Los Angeles herald., 1906-12-16

ask What is government" 1 am sure
we shall all agree that 1t is q device
hit upon to provide mutual protection;
to protect each other in person, prop
erty, family; reputation and liberty;
and that in order to accomplish these
high purposes there must always be at
least two fundamental elements in
government, viz: authority and power.
The writer's of the Declaration of In
dependence say that governments are
instituted among men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the
governed
This may be good rhetoric, but it is
not speaking with scientific accuracy.
No government derives its powers from
the consent of the governed. 1t may
derive stability from their consent, but
not power. If citizens are dissatisfied
and restless; If their hearts are hot
with indignant protest against the gov
ernment it cannot be stable; on the
contrary, if they are abundantly satis-
fed, If they give their continuous con-
sent, then the government is at least
stable and enduring; but its power de-
pends upon entirely different considera-
tions.
Power of Government
Government must possess authority,
and based upon that authority, power.
Take family government by way of il
| lustration. A little boy had been
caught by his mother in some mis-
chievous act. She called him up to the
back door and stood there with rod
secreted in the folds of her dress. He
paused about rod away from her
one rod at time was enough for him
and listened to her argument. Finally,
seeing that she was really after him,
he made a dash for liberty, ran around
the house and lodged under where a
clapboard was off. OF course 1t was
undignified for his mother to follow
him, but when his dad came home he
said, "I'll attend to the young scamp"
and he waltzed around the house and
started to crawl under ter him. When
the boy saw him coming and recog-
nized him in the semi-darkness he
burst out laughing. Why, dad" he
said, "is she sitter you, too?"
Government in that family was not
based upon the consent of the gov
erned in either case. The government
over us possesses authority and power
because it is right for man to be
protected in person, property, family.
reputation and liberty. Authority and
power flow from the eternal principles
whether conceived in the abstract or
in the concrete.
The citizen who is thus protected by
the collective energy of the association
we call government enjoys these priv
ileges, but is bound by every considera-
ton of good morals h render service
in return. And when we consider the
American government in it's origin, it's
rise, it's growth and It's maintenance;
when we recall the !. vail and anguish,
the blood and the tears, the sacrifcial
har IxFt ttyhin nh
bought, there is incentive enough to
inspire the very stones with ardent
patriotism and provoke songs of praise
from the silent rocks.
When Columbus sailed over the
worlds rim he found himself in an
angry and unknown sea, but in the
midst of angrier and mutinous, ignorant
and cowardly sailors, 1t required the
highest order of courage as well as
supreme tact for him to persevere
until at last he unveiled the virgin con-
tinent; and then the white wing ships
that one after another followed across
the trackless waste, bringing the Puri-
tans and the cavalier to hew out homes
| in the wilderness, to kindle altar fires
and to lay broad and deep the founda-
dations of the providential republic
they, too, had their tale of tears and
tragedies. Many lonely graves wound
ed the frozen bosom of Mother Earth,
where now are those lowly mounds
Time has obliterated the last vestige of
them, and their memory has perished
they have passed to silence and
pathetic dust.
War Against Wilderness
Then followed the war against the
wilderness, against the dusky savage
! foe. Later, came the war Of the revolu-