convinced that this nominating primary
would impose an unnecessary burden upon the electorate, and that
it would be a mistake to increase the number of elections. We
should then have three elections: first, the election of delegates to
the nominating convention; second, the official primaries, and third,
the general election. It seems to me that it would answer every
purpose if adequate provision were retained for independent
nominations by petition and if nominating primaries were dispensed
with. This would enable voters belonging to any party to place
candidates in the field in opposition to the nominees of the
convention if they were dissatisfied with those nominees.
Assuming that we are to continue the system of electing judges to
our highest judicial offices, that is, judges of the Court of Appeals
and justices of the Supreme Court, then I submit that candidates for
these very important offices should be nominated by conventions
and not by direct primaries. I regard this as even more essential in
the case of nomination for judicial office than in the case of
nomination for executive office.
The qualities required in a candidate for high judicial office are
knowledge of the law, love of justice, high personal character,
calmness, impartiality and independence. Mere popularity, or what
so often is necessary to popularity, good-fellowship, is the last
quality we look for in a judge. The self-seeker and self-advertiser is
seldom qualified by temperament or character for judicial office. It
requires the most thorough investigation as to the professional
learning, career and conduct of a candidate and the most sifting
exchange of views before a judicial candidate can be intelligently
and wisely selected. For want of adequate means of acquiring
information, the public in such large constituencies as the whole
state of New York (in the case of judges of the Court of Appeals)
and the various judicial districts (in the case of justices of the
Supreme Court) cannot intelligently estimate the qualifications of
judicial candidates. It seems to me nonsense to argue that in parties
composed of hundreds of thousands of enrolled electors dispersed
throughout the state, the voters can investigate, or exchange views,
or intelligently act in regard to the qualifications of lawyers who are
proposed as candidates for judicial office—almost as preposterous as
if we were to select judicial candidates by lot from the names placed
on the official primary list.
The test of fitness for judicial office should indisputably be higher
and more technical than for other offices. That test should require
special capacity and character, to be ascertained by careful
investigation, exchange of views, open discussion and comparison of
merits by responsible delegates or representatives charged with that
particular duty and acting in public and personally accountable for
mistake, perversion, or corruption. This test can be best secured by
the convention system; practically it cannot be secured at all by any
system of secret direct primaries.
Reform in the selection of judges, if their selection is to be by
election, lies not in schemes to reform human nature by legislative
nostrums and to destroy publicity and responsibility, but in making
the voters appreciate that the government is theirs, that political
power is theirs, that theirs is the duty to send competent
representatives to conventions, that theirs is the responsibility of
electing competent men, and that they are vitally interested in
having a competent, impartial and independent judiciary. Political
conventions will be reliable and responsive if the people will only see
to it that competent, honest and patriotic men are elected to
represent them. There is no other course unless we uproot our
whole system of republican government.
Ten years of experimenting with our Election Law have produced the
present hodge-podge under which no election is conducted without
error and without inviting a lawsuit and from which all but experts
and professional politicians turn away in irritation and disgust. The
net result has been to complicate our elections and make them less
and less responsive to the best public opinion, and more and more
subject to the control of professional politicians, wire-pullers and
bosses.
In conclusion, though repeating myself, I earnestly submit that there
can be no greater menace to our political institutions and to
government by the people than the prevailing tendency to weaken
and impair the representative principle in our state governments by
nominating executive and judicial officers through direct secret
primaries instead of through public conventions composed of
delegates or representatives duly chosen by the enrolled voters of
the parties and charged with the duty of selecting competent and
honest candidates and directly accountable to the locality they
represent for the failure to perform that duty. These delegates
represent the people of the various districts of the state; they come
together in public; they exchange and discuss views, or at any rate
have full opportunity for debate and criticism; they vote in public for
this or that candidate, and then they return to their neighbors, to
those who sent them and for whom they spoke and voted, and face
accountability and responsibility. Is not such a proceeding much
more likely to secure competent and honest candidates than the
present system of leaving the voter at large to slip into a dimly
lighted booth and secretly place a cross on an unidentifiable ballot?
The convention system is sound and should be preserved; it alone
will perpetuate our parties and our form of government, and in
casting the representative principle aside, as is necessarily done in
the direct primary system of nominations for state and judicial office,
we are beginning a process which, if not checked, will end in what
Lincoln called political suicide.

