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Progress in Federal Judicial Administration

We have heard much discussion about the declining of prestige of the bar, and about the proper place of the lawyer in the leadership of his community, state, and nation. But there can be no denial that it is the duty of the lawyers to lead in affairs affecting the courts of the land. The lawyer is peculiarly qualified to judge their work and to deal out criticism where it is due- and to do it with fairness.

Trade Barriers – A Threat to National Unity

Our forefathers believed that exclusive control by Congress of commerce among the several States made certain that such trade would not be obstructed by State barriers. But today we witness a growing tendency to erect what are, in substance, State tariff walls. State laws which make the marketing of goods more difficult or expensive have been steadily increasing in both numbers and variety. Between neighboring States discrimination and retaliation, rivalries and reprisals have flared up.

Your Business and Your Government

I am glad to discuss the relations of business and government before business men of Rochester because the experience of no city better illustrates what I want to talk about. There is no better illustration of the kind of business which this nation ought to foster than the kind of business you have fostered here. And there is no better illustration of the kind of business that is a menace to the United States than the kind of business which you do not encourage in Rochester.

The Challenge to the Christian Conscience

The plight of the Jews in the world today is a challenge to the Christian conscience to make good the promise of a Jewish National Home in Palestine. America contributed to the success of the Allies in the World War. She sought nothing for herself- she sought only to establish the conditions of a permanent peace and justice to disadvantaged peoples.

The Meaning of Liberalism

I am glad to join with you in honoring your guest of honor, David J. Lowis. He has been an inspiration to forward looking people everywhere for a generation. I have long respected his example and valued his friendship. Likewise, I am glad to speak to a group whose purpose, as I am informed, is to be liberals without ceasing to be Democrats, and to be Democrats without ceasing to be liberals.

The Law Catches Up with the Times

Over seven centuries ago, King John at Runnymede set his unwilling hand to the Great Charter of English Liberty. Among other things promised this- "to no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice." King John probably never meant it and soon repudiated it, but he had set forth the ideal toward which English-speaking people are ever striving- that justice shall be swift and simple and reasonable in cost.

Social Justice Under Our Constitution

Humility best becomes a New Dealer in the presence of this group which knows Catholic social teaching. In most companies we may claim some leadership; here, in truth, we can claim only to have followed- and at a considerable distance behind- in trying to correct social evils which have long ago roused the anxiety of great leaders of the Church.

General Welfare and Industrial Prosperity

The most progressive communities of the United States are the ones that have the most delicate tasks of adjustment between old forms of government and new problems of social security and economic justice. Because the Illinois Municipal League is made up of representatives of the cities of one of the most progressive states of our Union, I have welcomed this opportunity to discuss with you some of the problems that vex all progressing administrations, whether federal, state, or city.

National University Commencement Address

Few Commencements offer opportunity to speak to graduates so mature in experience and in years as do those of National University. Your years of study here have not been a merely pleasing interlude between the age of compulsory education and the age of self-support. You, who have sacrificed leisure to study, who have paid your own way to remove shortcoming which you yourselves have recognized in preparation for life's work, know both the cost and the value of better training.

Address to Pi Gamma Mu

I shall tread but lightly, even by invitation, upon ground that is in possession of Pi Gamma Mu, a National Honor Society in social sciences. Over the years my profession, as a whole, has shown so little hospitality toward those other learnings which may be grouped as social sciences, that I would not be surprised if, in retaliation, you barred all lawyers from your gatherings.