The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1905-03-31
JASPER. INDIANA. FRIDAY. MARCH 81. 1908

the people and for the people,
instead of by the politicians and
for the politicians. The hope that
this can be done is neither ar
cadian nor unreasonable. Never
i'm the history of the republic has
there been such widespread in
telligence and such national com
prehension as at the present time.
The multiplication of newspapers
and periodicals, Of economic lit
Ierature and of circular arguments
upon public questions, has liter
ally flooded the land with light
and has made the way clear for
intellectual and political liberty.
This more than ever before is
reading people and a thinking
people and the great experiment
of popular government can never
i'm our history find a more auspi-
cious time for its trial and vindi-
cation than in this period of
information and Of unrest. The
time is ripe for the carrying of
great ISSUES directly to the great
body of the people who are most
lvitally interested in their solution.
This Is the year Of all years for a
great popular expression upon the
great questions of policy which
lmlSt shane the future.
And there are evidences not a
,lfew that the American people are
awakening TO their part and to
Their individual responsibility IN
the government. The idea has
Ipermeated the masses from Maine
to California that there is no
room in the republic for two ultra
> conservative parties, each seek
I ling to approximate the other as
lnear as possible, with just enough
: difference between them to make
! a separate bid for the suffarages
of the people and the spoils OF the
, government.
To the comprehension of this
fact the people are waking every
where and there are evidences OF
activity all along the line of
! popular grasp and of an ever
/ greater popular decision of the
! future.
! The great popular movement
!, for municipal ownership in Chi
. cago; the great organization o.
: the Municipal Ownership League
''eIin New York; the passage by hv'
= States of the initiative and refer
. Iendum, and the number an'
\ multitude of the communication
! from private citizens which ar
!. flooding the columns of the dali,
E land weekly papers of the countr.
Indicates an interests and arouse
ment so general that no thinking
: man can doubt that the peopl
= = intend to be heard and to be fel
Gin the politics of the next nationa
I C ampaign.
u Great organizations are beinl
lformed all over the country t
= champion these ideas which ar
: dear to the popular heart and nea
y to the popular interests. A stronl
y Organization is pulsing from Pen
! n sylvania through the Middl
% States to the great West for tn
purpose of forming clubs an
e organizing distinctly the initiativ
10 and referendum idea. The labor
,eling men are getting together an,
,s putting into reSoluotlns thel
~ i faith upon the all-important ques
= 70 tions of arbitration, child labo
= and the income tax. While be
!; hind them all stands steady
;c growing and majestic sentlmen
~ of arousement and of opposition
. 'n to the selfishness of corporation
,dIand to the inipuity of the crimins
n trusts.
!, ! This conclusion is neither hypc
- : thetical nor born of the desir
~ ~ which is father to the thought
';c 1t is the result of observation
IN and it is a phenomenon fairl
+ thrilling and pulsing with hop
and prmise for the future to tn
a. plain people of America.
"a ~ 1t exists: it is here: it is every
~ ~ where: it is evident, and it
an = growing with magnificent rap
hs dity. Let the man who doubt
h it look around him at the cond
cv tions of his own locality. Let II
n man who doubts it tap the hea
lev and the political convictions
~ any farmer, artisan, merchant
: professional man that Le meet
ia and he will find everywhere clea
-. definite and growing, the idD
,al and the comprehension oi lnt
H. H. vidual rights and Che desire a.
y