FOOTNOTES:
[64] Remarks before the Committee on Suffrage of the
Constitutional Convention of the state of New York at Albany,
June 16, 1915.
[65] Laws of 1911, ch. 891.
[66] Laws of 1913, ch. 820.
[67] Congressional Government, p. 97, and Constitutional
Government in the United States, pp. 209, 210.
 CATHOLIC PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS[68]
THE completion of this building, its dedication to education, and the
opening of its doors as a Catholic parochial school are matters of no
ordinary significance in this community. By means of the present
function we are publicly emphasizing the religious character of the
educational work to be undertaken here. Due respect for the opinion
of our neighbors and fellow-citizens seems to call for some
statement from the standpoint of the Catholic laity in explanation of
the reasons which have impelled a comparatively poor congregation
to incur this great expense and to assume an obligation of future
maintenance which year after year will constitute a very serious and
increasing burden. It is indeed a striking event that a congregation,
very few of whom have large means, should have erected and
equipped such a building, costing over $150,000, and should have
pledged itself to support the school and ultimately to discharge the
remaining mortgage indebtedness of $50,000.
There is unfortunately much misunderstanding and criticism among
our fellow-citizens of other denominations in regard to the attitude
of the Roman Catholic Church towards the important and far-
reaching subject of the education of children in the public schools,
and the Catholic point of view is frequently misrepresented.
In the first place, it is constantly asserted that Catholics are opposed
to the public school system of America. On the contrary, Catholics
approve and support the public schools, and willingly vote and pay
their share of the taxes necessary for the maintenance of these
schools. They believe that the state should provide free common
schools for the education of children, so that every American child
not only shall have an opportunity of securing a free education but
may be compelled to take advantage of the opportunity thus
provided. They recognize that in this country it is generally
impracticable in the common schools to teach the tenets of religious
faiths, because to compel children indiscriminately to study the
doctrines of any particular religion in which their parents do not
believe would destroy all religious freedom and would be contrary to
fundamental rights. They recognize further that to attempt to teach
in the public schools the tenets of the Catholic, the Jewish and the
numerous Protestant denominations, would be quite impossible and
inevitably would lead to religious chaos. They realize that absolute
equality or religious freedom can be secured only by making the
public schools non-sectarian. Catholics, therefore, favor the
maintenance of the system of free common schools; they have
heretofore supported and will continue to support the system,
although they object to some of the details of management, and
they will send and do send their children to these public schools
wherever there are no Catholic schools. In fact, fully one-half of the
Catholic children of our country are now attending public schools
because of the lack of Catholic schools.
Thousands of well-to-do Protestants and Jews—many in our own
immediate neighborhood—send their children to private schools,
whether day or boarding schools, in many of which the Protestant
faith is taught. Yet no one suggests that, because these parents
send their children to private schools, they are in any sense acting in
hostility to the public schools, or to American institutions, or to the
best interests of their own children. As parents, they have and ought
to have the right to send their children to such schools as they think
will afford them an education more complete and more conducive to
the formation of moral character than they can secure at the public
schools. Catholics are but exercising the same common right, and
what, moreover, they believe to be their duty as parents, when they
send their children to the parochial schools which are erected,
equipped and maintained at their own expense.
Another misrepresentation, and one which Catholics resent, is the
statement that the parochial and other Catholic schools do not
inculcate patriotism, and that they teach anti-American doctrines.
Any candid investigator will readily find that this charge is wholly
unfounded. In Catholic schools, patriotism, obedience to the law and
loyalty to the Constitution are taught as a religious even more than a
civic duty; the best and highest ideals of American patriotism and
citizenship are exalted. No true American Catholic can be other than
a good and patriotic American citizen. Children are taught in these
schools that loyal obedience to the laws and religious tolerance are
the two essential elements of good Catholic citizenship, and in every
form and aspect they are impressed with the obligation as a religious
duty to render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's and unto
God the things which are God's and to be ever thankful that in this
country these two separate obligations are wholly reconcilable.
The fundamental and controlling reason or motive for the
establishment and maintenance of parochial schools is the profound
conviction on the part of all Roman Catholics, in which conviction
clergy and laity are a unit, that the welfare of the state, the stability
of the Union, the continuance of civil and religious freedom, and the
lasting happiness of the individual depend upon the code and
standards of morality, discipline, self-restraint and temperance
taught by religion. The student of history well knows that social
order and civilized society have always rested upon religion; that
there has never been a civilized nation without religion; that free
government has never long endured except in countries where some
religious faith has prevailed, and that our own country for three
centuries has been an essentially religious country, by which I mean
that the great majority of citizens have been believers in God and in
some Christian religion. When the Constitution of the United States
was established, the Americans were a truly religious people, and as
a whole held firmly to one form or another of Christian faith. It has
been recently pointed out by Archbishop Ireland in the Cathedral of
St. Paul that in those days, "to stay away from religious service on
Sunday was to invoke upon one's self serious public criticism." It is
quite true that the great majority of Americans were then
Protestants, but they were a religious majority. The Catholics can
