of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor _ • 449

The law enforcement officials of the various cities and towns, assisted
when necessary by the State Police, with their greater familiarity with condi-
tions in any locality, are much more likely to arrive at the required answer
to a problem than officers or officials sent in from outside the State. Even
where criminal matters over-step State lines, the use of interstate compacts
enables effective cooperation among the various States concerned. More and
more of this will develop, I am confident, as the States continue to pool their
resources for the common defense.

The principle of local and State self-government is deeply rooted in our
governmental scheme. If it has involved some duplication and overlapping of
activities and inefficiency in government, these are not necessary accompani-
ments and can be cured by more efficient administration of the State govern-
ments and more interstate cooperation through the use of interstate compacts
or otherwise.

On the other hand, to the extent that it is abandoned, there is inevitable
a concentration of power in the National Government which not only would
render difficult the enforcement and administration of justice with a regard
for the divergent need of the various parts of the Country, but would constitute
a step in the direction of the governmental philosophy of the totalitarian
countries.

And any step in the direction of such governmental philosophies, no matter
how or why, should be shunned sedulously if we are to preserve intact the land
of freedom that has been handed down to us.

It was the dream of those who founded our Republic that we should have
a government of Law, not a government of men. There is an extension of
that idea. It was found in that phrase of the Declaration of Independence
which points out that all governments derive their just powers from the consent
of the governed. Add these two together and they give as sound a definition
of Democracy as we are likely to find.

For it is a mistake to suppose that freedom is the absence of authority.
Freedom is actually the acceptance of a chosen authority. Here in America
we have set up a covenant amongst the States. We have embodied a set of
principles and have called it Law. Begin with the Constitution which is the
basic law of the land, go down to the smallest enactment of the smallest legis-
lative body—what do we find? We find a coherence of principle, a unity of
effort, a measured and thoughtful and deliberate attempt to achieve that
most difficult balance—the balance between the security of society and the
rights of the individual.

Law, as we know it in our statutes and our Constitution, is built entirely
upon this one idea. Moreover the seeming conflict between security of the
social state on the one hand and individual liberties on the other—this conflict,
I say, is more apparent than it is real. Actually these two things do not pull
against each other. They are mutually supporting; they are inseparably
entwined. It is axiomatic that if the State collapses, there will be no indi-
vidual freedom. And conversely, it is also true that if individual liberties