The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1908-04-11
GOV. JOHNSON
ON GOVERNMENT
STRONG SPEECH AT DEDICATION
OF MINNESOTA MONUMENT
AT SHILOH Battlefield.
FOR The CONSTITUTION
Depricates the Recent Decision OF
United States Supreme Court
Which Makes States Mere
Dependencies.

Shiloh, Tenn, April l0.--A pea
for state selfgovcrnmt and pro
test against the Roosevelt idea ol
Capitalization was the keynote today
of the first public address delivered
by Gov. John A. Johnson, of Mime
sofa, since he came into the publ
eye as candidate for the Demo
cratic nomination for president.
The occasion was the dedication
by the state of Minnesota in honor
Of the soldiers of the state who fell
in battle there.
Tribute to the soldier dead was
paid in graceful terms, and then, turn,
ing to what was developed as the
text OF address Gov. Johnson said:
"In this hour, when there seems
to eb a disposition to depart from
established forms, when there seems
to be a desire upon the part of those
in authority to abide In central
beauracracy rather than in rep
rCsentative Democracy-it becomes
you and men to protest against any
departure whatsoever from the gov
crnment which came to us from the
constitutional convention of 1887,
and those amendments which have
been made to it by the specific will
of the people.
Purpose of Constitution.
while the primary object OF a
written constitution is to defiue
governmental powers, and to limit
governmental departments, the over
whelming necessity ror such an in
strument is to prevent insidious en-
crcachments upon the rights of the
individual citizen, both from those in
office and from those who by reason
Of their wealth and power have no
influence for greater than that pos
sessed by the average citizen And
SO the constitution or the United
States was regarded by its trainers
as an instrument of the most sacred
import. an alteration of which could
only be made by the people them
selves. in whom all ultimate power is
vested. and then only after the fullest
discussion and wides, publicity.
"Under our system of government
the nation has reached material de-
hitherto unknown. But
with the development of the country
and changes in the economic condi-
tions. and particularly with the
growth of great private corporations,
performing many of the functions of
has come the necessity
for the exercise of strict government
a. control, and a rigid enforcement
of all the laws enacted to restrain
the rich and powerful from encroach-
ing upon the natural and legal rights
of the poor and weak.
"Our government is divided into
three separate and distinct co-ordl-
nate branches: the legislative, the
executive and the judicial. Danger.
will surely come to this republic
when any of these departments of
attempt in the slightest
degree to usurp the functions Of the
other.
DANGER to States.
VERY recently there has come
from the highest judicial tribunal
in the land decision OF vital interest
and concern to the American people,
because it has established prin
cipIe as stated by one member of
the court. which would work a radi
ral change in our governmental sys
tenn and would inaugurate new era
ir the American judicial system.
and in the relations of the national
and state governments. II would en-
able the subordinate federal courts to
supervise and control the official ac
tjon of the states as though they
we're dependencies of provinces. 1t
would place the states of the union
in a condition of inferiority never
dreamed of when the constitution was
adopted or when the eleventh amend
ment was made a part of the supreme
law of the land.
eff this is the result of this de
cision. it is, to my mind. one of the
unhappy incidents in the history of
nur republic. because the very theory
os our government is based upon the
right of the states to control ahso
Iutely their own domestic affairs"
CITY GETS PERCENTAGE OF