never forget that they owe the blessing of the religious liberty and
tolerance which they now enjoy to a generation that was
overwhelmingly Protestant and that it was first granted at an epoch
when religious liberty and tolerance were practically unknown in
Europe, whether in Catholic or Protestant countries.
Lord Bryce in his great work on "The American Commonwealth" has
reviewed the influence of religion in this country, and has declared
that "one is startled by the thought of what might befall this huge
yet delicate fabric of laws and commerce and social institutions were
the foundation it has rested upon to crumble away." That foundation
he recognized to be religion, and he admonished us that "the more
democratic republics become, the more the masses grow conscious
of their own power, the more do they need to live, not only by
patriotism, but by reverence and self-control, and the more essential
to their well-being are those sources whence reverence and self-
control flow."[69] Catholics believe that those sources of reverence
and self-control are to be found in religion, and that if we sow in
irreligion we shall reap in irreligion. Hence the firm and
uncompromising determination of Catholic clergy and laity that
thorough and efficient religious instruction, so far as lies in their
power, shall be a vital and essential element in the education of
every American Catholic child.
I very much doubt whether any respectable number of sensible and
reflecting American citizens in our day would challenge the truth that
morality is essential to the maintenance of civilized society and
government, that the greatest influence for morality is to be found in
the churches of the various denominations throughout the country,
and that in teaching morality the churches are rendering a patriotic
service and promoting the best interests and the highest policy of
the state. I venture to assert that the only reasonable difference of
opinion possible among candid and just men is as to the best way of
inculcating religion in the young and the extent to which religious
instruction is essential as a part of the complete education of
children. On the one hand, there are those who conscientiously
assert and sincerely believe that their children can receive all the
religious training they need at home or at Sunday school and that
they do not require any religious instruction in the daily schoolroom;
on the other hand, there are those who conscientiously assert and
sincerely believe that religion is the most essential part of the
education of the child and of the forming of its moral character, that
few parents have the time or the ability to teach religion to their
children, and that religion can properly be taught only by making it
part and parcel of the early schoolroom and of every day's
instruction and study, while the mind and character of the child are
plastic. The latter view is that of Catholics and of constantly
increasing numbers of Protestants who send their children to private
schools in which the doctrines of their faith are taught.
In the Catholic view, the influence of the school upon the future
manhood and womanhood and citizenship of the country cannot be
over-estimated. The school is the nursery where the mind and heart
of the impressionable child are moulded into enduring form; the
subtle influence of daily religious surroundings, including example
and suggestion in the classroom, is as strong and pervading as it is
difficult to analyze; the lessons of the primary and elementary school
are those that endure and in time dominate the child's mind; and
the visible examples of daily discipline, uniformity of ideals,
obedience, self-control and disinterested devotedness to Church and
country, indeed the very atmosphere of the Catholic religious school,
are of themselves formative and educative elements. It is the
classroom that is the training field of character and good citizenship
—of true manhood and womanhood. Yet many would wholly exclude
and banish its most important and essential feature!
Catholics believe that religion and the philosophy of Christianity are
not to be taught haphazard, at odd moments, or by untrained
persons, and that a firm grasp of the truths of the Catholic religion—
or in fact of any religion—by the immature minds and hearts of
children cannot be secured by merely reciting abstract maxims of
morality, or without constant example and precept, daily lessons,
long training and thorough drilling. They further believe that, except
in rare instances, this cannot be done by home instruction or by
attendance at Sunday school once a week. The immense sacrifices
that Catholics have made and are making all over the country ought
to demonstrate how sincere is their conviction upon this point. We
may form some idea of the extent of this sacrifice from this building
and from the fact that the assessed valuation of the Catholic
parochial schools in the city of New York is now over $30,000,000.
The story of the heroic struggles and sacrifices of Catholics in order
to maintain their system of schools for the education of their
children ought to be known to every American Catholic, for it is the
most thrilling and inspiring page in the history of their church. The
time remaining to me will permit only a brief review of the results
accomplished. It is an accomplishment of which Catholics may justly
feel proud.
The greatest single religious fact in the United States to-day is
undoubtedly the Catholic school system maintained by private
individuals. The Catholic parish schools now number over 5,000, and
the academies and colleges over 900, with over 1,500,000 pupils in
attendance at these schools and colleges. More than 20,000 Catholic
men and women unselfishly devote their lives to the work of
teaching in these schools, academies and colleges. The system is
crowned by a great Catholic university at Washington with an
attendance of nearly 1,500. This vast educational organization is
maintained at a yearly cost of millions of dollars without any public
aid whatever, except the exemption of school property from ordinary
taxation. The efficiency of the Catholic schools and colleges has long
been demonstrated by examinations and practical results, and it is at
last generally conceded. The Catholic schools teach everything that
is taught in the public schools and, in addition, they teach religion
and religious morality. The standards of education in all secular
branches are equal and in many instances superior to those of the
neighborhood public or private schools. In other words, Catholic
children are as well educated in the Catholic schools as in the public
schools; they come from them as well trained and as patriotic as the
