The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1900-09-14

spondence with the secretary of the treas
ury, so ably presented the laboring man 9
| reasons for opposing gold standard and
a national bank currency, that 1t is not
necessary to discuss those questions at
this time.
The laboring man has abundant reason
10 rear the trusts. Mr.. Charles r. Flint,
| In speech delivered in Boston more than
| q year ago In defense of the trusts, frankly
| asserts that one of the advantages of those
comDinations is that in case of local
strikes or hres the work goes on elsewhere,
| thus preventing serious loss Is it possible
that any wage Garner can fail to see how
completely the trust places the employe
at the mercy of the employer?
| II this nation adheres to the doctrine
| that governments derive their Just powers
from the consent of the governed, and the
| people have an easy and ready means of
correcting all abuses, the government will
not need to be supported by a large perma-
/ nent standing army, for every citizen viii
| De ready to defend such government from
| attack. The only domestic use for a large
| standing army is to suppress by force
that discomfort which should be cured by
| legislation.
ITO support permanent army of 100 900
men requires approximately one-half as
much money as is annually expended for
education in the United States. How much
cheaper it is to uplift people by the gentle
ana peaceful process of intellectual de-
velopment than to blow them up with
powder and dynamite!
imperialism involves a departure from
principles which were universally accepted
in this country until within two years. To
know that all men are created equal one
needs not the wisdom of a sage or the
learning of the schools. 1t was declared to
be self-evident truth; it was evident to
those who pledged their lives to the main
tenance of the declaration of Independence,
and 1t Is evident still to those who are not
blinded by the glamour Of wealth and the
glfttering promises; OF colonial system
If all men are created equal and endowed
with inalienable rights. it follows as a
logical and necessary sequence that gov
ernments were instituted for the welfare
of all and derive their just powers from
the consent of the governed. On the pres
ervation Of this doctrine our hopes depend:
If it is abandoned there is no foundation
upon which a government like ours can
be constructed.
do not allow yourselves to be deceived
by those who question the capacity of this
people or that people for self-government.
Macaulay, in his essay on John Milton.
points out the folly of attempting to pre-
pare people for self-government by deny
ing them the right to participate in their
own government. He said:
Many politicians of our time are in the
habit of laying it down as self-evident
proposition that no people ought to be free
until they are fit to use their freedom. The
maxim is worthy of the fool in the old
story who resolved not to go into the water
till he had learned to swim. If men are to 1
wait for liberty till they become wise and
good in slavery, they may indeed wait for
ever
when I say that those who distrust The
capacity of the people for self-govern-
ment tend directly toward monarchy. am
only repeating what Lincoln deliberately
declared in his first annual message. He
said
Monarchy itself is sometimes limited
at as a possible refuge from the power Of
the people. In my present position could
scarcely be justified were to omit raising
a warning voice against this approach Of
returning despotism, 1t is not needed nor
fitting here that a general argument should
be made in favor of popular institutions:
but there is one point, with its connec- |
lions not SO hackneyed most others. to
which ask brief attention. 1t is the effort |
to place capital on an equal footing with, |
If not above, labor, in the structure of gov |
eminent. No men living are more |
worthy to be trusted than those who toll |
up from poverty; none less inclined to take 4
or touch aught which they have not hon. |
estly earned. Let them beware Of surren- /
dering political power which they already |
possess and which, If surrendered, will |
surely be used to close the door of adj
vancement against such as they, and to |
fix now disabilities and burdens upon them |
till all of liberty shall be lost.
1.-THE warning is even more needed now
than 1T was 40 years ago. The Army and |
Navy Journal Is already justifying the
colonial idea, and declaring that fate has
decreed for us a destiny in which an i'm
perial executive, free from the restraints
of written constitution, will govern SUBJ
jects according to his own pleasure The
United States Investor. published at Bos-
ton. in it's issue of July Is. says:
"'Only a blind person can fail to see that
Transformations of one kind
or another are in store for the race; hence
the folly of asserting that the policy of this
leading part in human affairs of the future,
shall be governed for the most part by
political maxims uttered more than 100
years ago. The greatest evil which now
confronts this republic is the clamor raised
by a certain faction. for settlement Of our
problems of state by just suchNa method
as we have been deprecating. Consider
ably more than century ago certain
notable declaration was made in this cOuu-
try to the effect all men ought to be
free and independent This is merely q
of the French school of |
Voltaire and the encyclopedias. 1t is a
dictum absolutely lacking foundation In
incapable of syllogistic justi1-
cation. 1t was, however, a handy phrase
for US to employ when asserting our right
to break away from the mother country:
it suited the exigencies of our situation
in I176 admirably, though in itself but bit
of sublimated demagogism. The 6eclara-
ton was a serviceable means to the end
that was at that time desired. To bring
forward this decla ra ton in this wear 1910 |