The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-02-15
purpose to give some man or body of men
power ever others? If SO, it Is not good.
EQUALITY A GOOD RULE

purpose to give some man or body OF men
power ever others? If SO, it Is not good
EQUALITY A GOOD RULE.
I believe that that principle equality be-
fore the law is good rule, enabling US to
solve Alright every problem that confronts US
as citizens. and that the application of that
rule in legislative body, in the executive
chamber and in the courts of justice. would
give 10 US government that would be above
criticism
NOW, our form of government is the best in
nay Judgment that the world has ever seen.
BEST. not because 1t is perfect in its opera
IONS, because it is not. II the government
was perfect in its operations. then it would
meet every oodys acquiescense. The very fact
mat when one party is in power the other
party nndS out wrongs, that are done, and
mistakes that are made, is evidence that we
nave not reached perfection in government
yet. but II is the best because il is as good
as the people deserve to have. 1t can be
made perfect when we are prepared for a
perfect government And We have certain
Ways by which the people at last can make
their wishes known. We have to change the
party ard sometimes it is necessary for a
cilaNse 10 De made; we have POWER by which
tney can remedy every evil and reform every
abuse. But. my friends, you reform these
evils ana correct these abuses, and by that
act is created the change | have allud 4 TO-.
II you get on the statute book a law that is
wrong, you cannot condemn it without
caaFelng that 1t is a violation of the doctrine
Oh eQualty before the law. And if you have
a bill that you want put on the statute
DOCK you cannot defend it. unless you can
snow that It carries out that idea
NOW, government is divided into two de
partmen;s; into affirmative legisl lt.ve. through
which the people acting together do some
thlng Tor the people. which they cannot do
FOR themselves and secondly restraining
legislation Our statute books are lied with
laws that begin Thou shalt not" What is
the meaning of those laws that begin Thou
shalt mott? 1t is restraining act. L is
| trying to prevent the citizen from injuring
another citizen; and every in while
/ When a restraining act is proposed. you hear
/ the statement made: You ought to leave the
/ people alone, that you ought not to Inter
| 1ere with the liberty of the individual, and
l nave heard that doctrine of non-interferencs
| preached with good deal of emphasis, b. the
people who were getting the advantage by
( the present system and who didn't want 70
! be interfered with. The fact is, that in The
! history of the word it IS the people vino
j are getting the advantage that are the ores
| VINO don't want to be interfered with. Ard
! yet this legislature, and every legislature,
state and national, representing the people,
J are called en- year after year 10 consider re-
/ stralning acts, and l believe they should te
/ called on more and more to consider that
I branch OF government which deals with re
/ Straining neG.
KEEP THEM IN BOUNDS.
We say Thou shalt net kill" we don t
go into details and say you shall not kill with
/ this or that, we say you shall not kill; if a
man kills another he violates the law Go
matter with what instrument he does it.
| We protect the physically weak from the
| physically strong. and yet the weakest man
| IN the world l. not many times weaker than
! the average man; the strongest man is not
/ so much stronger than the average man ana
| yet with small difference between them we
| protect the weak from the strong If It IS
| proper to do that physically we cannot stop
| legislation when we have protected man s
! body from violence. We have growing up
/ among us a fictitious body created by law
! called a corporation. by which the strength
/ OF many men il merged into one Shall we
create a fictitious party so much stronger
/ than any natural person. and then not nro-
| tect the natural person if his rights ara in,
/ fringed upon by the fictitious party and mas
government that created the fictitious party
no control over the corporation? If So the
existence of that thing has become greater
tnan the power that created it; and | think
When We have to deal with corporations we
have TO put into operation an idea taken from
the Bible, and say: Remember thy Creator
IN the days of thy youth and all the DAYS
Thereafter: 1t is necessary. because the cor
poTanon has all the attributes of the indi-
Niuu2l, al the strength of many individuals
without the conscience that the individual
IS supposed to have, and besides that peo-
pie acting under a corporation avoid that per
Sonal responsibility that the individual has
and the corporation is on a plan so large as
to destroy that relation of personal relation
mat exists between the individual howeve,
great MS duty, and those with whom he
deals. And l believe that one of the great
problems with which our legislature has to
zeal with, in state or nation. is the proper
man law; these fictitious persons who have
! been given power greater than any individual
can exercise. These fictitious persons that
are beyond liability to the suffering and tha
accidents that come to the natural person ;
the natural person may take sick. the fictitious
person does not; the natural person can be
drafted If ne is not willing to volunteer the
nctltous person cannot be drafted.
ONE POSSIBLE RULE.
Now, l think l can suggest rule which
at vUba
1 belong to, and that is this: That in dealine
with these fictitious persons, called a cor
! porauon, you cannot afford to give the ficti-
tious person any higher right or privilege than
we give the natural person In other words
the created man is not entitled to greater
Consideration at the hands of man than is
the individual created by the Almighty God
and placed here to carry out the Divine will
In other words, that when we come to ,leai
with the corporation we have got to see to
1t that = does not exact from the Ieeisl1t1,-a
any gie ter privilege than we are willing IN
anord to the individual, and if we find that
us POWER so overmatches the power of the
individual that the individual must be pro-
| tected IN the enjoyment of his right against
the expressions of this fictitious person and
! the government that is great enough to cal
! into existence a corporation is vet nor graat
| enough to control it after it has given # ire
| existence. is not the government that will
! long have the confidence of the people in
! general. -
| But do not come here to enter into onv
discussion of these subjects, but merely to
/ thank you for the extraordinary honor thai
you do me, and to communicate two or three
| things which l think we can all think of
we get an idea from every source; we never
know Just where we are going to get an
| idea, and we cannot tell what we are going
! to do with it after We get it.
IDEAS CONTROL PEOPLE
You have seen it; am not old, but have
! seen ideas controlling the people, 1 have
! seen an idea take possession of a man and
! change his whole method of thought man
don't know when he is going to get an
idea, don't know from whom it is going to
| come, and yet ideas revolutionize; some rev
! olutonize the world. An idea was promul-
| gated more than hundred years ago an
! idea that government did not come down
! from the people. 1t was an idea that took
| possession of the colonists, they fought for it.
! they were willing to die for it, and they won
! their fight, and they embodied that idea in
our constitution. An idea that took hold
! OF the world, and from the time that idea
| was embodied in our constitution that idea
/ spread throughout the world with more rapid-
! ity than any governmental idea ever spread
/ ana TINS little nation, little nation with a
! great idea, has in the last 100 wears exerted
| the other nations combined; all the nations
! Of the world have not exerted an influence
/ on the human race in the last 100 years
that has been exerted by the United States
| The idea that has The world didn'i
! care anything about the people of the ITnited
states, but the world considered the idea
| 1t was an idea that appealed to the hearts
and conscience of men, and since the adop-
ton OF our constitution revolutions have &c
| CURED and people have seized the reins OF
government from those who have controlled
them by might, and We have witnessed thf
establishment of republic after republic be-
cause we had given the world an idea
HELP THE WEAK