children coming from any other schools, and in addition they are
thoroughly grounded in the doctrines of their great religion. I say
"great" because it is the great religion of all Christendom as well as
of this country. When the Constitution of the United States was
framed at the Philadelphia convention of 1787, there were only
about 25,000 avowed Catholics in the whole Union. To-day they
number 17,000,000. More than one-third of all who now attend
Christian churches in the United States are Roman Catholics. The
Catholic Church has several times as many members as any other
religious denomination. The figures in the state of New York show
that about 65 per cent., nearly two-thirds, of all regular attendants
at Christian churches, are Roman Catholics, and that the remaining
attendants are divided among many separate Protestant
denominations. Hence the correctness of the assertion that the
Catholic religion is the great religion of this country.
It is true and should be added that Catholics hope that the day will
come when the people of all denominations will more adequately
appreciate the fact that religious instruction tends to promote the
best and the most loyal citizenship, that the Catholic parochial
schools are, therefore, rendering a public service, and that as such
they should be allotted a reasonable part of the public educational
fund raised from general taxation, measured by and limited to the
actual saving to that fund, provided also that a required standard of
education be maintained. In England, for example, the Catholic
parochial schools receive grants of public moneys if they fulfil certain
conditions of efficiency in secular instruction, staff qualification and
equipment, and the extent of these grants is approximately the
actual saving to the public fund. In the Catholic diocese of Long
Island, in which we live, there are now over 68,000 children being
educated in the Catholic schools and colleges, and in Greater New
York there are more than 130,000 children attending the parochial
schools. All these children would have to be educated in the public
schools and at the expense of the taxpayers if the Catholic schools
did not educate them, and this Catholic education involves an
immense direct saving to the public school fund. Statistics recently
submitted to the Constitutional Convention sitting at Albany showed
that the immediate saving to the city of New York alone from the
parochial schools was fully $7,500,000 per annum, and that not one
penny of this saving was being contributed by the city or the state to
the cost of educating and training these Catholic children.
Consequently, it is not unreasonable to believe that justice and
tolerance will finally prevail, and that the day will come when it will
be recognized as equitable and as a wise and enlightened public
policy to provide that whenever any denomination, whether Catholic,
Protestant, or Jewish, is, in addition to giving religious instruction,
educating and training large numbers of children according to
satisfactory secular standards and tests, and is thereby relieving the
public educational fund, every such denominational school should be
granted out of the public funds some part of the actual saving so
made, because it is rendering a public service. A basis of adjustment
will, I am confident, be ultimately worked out, which will be fair and
just to all denominations. But in the meantime the private schools
where both secular and religious training are given to children,
including the Catholic parochial schools, must continue to be
erected, equipped and supported wholly by the members of the
various denominations. There are now numerous Protestant private
schools where the Protestant faith is being taught; and what is true
of the Catholic parochial schools is also true of the Protestant
schools.
We are all so accustomed to the blessings of absolute religious
liberty that we really find it difficult to imagine that any other
condition could ever have been tolerated in the free air of America,
and we are very apt to overlook or minimize the value of the most
precious privilege we enjoy. Yet, it is only a few generations since
religious intolerance prevailed in the United States and Catholics
were mercilessly and barbarously persecuted. The first constitution
of the state of New York in 1777 discriminated against Catholics by
permitting only Protestants to become citizens of the state, and this
was done notwithstanding the fact that the Continental Congress
had three years before entreated the states to bury religious
intolerance forever in oblivion. At one time in the colony of New York
Catholic priests were hunted as criminals, were condemned to
perpetual imprisonment if apprehended, and were to suffer the
death penalty if they broke prison and were retaken. Catholics could
not hold civil or military positions, and could not even worship God
according to their faith without becoming criminals and liable to
imprisonment. The only period of full religious tolerance and liberty
in our colonial history was for a short time during the term of
Governor Dongan, who was a Roman Catholic.
All this intolerance has happily passed away never to return, and
religious liberty is now firmly established. I recall the past only in
order to impress upon your minds that we should treasure this
blessing and be ever grateful to the generation of Americans,
overwhelmingly Protestant, which gave us religious freedom and in
doing so went far toward atoning for the past persecution of
Catholics.
In conclusion, I must add that we Catholics of the Parish of St.
Patrick of Glen Cove should acclaim our appreciation of the great
service and unselfish devotion of the one person whose whole-
hearted energy has made this school possible and without whose
example we should despair of maintaining it. Long may this beautiful
building endure as a splendid monument to the faith and patriotism
of a Catholic priest, our beloved pastor, Bernard O'Reilly. We must
also voice our cordial welcome and pledge of support to the Sisters
of Notre Dame, worthy members of a great American Catholic
sisterhood devoted to the education of children, who are now about
to take up among us the task of teaching our children. They will
labor week after week and year after year, devotedly and unselfishly,
for a pittance barely sufficient to supply their absolute physical
needs, with little or no expectation of public recognition. They will
seek and find their reward solely in the inward satisfaction of the
day's work and duty well done and in the inspiring and quickening
maxim of their order and of their whole daily life that their holy task
is ever
Pro Deo et Ecclesia et Patria.

