People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1893-04-07
PATER AND FRAZIER.


The sentiment expressed in the prayer
Our Father who art in Heaven"
carries with it the inference that all
men are brothers The logical sequence
of belief in the fatherhood of God is
intelligent recognition of the brother
hood of man. There is a vast difference
between the terms Pater and Frater
and their several derivations The one
signifies father, the other brother. A
paternal government is one wherein
the people are ruled and governed by
an individual, absolute in his authority
and autocratic in his control Such
government implies not Only parental,
or fatherly care and affection, but also
parental, or fatherly authority and con-
troll 1t implies implicit obedience and
passive submission on the part of its
subjects, the people. Such a govern
ment was the theocracy of the Jews, in
which God was both Father and ruler.
Such a government is that of Russia, at
this time, in which the car is an abso-
lutte plutocrat Under a democratic
form Of government, OF, by and for the
people, paternalism, or paternal gov
eminent is impossible, because the peo-
pie, each and all, are the government,
so that the people rule each other and
themselves. Such a government "de-
rives its just powers from the consent
of the governed" and reflects in its laws
the stage of civilization and moral de-
velopment obtained by its people. 1t is
possible for such government to adopt
the golden rule as its guide, and, with
the universal brotherhood of man as its
faith, establish, not paternal, but a
fraternal rule, under which equal OPP
portunities, exact justice, perfect free
dom and brotherly love, aid and assist
ance should be guaranteed to all its
people, while no individual would be
granted special privileges or unjust adj
vantages
Under a purely democratic form of
government the people rule. Under
such government, all laws are directly
enacted by a majority of the people, so
that each law literally express the senti-
ment, voice and will of the lawful ma
jority. The United States government
is not such a government as | have
described 1t is a representative aud
not democratic form of government
Under a democratic form of govern
ment all contemplated laws are sub
mitted to a direct vote of the people,
and each voter, each and every one for
himself, votes for or against it, so that
if enacted such law reflects the will
of the majority. At present, one man
called congressman casts the vote
of $4,000 voters and generally
casts his vote in utter disre-
gard and defiance of the will of a ma
jority of the voters whose votes he casts
by proxy. We thus present the anoma-
ly of free government, under which
the people are supposed to make their
own laws for their self-government;
The laws Of which do not correctly re-
fleet or represent the economic views
or moral conceptions of a vast majority
of its people. This would seem to be
unavoidable in form of government
under which the people govern them
selves, not directly, but by proxy. Not
only do the peoples proxies or repre-
sentatives set up their own individual
whimS, opinions and personal caprices
in opposition to the will of the voters
they represent, but selishness, special
interests and avaricious greed maintain
powerful lobbies at our national capt.
tai, with the result that corruption
taints our national legislative body and
bribery, in its various forms, secures the
enactment of laws which trample under
foot the rights of the people and make
it appear that the citizenship os the
United States is devoid of any of the
great underlying principles of morality,
justice and equity. The net result is a
paternal government administered by
an autocratic, mythical father in whom
are combined all the most malignant
types of evil and the basest passions of
our common humanity.
Such result would be impossible I'M
der purely democratic form of direct
legislation. Let US contrast the two
modes of government The United
States, under its system of independ-
ent municipal and state autonomy,
recognizes the divine law of labor and
maintains that all men should-work?
No! but that all men should be self
supporting-able to prove means of self
support Disgracing the name of civil
ization with the infamous legislation
known as vagrancy laws we ac-
count the well dressed and well
fed scoundrel, a gentleman and
useful member of society,
but the ragged and starving unfortu-
nate, who is unable to get work to OBJ
tain an honest living, we call a vagrant
and slap into Jail, and confscating his
labor for scanty Jail diet we turn him
out at the end of his term of service a
ten fold worse man than we found him,
and a misanthropic enemy of society.
The cruel disgrace of the whole matter
is, we as an organized community or
government, punish an innocent unof-
Tending member of the body polite for
our own social and political sins In
stead of treating an unemployed, de-
spondent man as the innocent victim of
a cruel and idiotic social system, sus-
tanned by ourselves, we treat him as a
criminal and an outcast. The query:
Am my brothers keeper?' we answer
by securely keeping HMM Jail Does
anyone so estimate the plane of morali-