d a y , w e a r e facing a crime problem of such magnitude that it represents an acute danger to our national survival. There is a serious weakening of moral and spiritual fibers in our society. W e must never forget that a vitiated state of morals, a cor rupted public conscience, is incompatible with true freedom. During the past decade, crime has nearly doubled across the United States, outpacing the growth of our population at the rate of four to one. A murder is committed every 58 minutes. There is a vicious as sault every four minutes; a forcible rape every 34 minutes; a robbery every six minutes; a burglary every 39 seconds. Crime is no respecter of age, race, or creed. Each year, the cost of crime climbs higher and higher until it now has reached an alarming total of more than sixty million dollars each day. Year after year, we find that nearly half of the persons arrested for burglaries and larcenies, and almost two thirds of those arrested for automobile thefts, are less than 18 years of age. America’s juvenile criminality is directly trace able to the failure of adults to meet their moral obli gations. In all too many cases, the primary respon sibility rests with the parents. If respect for law and order and for the rights of others were instilled in children at an early age and if parents set a proper example for their children, we might keep juvenile delinquency from becoming the door to crime. I can see no difference between the responsibility of a 17- or 18-year-old who wilfully robs, assaults, or murders and that of an adult who commits the same crime. Each should be held strictly accountable for his act against society. These are not juvenile de linquents. They are vicious young thugs. They should be treated accordingly. I share with Blackstone the premise that the main strength and force of a law consists in the penalty annexed to it. The most deeply entrenched forces of the under world in our nation today are the professionals who comprise the jealously guarded ranks of organized crime. These are the criminal elite, assuming an air of legitimacy, who buy high-priced legal advisers, better termed “ lawyers criminal,” and “ front men” to shield them from proper punishment. These underworld characters with their criminal scum flout the sacrifices— the blood, the sweat, and the toil of six generations of dedicated Americans— which secured the freedoms they enjoy. These per sons wear our constitutional guarantees as a cloak of protective armor. They are unrestrained by those moral considerations which constitute the lifeblood of a democracy. In their eyes, the United States is a haven of rights without responsibilities — of privi leges free from obligation to the society which has made them possible. Theirs is a virulent, parasitic existence consuming the lifeblood of the freedom which they would enjoy. Unfortunately, they are assisted all too often by public lethargy, and by some jurists obsessed with the virtues of legal technicalities, as well as by theore ticians with the soft approach who purport to be experts in the field of law enforcement and penology.
Justice is not impartially meted out when the victim and society suffer while the criminal goes free. In this Nation, disrespect for law and order is a tragic moral sickness which attacks and destroys the American traditions of honesty, integrity and fair play. Directly or indirectly, its victims include every man, woman and child in the United States. It is a national scandal that the streets of many of our cities are as fraught with danger as the jungle trail. Each of us to his fullest capacity must help shoulder the burden of this growth of lawlessness and strive to end it. Our Nation’s moral strength has slipped alarmingly. One cannot preach morality and practice immorality. National corruption is the sum total of individual corruption. We must follow the teachers of God if we hope to heal this moral illness. At another hour of grim challenge a full cen tury ago, Abraham Lincoln urged the American people, “ Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it.” We are living in an age of uncertainty— an age of awesome national peril — an age when the strug gle between freedom and totalitarian enslavement is drawing toward a climax. We now have need of faith as never before in our Nation’s history. W e must revive within ourselves the faith of our forefathers, which enabled them to meet and overcome adversity. Our Nation holds in trust the last hope of a free civilization. Our dedication to truth, justice and in dividual dignity must not be compromised. If we are strong enough, and care enough, and maintain our national integrity, this Nation will survive the terrible threat that presents itself today. With God’s help, we will meet the challenge/ of survival. This is the heritage of America. In the face of the menace of materialism — father of both crime and communism — we must seek divine help if we are to accomplish our task. The power of prayer does not lend itself to measure any more than does the strength of faith, but of this I am sure: the man who is lacking in faith and who has never sought help beyond himself is limiting his capacity to live, to create, and to be happy. Who can explain the power of prayer? For some, it lends the strength to span the gap between that which we are and that which we might be. For some, it is the clarifying medium which separates truth from falsehood. For some, it is the force which dis perses fear and confusion. For some, it is the current through which the soul receives surcease from sorrow and despair. For me, it is a kind of bridge. Our engi neering miracles — the bridges of America — soar out across great barriers, uniting men, enabling us to reach out to each other tying us to our fellow men in commerce and communication. Prayer, whether it be a hymn of praise or a simple plea for mercy, is the bridge which unites mankind to God. Surely, as we move into that realm where His laws are precise and immutable— the realm of science —we need nothing so much as unity with Him. W e need the power of prayer to guide us.
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JU LY. 1963
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