FOOTNOTES:
[68] Remarks at the dedication of the Roman Catholic parochial
school at Glen Cove, Long Island, New York, on September 6,
1915.
[69] The American Commonwealth, new edition (1912), vol. II,
pp. 793, 794.
 THE FRANCE-AMERICA COMMITTEE OF
NEW YORK[70]
I ASK you, Gentlemen, to rise and lift your glasses high to the joint
toast of his Excellency the President of the United States, his
Excellency the President of the Republic of France and his Majesty
the King of England.
I ask you again to rise and lift your glasses high to the joint toast of
the other Allies: to his Majesty the King of the Belgians, whose
valiant and heroic people have suffered frightfully and have again
shown, as Cæsar taught us, that "horum omnium fortissimi sunt
Belgae;" his Imperial Majesty the Czar of all the Russias, whose
brave soldiers have stood so much of the brunt of the battle and
paid such an awful toll, and to his Majesty the King of Italy, and his
courageous army and navy, whose help may yet prove decisive.
As the permanent object of the France-America Committee, which
was organized long before the present war, is to perpetuate the
traditions and bonds of friendship which bind the governments and
peoples of France and America together, our guests will readily
appreciate why France should seem, at the moment, to be foremost
in our thoughts.
Monsieur Homberg, Monsieur Mallet: Le Comité France-Amérique de
New York éprouve un très vif plaisir à saluer en vous les délégués de
la République Française. Le Comité tient à vous témoigner l'amitié
des Américains pour la France, notre admiration de l'héroïsme que le
peuple français de toutes classes a montré pendant l'année affreuse
qui vient de s'écouler, nos ardentes sympathies pour vos
souffrances, et nos souhaits pour votre avenir.
Notre hospitalité est malheureusement imprégnée d'une tristesse
poignante, car un souci de tous les instants ne nous permet pas
d'oublier la guerre brutale et féroce qui a dévasté une grande partie
de la France et presque toute la Belgique, et qui menace non
seulement les libertés des peuples français et belge, mais la
civilisation de toute l'Europe. Il est vrai que notre gouvernement
national, pour des raisons d'état, se trouve forcé de maintenir une
neutralité légale, tâche si difficile et si complexe, mais le peuple
américain ne saurait être indifférent aux malheurs et aux détresses
des Français. Un grand Américain a bien dit que c'est en apprenant
l'histoire de son pays que l'enfant américain apprend à aimer la
France. Nous ne pourrions jamais oublier l'aide généreuse, la
sympathie, le dévouement, et le désintéressement que le peuple
français nous a témoignés au début de notre histoire. Le souvenir,
Messieurs, en est ineffaçable. Innombrables sont mes compatriotes
qui prient de tout cœur qu'une nouvelle Bataille de Poitiers contre
les Sarrasins délivre bientôt la belle et sainte terre de France de ses
envahisseurs.
Le service que la France a rendu aux Etats-Unis est souvent
méconnu et quelquefois oublié. L'heure est venue de réfuter et les
dénigrements et les préjugés. Le Comité France-Amérique voudrait
saisir cette occasion pour rappeler hautement ce que nous devons à
la France et exprimer la reconnaissance profonde que le peuple
américain ressent envers le peuple français.
La plupart des historiens, cherchant leurs matériaux dans les
archives des gouvernements et dans les notes des rois et de leurs
ministres, ne voient trop souvent qu'un calcul ou un motif intéressé
dans l'aide que la France nous a apportée et dans l'amitié qu'elle
nous a témoignée pendant notre Guerre d'Indépendance. Mais ceux
qui cherchent consciencieusement à pénétrer jusqu'à l'âme du
peuple français pendant les années de 1776 à 1781, comme l'avait
fait l'historien Américain, James Breck Perkins, feu le président du
Comité des Affaires Etrangères de notre Congrès National, attestent
que cette aide, qui fut si efficace et qui seule a rendu notre succès
possible, était désinteressée et n'était inspirée que par sympathie
pour un peuple faible et par amour pour la liberté et la justice
politique. La Fayette, l'ami intime et dévoué de Washington et de
Franklin, était véritablement l'incarnation du sentiment
d'enthousiasme exalté et de sympathie ardente que les Français
ressentaient alors dans toutes les classes pour un peuple qui voulait
être libre. Sans doute Louis XVI. et Vergennes y voyaient des
avantages incidentels et des raisons d'état, mais c'était bien le
peuple impatient et l'enthousiasme et le sentiment public de la
nation entière qui ont finalement forcé le gouvernement du Roi à
nous envoyer une armée disciplinée sous Rochambeau et une flotte
de guerre sous d'Estaing et de Grasse. L'importance incalculable du
service rendu par les Français peut être estimée en nous rappelant
que les deux tiers et les mieux équipées des troupes alliées à
Yorktown étaient français, et que ce fut à Rochambeau que le
commandant anglais avait cru devoir rendre son épée.
En prenant part à notre Guerre d'Indépendance, le peuple français
savait parfaitement que son aide lui coûterait un prix énorme et que
les impôts déjà trop lourds devraient être encore augmentés.
L'historien Perkins déclare que le montant des dépenses de la France
pour libérer l'Amérique s'est élevé à sept cent soixante douze
millions de dollars, c'est à dire, à plus de trois milliards huit cent
millions de francs.[71] De cette énorme dépense, qui a ruiné le trésor
royal, comme l'avait bien prêdit Turgot, pas un sou n'a été
remboursé à la France. Elle ne l'a jamais réclamé, et elle en
refuserait fièrement aujourd'hui le remboursement en nous
rappelant qu'elle avait stipulé dans le traité d'alliance avec les Etats-
Unis d'Amérique du 6 Février, 1778, qu'elle ne recevrait aucune
indemnité pour sa coopération et ses sacrifices, et que même si le
Canada était conquis, cette contrée serait annexée aux Etats-Unis et
non pas retournée à la France. Ce traité, sans précédent en
générosité dans l'histoire du monde, était le premier de tous les
traités que les Etats-Unis ont faits et le seul traité d'alliance dans
notre histoire.
Ne serait-il pas souverainement juste, si le peuple américain, cent
trente quatre ans après la bataille de Yorktown, reconnaissait ce
service—je me refuse à l'appeler dette—en offrant au peuple français
un crédit commercial du principal, c'est à dire, sept cent soixante
douze millions, remboursable quand la France le pourrait? Même en
francs, ce ne serait que l'équivalent d'une contribution insignifiante
par chaque citoyen des Etats-Unis, et bien moins en valeur que
l'impôt qui a été payé volontairement et de bon cœur par le peuple
français du dix-huitième siècle pour nous aider. Quelle noblesse,
quelle gloire, quelle splendeur de cœur, d'âme et d'esprit si les
grands banquiers américains avaient pu proclamer au monde qu'ils
avaient eux-mêmes offert le crédit en reconnaissance du passé!
Nous serions vraiment fiers de notre génération si elle pouvait écrire
une page aussi sublime, aussi impérissable dans l'histoire du monde.
