Speech of Assistant Secretary of War Louis Johnson to the Convocation, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania

FUTURE RELEASE PLEASE NOTE DATE. WAR DEPARTMENT FUTURE R ELEASE FOR RELEASE AFTER DELIVERY Address by The Honorable Louis Johnson The Assistant Secretary of war Convocation, Bucknell University Lewisburg, Pennsylvania March 17, 1938, 11:00 a. m. "TO PROVIDE FOR THE COMMON defense" President Marts, Students and Friends of Bucknell University: Today, in this house of God, in the heart of this peaceful valley of the Susquehanna, you and I have come together in reverent convocation to discuss freely a vital matter of common interest. We are enjoying the hospitality of a Baptist church, yet, I a.m quite confident that among this student assembly meny other denominations are represented. Quite a number of us belong to the Same political faith, yet I feel certain that there are shades of opinion among you from ultra-conservative to extreme liberal. We meet on the common grounds of Americanism, of freedom of speech and of religion, to discuss means of defending our country and our American ideals against the wars and the disturbances that are molesting the civiliza- tion of the world. We all believe in law and the orderly processes of government. We all subscribe to the ideals of the supremacy of the law. To maintain law and order, we must all realize that resort to force may often become necessary. The true role of force in organized society is best summarized, perhaps, in the following Latin sentence inscribed on the southern gate of the Palace of Justica in Paris: "Gladius legis custos. 11 The sword is the guardian of the law. While some nations in the world today have made their sword their law, we, in the United States, still subscribe to the old common law doctrine that the law is above the sword and that force nust not be employed contrary to law. There are fundamental principles of municipal law and the law govern- ing the conduct of nations which clearly prescribe the conditions under which force may be employed. It should be used at no other time. To protect our local communities against those who break the law, we provide for police and constabulary. To defend our country against depreda- tions from lawless nations, we maintain an army and a navy. To provide for the common defense against individuals and nations that disobey the law and jeopardize the life and the happiness of human society, is the primary reason for the establishment of the modern state. How the state originated, historians and philosophers disagree. One school of thought subscribes to the theory that the family is the source and the protoin 3 of the state. It holds that in the initial stages of the human race the family was sufficient for man's protection aguinst his enemies. As men multiplied, they gave way to groups of families and united themselves for then. mutual, lasting advantage into villages. Gradually, villages grouped them- selves into cities and the city, according to Aristotlus the most famous exponent of the family theory, was "first founded that we NARA might live but continued that we may live happily.