The representative., 1897-06-02

until it is, and the result must be safe
guarded by profound constitutional
changes. The vital question which this
towards the determination of which we
are intelligently. it may be, or blindly,
it may be, cropping our way is, Where
shall the actual governing power re-
1t is not new question, but in repub
lie it is the inevitable question whose
determination settles all others. What
matters 1t if the constitution says that
rived from the people, if it has ceased
to be true in fact? The Roman legions
bore to the latest days of the empire
upon their standards the words, The
senate and the Roman people centuries
after Augustus and Tiberins and Nero
had stamped out the last ves1ige of the
popular will. There were still tribunes
of the people, and cOnsuls and a senate
and the forms of a republic in official
documents and proceedings long CEN
turies after the real power had passed
from the curia and the comita to the
barracks of the PretOrian guards, and
when there was no will in Rome save
that of their master
Years after the victor of Marengo had
been crowned emperor, and the sword
of AusterlitZ had become the supreme
power of France, the French coins and
official documents still bore the super
scriptions of the republic.
The nature of government is not
determined by its form and titles. These
usually remain unchanged long after
the governing power has become vested
elsewhere. What boots it if on parch-
ment we shall continue to read that all
political power is vested in and derived
from the people; all government Of
right originates from the people, is
founded upon their will only and is in
stituted solely for the good of the
whole if it is not a living, potential
actual truth? If, as a matter of fact,
great corporations through their agents,
whether lobbyists or members of the
Legislature itself, can control a majority
of that body, so that the choice of the
corporations, and not the genuine choice
of the people, is sent to the federal half
| of ambassadors to sit as a senator in
| congress- then the parchment declara-
tlon is Haunting lie. If gigantic COM
binations of wealth can elect or control
majOrities in state legislatures or in
congress SO as to shape legislation: if
they can be potent in the nomination
and election Of state and federal officers
then the real governing power exists in
! money and not in men, and your boasted
republic is but once beauteous form
from which the spirit has already de-
| parted.
This is the question of the hour.
! which should be pondered and under
stood with full grasp of it's meaning
| and all its consequences which must
| flow from the displacement of the center
OF gravity in government If this dis
! placement has already measurably taken
| place, or if there is grave danger of il.
| the struggle to restore it will bring on
| the crisis which will determine the real
| nature of our government For mark
| we'll this fact. That if multi million
| aires or vast combinations of capital
| have succeeded or shall succeed to the
! real control of legislation, they have
| won it's possession, because it can be
immensely profitable to them; if profit
| able, they cannot afford to run the risk,
from time to time, of losing SO profitable
domination by popular agitation. They
will seek, if they have not already done
| so, to strengthen themselves by securing
the majority of the federal senate, and
an influence in the executive councils
and even more important than that. the
majority of appointments to the federal
bench, whose life tenure and uncon-
| trollable power of constituting constitu
| tions and statutes will be of invaluable
aid. In Rome, where the augurs by
reading signs in the sky or inspecting
the entrails of fowls, could adjourn as
semblies of the people by decreeing the
| day to be unlucky, the augurs were in
| variably selected by those in power, the
personnel of the augurs being indispen-
sable for their purposes. Nor, as time
goes by, will the matter stop even with
the selection of judicial augurs.