Alors, Messieurs, nul doute ne subsisterait quant au succès éclatant
de votre mission, surtout si une parole éloquente pouvait toucher le
cœur des Américains et leur rappeler combien ils doivent à la
France, à cette république sœur et souffrante, et combien la
question aujourd'hui n'est pas seulement une affaire commerciale
pour notre propre profit avec nos meilleurs clients, mais aussi une
question de gratitude pour un ami loyal et dévoué et de sympathie
effective pour un grand et noble peuple qui souffre.
Au nom de cette reconnaissance et de cette sympathie américaines
que j'ai essayé d'exprimer en interprétant, j'en suis convaincu, la
pensée de tous les Américains réunis ici, je lève mon verre en
l'honneur de la République Française, de la France blessée mais si
vivante, si courageuse, si valiante, et de ses représentants distingués
qui nous honorent de leur présence, M. Octave Homberg et M.
Ernest Mallet. Messieurs, j'ai l'honneur de vous présenter M.
Homberg.[72]
My Lord Chief Justice of England and Gentlemen of the British
Commission: After the eloquent tributes of last night at the Pilgrims,
I find it extremely difficult to express and convey to you the full
import and sincerity of our welcome.
Every tie that can bind one people to another binds the American
people to the English. Most of us are of the Anglo-Saxon race and
have the same blood coursing through our veins. To the great
majority of Americans, England has ever been the mother country.
We speak the same language, read the same literature, strive for the
same ideals, are governed by the same principles of politics and
jurisprudence, and entertain the same fundamental conceptions of
right and wrong and justice as among men and among nations. The
greater part of England's history is our history; her Magna Carta is
our Magna Carta, and the immortal deeds of valor of the English,
Scotch, Irish and Welsh are our heritage and the source of our
inspiration. Our hearts, therefore, cannot but beat faster day after
day as we read of the splendid heroism and noble self-sacrifice of
your great race.
To our minds the noblest and the most truly glorious page in the
history of England was written by Sir Edward Grey when, on behalf
of your government, my Lord, he refused to break the plighted faith
of England to avoid involving his country in the greatest and most
disastrous war in the history of the world, a war for which England
was not prepared, for which Sir Edward and his colleagues knew she
was not prepared, and which threatened and might involve the ruin
of the British Empire. There is a nobility and sublimity, inexpressible
by mere words, in the act of sending that small but now immortal
British army to Belgium in August of last year, to face tenfold its
number, to die for strangers—for a mere "scrap of paper," as a treaty
was cynically and immorally called—solely that the honor of England
might be kept inviolate. England has never been grander or nobler
than on that day. The glory she then gained cannot fade.
Gentlemen, the Anglo-Saxon race never rose to higher renown than
when the British statesmen of to-day showed on such a grand scale
that the spirit of the Light Brigade at Balaclava still lives:
"Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die."
And we Americans were then prouder than ever before to belong to
the Anglo-Saxon race.
England may prevail in this war, or she may fail. But whatever may
happen, whatever may be decreed by Providence, your magnificent
and unselfish heroism in springing to the defense of Belgium has
added to England's renown and to our race a glory which is priceless
and infinitely beyond the whole cost of the war, a glory worth dying
for, a glory that will thrill and uplift generations of men for all time, a
glory that will ever inspire acts of patriotic service and valorous self-
sacrifice, of chivalry and honor.
Although, Gentlemen of the British Commission, the deep sympathy
of the great majority of Americans is naturally with the Allies in the
present war, we want you to return to England appreciating why we
must loyally support the neutrality which the President of the United
States has proclaimed. The policy of this country in regard to
European wars was fixed in 1793. One of the most important and
enduring of the many services that President Washington rendered
to the United States was when he stood firm as a rock against the
abuse and clamor of that day in upholding and enforcing neutrality
in favor of England as against the demands of her then enemies. We
have consistently adhered to that principle for more than one
hundred and twenty years. It has been our fixed and constant policy,
not a football of politics, or of newspaper propaganda, or of
temporary emotion or expediency, but the sober judgment and
conscience of the nation. The essence of this policy is that it is the
duty of our government, not only to the present but to future
generations, to avoid being drawn into European wars unless our
honor or our vital interests become involved. During more than a
century we have invited the inhabitants of every nation of Europe to
come here and become a part of our country, and we have impliedly
assured them of our adherence to this traditional policy of neutrality.
If, now, we also should draw the sword, out of heartfelt sympathy
and friendship for the Allies, or in indignation at the outrage of the
violation of Belgium, we might become hereafter constantly involved
in European conflicts in which we should have no other than a
humanitarian interest, and as a result find the devoted friends and
relatives of to-day the inflamed and bitter enemies of to-morrow.
My Lord and Gentlemen of the British Commission, we want you to
return to England realizing how difficult and complex is the task of
our President. Under our system of government, he alone can speak
for the nation and commit us in our foreign relations, upon him
alone is imposed the awful burden of responsibility and duty, and
patriotism commands us as Americans loyally to support him,
whatever may be our individual opinions or sentiments as to
particular measures or grave omissions. We want you to return
profoundly convinced that in standing by our policy of neutrality, we
are not indifferent, or callous, or pusillanimous, or mercenary; and
that our President is striving on our behalf to do what is right as God
gives him to see the right, not only by the Americans now living but
by those future generations for whom we are the trustees. Above all,
we want you to return to England firmly believing that we
unqualifiedly approve and extol the noble and heroic action of
England in drawing her sword in defense of Belgium, and that our
heartfelt sympathy and good wishes are with you and your heroic
sailors and soldiers at the front.
Gentlemen, I ask you to rise and lift your glasses high and drain
them in honor of the distinguished representatives of England. I
have the pleasure of presenting to you the Right Honourable Lord
Reading, the Lord Chief Justice of England.

