Protect the Man, Not the Thing
One of the unmitigated curses which is creeping into our law-making is the demand for legislation to protect the THING instead of the man. It is not the proper object of government to protect the trust or the corporation or the labor union or the labor-union label or the Sunday or the Sabbath or baptism or the eucharist, or any other institution, thing, or fad. The true object of government is to protect MAN—all men irrespective of religion or belief—in his God-given rights. A recognition of this principle would settle in a minute many of these demands. The protection of the individual man—rich or poor, Catholic or Protestant—assures the protection of every man. The protection or exaltation of some tenet or thing or fad by law exalts in the eyes of the law the men who rally around it and proportionately degrades or discredits those who oppose it. It is not the Sunday which should be protected, but John Smith in his observance of the day, whether at work or worship.