Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1903-08-10
GOV. LA TOILETTE
DELIVERS ADDRESS ON "REPRE.
SENTATIVE GOVERNMENT"
A Momentous Problem Confronting the PEG.
pie Of This Nation. Corruption Comes
Before Decay. Corporate Wealth Throws
Taxation Burdens on the Individual
Taxpayer.

Governor La Toilette, OF Wisconsin,
delivered an address July 1S at Chantau-
qua, N. Y. His subject was "Repre.
sentative Government.
That address should be read by every
American citizen. 1t shows that the
evils Of the day are recognized by re
publican governor who has the courage
to speak plainly. 1t is tue that no well
informed person denies the correctness
OF the charges made by the republican
governor OF Wisconsin; and yet it is
significant that other republican leaders
keep silent and that those who speak
candidly upon these subjects, as the
Wisconsin governor has done, are not
regarded by party leaders as thoroughly
sound republicans"
In his speech at Chautauqua, Cover
nor La Toilette pointed out that the basic
principle Of this government is the will
OF the people that it's founders devised a
system which seemed to assure the
means Of ascertaining that will, OF enact
ing it into legislation and enforcing it
through administration of the law. This
will was to be accomplished by
electing men to make and men to exc
cute the law which represent in the laws
so made and executed the will OF the
people. Governor La Toilette said that
this was the establishment of repre-.
sentative government where every man
had equal voice, equal rights and equal
responsibility. And then this republican
governor asked his auditors:
"Have We such government today,
or are we rapidly becoming dominated
by force, in making and enacting our
laws, which thwart the will of the peo-
pie and menace the very life of repre-
sentative government? No man ques-
toned it for hundred years. Whoever
asserts it now is denounced as menace
to industrial progress"
Governor La Toilette quoted from
Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln ard
others to show that the fathers OF the
country regarded the people as the
source OF power and he said that it was
reserved fer Abraham Lincoln, on the
field OF Gettysburg, to express at once
the profoundest and most philosophical
the simplest and most popular definition
OF American democracy ever uttered
when he declared:
"'We here highly resolve that these
dead shall not have died in vain that
this nation, under God, shall have new
birth of freedom, and that the govern
ment OF the people, by the people and
for the people shall not perish from the
earth.'"
Governor La Toilette discaimed any
disposition to excite the prejudices OF his
auditors or to invoke an unfair Judgment.
but he declared that deep conviction i'm
PEELED him to appeal to their patriotism
to meet an impending crisis He said
ave owe it to the living as well as to
the dead to make honest answer to this
question. is our government of city,
state, and nation thoroughly representa-
tive OF the will OF the people?'"
Governor La Toilette further said
zone Of the causes Of revolution pro
claimed in the Declaration Ct Independ-
ence was: Imposing taxes on US with
out our consent Today, great aggrega'
tions OF corporate wealth buy immunity
from taxation in our legislatures, and
throw the burden which they should
bear onto the individual taxpayer O
every municipality and state. Betrayed
bv his representative, the individual tax.
payer is overtaxed for the benefit OF the
corporation. Taxation without repre-
sentation is as much a crime against
just and equal government in 1908 as il
was in 1776. Government by corpora
tons is as destructive Of the liberties O
the people OF this country as the exercise
of the same power by foreign monarch
The arbitrary control OF the price OF Goa
and iron, and corn, and wheat, and bee
whether b. an extortionate transporta
ton rate, or by monster combination
is more absolute tyranny OF the Ameri
can people than quartering the army o
King George upon the American colon
lists without their consent. There can bt
no such thing as commercial slavery
and individual freedom. We may have
the privilege Of the ballot, we may have
the semblance Of democracy, but indus
.rial servitude means political servitude
Monopoly in transportation and coal an(
iron and the food products. makes a pre-
tense and a mockery of political freedom
"I.et us see if the time be not ripe fo1
new declaration Of American independ
ence. We are building up colossal for