FOOTNOTES:
[70] Remarks as presiding officer at a luncheon given in honor of
the members of the Anglo-French Credit and Finance
Commission, at the Hotel Knickerbocker, New York, October 1,
1915.
[71] France in the American Revolution, p. 498; see also the
introduction by Ambassador Jusserand, p. xv. The accuracy of
these figures has not been independently verified. An
examination of the late Mr. Perkins' papers does not disclose the
source of his statement. The French archives show a direct
expenditure of 1,507,500,000 livres, but these figures do not
include payments made in and after the year 1783. Professor
Marion of the Collège de France is of opinion that the total
expenditure probably reached 2,000,000,000 livres. Marion,
Histoire Financière de la France, 1715-1789, vol. I, p. 303, Paris,
1914; see also Gomel, Les Causes Financières de la Révolution
Française, vol. II, p. 36, Paris, 1893. Fiske, in his Critical Period,
p. 35, states the expenditure to have been 1,400,000,000 francs.
[72] M. Homberg replied in French, and Mr. Guthrie then
continued as above.
 INDEX
American ideals, 37, 161, 267.

Ancestor-worship, 27-29.

Anglo-French Commission, 261.

Anson, Sir William R., 104, 106.

Aristotle, 14.

Athens, 42.

Australia, 81.

Ayers, In re, 118.

Bakers case, 57, 153.

Bancroft, George, 30.

Bankers, Case of the, 106.

Bar, should defend the courts against criticism, 70, 127, 147, 158;
duty to defend constitutional guaranties, 85, 86;
efforts to secure proper judicial nominations, 139-141;
professional responsibility, 142-143.

Barons, Articles of the, 5.

 Bate's case, 17.

Belgium, 261, 262, 267, 270.

Bill of Rights, New York statute of 1787, 19, 23;

permanent nature, 20, 21, 203;
the federal bill of rights, 74, 83;
must be enforced by the courts, 77-78;
ineffective where legislative power is supreme, 77-78.
See Constitutions and Constitutional limitations.

Blackstone, Sir William, 99, 168.

Bonham's case, 10.

Bosses, Political, their power increased by direct primaries, 142,

236, 238;
efforts to overthrow them, 230-231, 245;
Woodrow Wilson on, 242.

Bracton, Henry de, 102.

Bradford, William, 30n, 38-39.

Bryan, William J., 180-182, 213-215.

Bryce, Viscount, 69, 251.

Carlisle vs. United States, 101.

Charter, see Constitutions and Magna Carta.

Chisholm vs. Georgia, 89, 95.

Church and State, Separation of, germ of idea in Magna Carta, 11,
12;
an American political principle, 12;
opposed by Puritans, 32, 33;
accomplished by the Pilgrims, 32, 34.

Clark vs. Barnard, 96.

