RESULTS OF ENLARGED POLICE POWERS.
By W. N. G.
The tendency of the professed followers of Christ to lean upon the power of the civil law instead of the power of the Word of God, is becoming more and more marked. For every imaginary sort of reform the first thing thought of is a law—national, State, or municipal. And such laws are tending to greatly enhance the prominence of the police power, by providing in some way to have this, that, and the other object placed under police surveillance. Furthermore, as police power is gradually enlarged, there grows the tendency on the part of the restless masses, conscious of the continual abridgment of their natural rights, to forcibly resist the encroachment of the element of force. As this encroachment is largely due to church influence, the result is to turn the hearts of the people away from Christianity, albeit there may be enforced a formal recognition of its claims by means of the so-called reformatory laws and police regulations instituted in the name of Christian morality. The more the police power is extended, the more its exercise will be necessitated, because of the disposition of the people to resist the oppression of too much law. There is much boasting in religious circles over the assumption that “the world is growing better,” yet these same boasters are the very ones to clamor for more civil force. Naturally we would expect the opposite result from such a condition. Another thought in this connection is that civil law and civil power are designed for the protection of the people; but as these are enlarged to abnormal proportions, they become oppressive rather than protective. So when we see the police power made more and more prominent, it bodes no good for the masses. And when we see this done in the name of Christianity, it portends a detriment to the cause of Christ. In this city there is an ordinance forbidding street meetings within the fire limits, without the permission of the mayor. This centers within the judgment of one man what kind of meeting or by whom any street meeting may be held. Without such permission the police have the power to arrest any one who attempts to talk to an audience on the street within such limits. Under this ordinance religious gatherings of all kinds have been forbidden, excepting such as have been under the auspices of the popular denominations and auxiliary to some special in-door meetings. Of course the plea is that these outdoor gatherings obstruct the streets. But several times the principal thoroughfare has been rendered almost impassable at different points by great crowds watching the bulletins for reports of prize fights and great ball games, and the police patrol seemed about as much interested as anybody else. There were no arrests for obstructing the streets. Such is the character of police power. Yet one of our Superior Court judges, in deciding a case quite recently, remarked that he had “observed with some degree of satisfaction the tendency in modern decisions to enlarge the scope of police powers. Regulations now sustained by the courts would have been dismissed with disfavor fifty or a hundred years ago.” There are two inevitable results of this “tendency of modern decisions:” (1) The increase of court-made law, which is always inimical to good government and the rights of the people. (2) “To enlarge the scope of police powers” means the extension of the principle of force rather than of freedom in government, which logically begets a spirit of militarism, which naturally leads to imperialism and the enslavement of the masses, and thus again to resistance and rebellion on the part of the masses. The word “imperial” is becoming dangerously common in connection with the government of the United States since the recent enlargement of the army and navy and the acquirement of foreign territory by conquest—without reference “to the consent of the governed.” We say the word is dangerously common, because it is generally used in a spirit of ambition for further aggrandizement on that line. Is not this a “sign of the times”? Is it not time to hang out the danger signal—especially as the professed Christianity of the country is not only in the van but is also bringing up the rear in the endeavor to secure greater police power? Shall the people of God deny the power of the Spirit, which the Most High has promised shall abide with them forever, and substitute therefor the weakness of man? God forbid! W. N. G.