Los Angeles herald., 1906-03-14

JACKSON, Miss, March 13.-Judge
Alton B. Parker of New York delivered
a speech on Democracy" before joint
session of the Mississippi legislature
at the Century theater today. An audi
ence of about 1000 was assembled.
Judge Parker spoke as follows:
I may, perhaps, be permitted to con-
fess that, as young man, was drawn
to an admiration for the manhood OF
your state by the lofty character, the
commanding ability, the inspiring elo-
quence and the patriotic public service
of the late Justice Lamar. Looking
back over the chequered events of the
past forty years, it seems to be that
no man has shown in higher degree
the patience, the insight, the true love
of country, the unselhshness
and the answering honesty of
idea and purpose, that so be-
came one. who was at once
the educator, the statesman, the jurist'
the citizen, the man and the Christian.
In the work which we, as people,
must do, il we are to maintain the
heritage of our fathers, we may well
take him as pattern of the man VINO
knew so we'll how to assert the highest
principles and to stand up for them III
the face of ignorance or misunder-
standing, or even of strong opposition
and of temporary or threatened oolo-
auy And he has most worthy sue
cessors among our leaders OF today
Fundamental Principles
Nothing can convince us, and moth
ing should swerve us from our in
grained conviction, that an INDEFINITE
extension of the powers of govern
ment, either at home or abroad, Is
neither American nor safe; that the
levy of any money for taxes, Whlch
cannot be collected without fear or
favor. or without comforting undue
privileges upon persons or interests, or
that is not needed for purely public
purposes, can be anything but perllouS'
or that the failure vigorously to en-
force the criminal laws by the punlsn-
ment of all guilty men, whatever thelr
offense or their nominal standing III the
community, can be other than fatal
to Justice and violative of all precepts'
whether divine or human
While these three primary questions
are closely connected, there has been
manifest, of late years, strange ten
dency to overlook the intimate rela-
lions which the two last named must
bear to each other. Every serious eVll
with which our society is now either
afflicted or threatened, has grown out
of the abuse of the taxing power OF
the government. 1t is nearly half
century since we finally consented to
levy federal taxes for purpose other
than that of meeting the real needs Oh
government. During all the precedlng
periods of our history this policy had
been concealed behind the plea OF IN
FAINT industries, or appeals FOR lhde-
pendence of some vague but shreWoly
chosen enemy. A purely protective
duty was not advocated as good, or
even right, in and of itself, or even
mentioned without apology. 1t was
defended only as an eXpedient never
as a policy to be adopted or applied
permanently.
Material Development
But the time came when the world
made unexpected, unforeseen demands
upon us for food and the raw materials
of manufacture. In order to meet these,
our people, with renewed energy, turned
their attention to the development of
their internal resources. They brought
large areas of land under tillage,
opened mines, increased their facilities
for internal transport and began 10
draw from lavish nature resources
which, in time, they came fondly TO
think of as almost boundless. TINS
left them little time to watch the
growth of taxation, levied not for ITS
own sake, but system which poured
four dollars into the pockets of special
interests and individuals, while leaving
one dollar for the government.
Almost silently there accumulated in
our communities the wealth that came
from ability and enterprise and from
the quick apprehension of opportunities.
To This our people have always been
accustomed, and it's possession accounts
for comfortable and even luxurious
homes, a high standard of comfort
artistic tastes and the general diffu-
sion of education and culture. This
wealth came slowly and surely, as the
natural reward of industry, and brought
with it multiplied blessings and no So
cial or political perils.
New Order and New Wealth
All at once, with a growth like
Jonah's gourd, there came to our peo-
pie the knowledge of a new kind of
wealth. Individual fortunes, amount
ing to hundreds of millions of dollars,
were seen to be the product of few
years devotion to a single industry,
i'm which, by its laws, the government
had doubled or trebled the value of
the wares before they reached the con-
sumner. Without doubt, great organic
ing genius, with the gift of sweating
both human brains and human bodies,
had been applied to the work of making