Class legislation, may lead England to restrain temporary

majorities, 11;
masking as social reform, 43;
dangers of, 74, 79, 85, 124;
New York tenement law of 1884, 85;
involved in graduated taxation, 165, 166.

Cleveland, Grover, 149, 151, 216.

Cohens vs. Virginia, 93.

Coke, Sir Edward, 23, 105.

Common law, silent as to the equal protection of the laws, 36;

may be changed by the legislature, 68-69, 134-138, 155;
the birthright of Americans, 98;
soundness of common-law rules, 132-134.

Commune consilium, antecedent of parliament, 16;

power to impose taxes, 16.

Communism, a conceit of Plato's, 38;

failure of the experiment in Plymouth colony, 37-39;
in the colony of Virginia, 38.

Congress, decay through increase of executive power, 44;

power to regulate interstate commerce, 61;
cannot regulate internal affairs of the several states, 61;
acts of, 61, 62, 68, 100, 121, 126;
 limitations upon, 74, 78, 81, 169-171;
proposes amendments to the Constitution, 74, 89;
attempts to curtail the federal courts, 88, 125;
duty to enforce constitutional amendments, 110;
duty to uphold the Constitution, 171-172;
protection of American industries and wages, 193-197;
dissatisfaction with, 205-206.

Consolidated Gas Co. case, 122.

Cooley, Thomas M., 90, 161-162.

Constitutions, principles rooted in Magna Carta, 1;

intended to endure forever, 20, 21, 203;
unwise to create political body to enforce, 25;
may be deprived of practical force by failure to observe
constitutional restraints, 46, 75;
explanation would dispel prejudice against the courts, 48;
nature and purpose to declare general principles, 52;
a rule of interpretation, 154-155;
antiquated in the view of modern iconoclasts, 202;
small vote on amendments, 208-209;
should deal only with fundamentals, 224, 225.
See Magna Carta and Mayflower Compact.

Constitution, Federal, sources of, 1, 31, 98;

enforced by the courts, 25, 42 sqq., 70 sqq., 87 sqq., 109 sqq.;
supremacy of, 71 sqq., 87, 111, 113;
considered and ratified, 74, 88, 89;
easily amended, 82-85, 89, 91-92, 175, 176, 208;
necessity for deliberation in amending, 84-85, 176-177;
rule for construing, 97-98;
oath to support, 171-172;
attempts to circumvent, 175;
embodies eternal truths, 203.
See Constitutional limitations.
 Constitutional government, depends upon constitutional morality,
26;
its debt to the Pilgrims, 29, 32, 35;
characterized by equality before the law, 35.

Constitutional limitations, idea in Magna Carta, 6-7;

recognized in statute of 42 Edward III., 7, 8;
common to every American constitution, 8, 73;
not imposed upon parliament, 9-11, 76-77, 107;
their enforcement left to the courts, 25, 45, 47, 70 sqq., 87,
109, 113, 127;
growing impatience with, 42, 43, 48, 124, 202;
could be nullified if judges followed the prevailing morality, 45,
46;
enforcement by the courts necessary, 70 sqq.;
binding upon Congress, 74-75, 171-172;
Elihu Root on, 75;
make possible constitutional morality, 86;
to be observed by the President, 171-172.
See Constitutions, Due process of law, Constitutional morality,
Judiciary, and Fundamental laws.

Constitutional morality, a condition of permanent free government,

26, 42;
discussed generally, 42-86;
growing tendency to disregard, 42;
its disregard caused the overthrow of Grecian democracy, 42;
its essence is self-imposed restraint, 42;
its necessity should be taught, 48, 85-86.

Conventions, Constitutional, their duty to secure the privileges of

Magna Carta, 2;
the first American, 29-30, 37;
Ohio convention of 1912, 61, 64;
the federal convention of 1787, 89, 256;
 in New York, 154, 186, 235, 257.

Conventions, Nominating, discussed generally, 219-246;

right to, should be guaranteed by the Constitution, 220, 225;
their origin, 229;
abuses of, 229, 237;
movement to abolish, 230, 239-240;
their merits and advantages, 236-237, 242-246.

Cotting vs. Kansas City Stock Yards Co., 123.

Courts, see Judiciary.

Coxey's Army, 181, 199.

Criminal Procedure, delays in, 126, 143-146.

Cromwell, Oliver, 34-35.

Crown, power limited by Magna Carta, 11, 12, 24-25;

former exercise of legislative power, 17;
maxim that "the king can do no wrong," 98, 102, 105, 108, 114;
sued under the Petition of Right, 99-102;
not suable in tort, 102.

Cullen, Chief Judge, 80, 139, 210.

Davis vs. Gray, 115.

Day in court, 13, 121, 150.

Debs case, 148-151, 212, 215-216.

Declaration of Independence, proclaimed the inalienable rights of

the individual, 4, 81;
Welcome to our website – the ideal destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a
vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to
specialized publications, self-development books, and children's
literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding
knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade

Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge
connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With
an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system,
we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping
experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery
services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and

personal growth!

ebookname.com