The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-05-30

April Jul, 1COO, LOU lilo w Soy !,
about the resolutions passed by the
Executive Committee of the State AL
lance, at it's meeting April LIST. We
answer the points seriatim:
The action Of the Farmers Alliance
of Minnesota in denouncing the in
reference of the Supreme Court with
unconstitutional legislative enact
ments, places that alliance directly
at variance with fundamental prin-
ciple of our American system of gov
eminent. Take away from the courts
the power to check unrighteous acts
of the State Legislatures, and there
is no possible guarantee for the sta
bility of any existing institution,
however firmly it may appear to be
established. Without this legal
check government would necessarily
degenerate into mere mob law
wherever any set of demagogues
should be able to influence a suffi.
GENTLY large number of voters to
frighten legislators into subserviency
to their will.
This is the old argument OF kings
and oppressors all over the world
the people are not fit for selfgoVern
ment i! From the savage monarch
OF Dahomey to the cultured evil oil
Salisbury they would all echo these
sentiments. They must have illegal
checks put upon the people or they
will run headlong to the devil. Now
if that doctrine is true then re-
public is an absurdity. If the people
have not the intelligence to rule
themselves they should have a king.
And if absolute self-government is
bad, then partial self-government is
partially bad and therefore the rule
of the Gar is better than the rule of
constitutional monarchy, like that
OF England. And indeed this writer,
as will be seen, admits, further on,
that England is, or may become, in
bad shape because it permits the
people to some extent to rule. But
if accident unhappily deprived us, in
this great country, OF the blessing Of
government like the Cars, them
according to this writer, it is well for
us to have a dozen or so kings, in
silk petticoats, to sit on the Supreme
Bench, and pull up the lawless mob
OF American citizens with sharp
jerk, whenever they go beyond the
line of right, and invade the sacred
precincts OF vested capital.
The alliance points across the
ocean to England, and says that her
people would never submit to any
such dictation; but that argument
only shows ignorance of the differ
ence between the conditions under
which the two governments are car
ried on. The English people have
had no need to place a guard at the
door OF Parliament and say to their
representatives that there is a line
which they may not cross, for the
simple reason that the conserva-
tive temperament is SO strong
in that country that they
have never yet incurred any
serious danger of being governed
through their Parliament by mob
law. Radicalism appears to be grow
ing in England, however, and the
time mayn not be far distant when the
people OF that country will need the
same safeguard which has been found
so useful here. There would, per-
haps. be greater difficulty in applying
the principle of judicial supervision
Of legislative enactments in Britain
than there is here, inasmuch as the
British government is not carried on
under the authority and direction OF
a written constitution but is regu-
lated entirely by precedent and prac-
tice. For that reason the British
governmental system is very much
more elastic than ours, and conforms
itself more readily to circumstances
but this advantage is not without
drawbacks, which may prove to be
very much greater in the future than
they have been in the past.
Now consider this closely. Eng
land does not need a Supreme Court
to keep it from going to the devil,
because the Englishman has more
good sense than the American. So
says this American editor. And then,
in the next breath, he admits that
Radicalism is growing in England
and that the time may not be fal
distant when Supreme Court will be
needed even there. But is the Eng
lishman more conservative, more
moderate, more patient under op
preston, than the American?
The American people never rose W
in a rebellion, like that which Crom
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