The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-25

John was granting the Magma chartA in England and the Spanish 1nquisition was racking heretics in Spain. 1t con tinued through the times when spanish conquistadores were chaining South American Indians in lots of ten to do the work of beasts, while there was an English grant of local self-government to the colony of Jamestown. The diff ference still exists. If it is hard for an American to understand why the people of Venezuela tolerate Castro, or rather why they tolerate the system of despotic government which he, for the moment. represents. 1t is equally stand why the political leaders of the United States tolerate certain things.
 This difference in consception of the character of government is fnndanen-s tai. It Is self-perpetuating, as well. In the United States a president would not dare to attempt to make himself a
 dictator because he knows very well
 that his power would not last a day, and that he would be lucky if he es- capped sudden and terrible personal puishment In Venezuela the con- dition is absolutely reversed. No pres
 ident dares to be less than dictator. for if he does he will be overthrown' at once. President Andrade, who pre- ceded Castro and who now lives quiet ly in Caracas. was one of the very few presidents of Venezuela who was actually elected according to the method
 prescribed by the Constitution. He started in to give Venezuela a con- stitutional government.
 He refused to grant request for an unconstitutional favor desired by one Cfprian0 Castro, late a senator from an Andean state. The result was that this man Castro got together an army oF nfxy nA hn capital. His army grew as he went along, and he came into Caracas and overthrow the constitutional govern
 ment the ilk-and-watery concern
 that placed law above men, and princi- pies above personalities. Andrade
 could not rule because he was not a dictator.
 Not only do the people of Venezuela
 wholly lack the ideal of free govern
 ment which the United States strives
 to live up to. but they are wholly de- prlved of the thousands of material
 benefits which Americans accept as a
 matter of course. The right of trial by
 jury. of freegspeech and free press, of integrity of property and of liberty of
 politicaI and religious conscience, are
 accepted by every American without
 his thinking much of the long struggle by which they were obtained. The Venezuelan has none of those rights,
 although they are guaranteed to him by a paper constitution.
 The Venezuelan has not the right of free speech and a free press. If he is that be, he Is packed off to prison with out any legal formalities. That is bad enough but worse still is the fact, that he would look uppn-ak president who 4did 1 tolerate free speech and d free press as nothing more than 6 fool He ex- poets the ruling power to-be despotic because 1t has thefpower to be so. Of course there are men in VenezuN-
 Ia. many Of them. who would like to
 see this condition changed. There are
 men here who have travelled abroad and
 who know the value of personal liber-
 ty. There are men here who are | honest and sincere patriots who would strive to institute a government of I laws, not of men. But as far as the bulk of the people is concerned-they
 can't understand why Roosevelt Is will 1 ling to leave the White House until he 1 is driven out by Bryan's Nebraskan
 soldiers.
 It is neeeessary to keep in mind this attitude of the Venezuelan people to-
 ward government when one Is studying the character of President Castro. He
 cannot be judged by the standards that prevail in the United States. any more than he could conform to them if he
 wished to do so, which he most em-
 phaticaTfy does not. It is the system
 of despotism which is crushing vene- zuela.
 Copyright. 1908, by Frederic J. Has
 kin)
 .TomOrrovv--TrOubIea of venexueIa.
 VIII. How Castro Rules his People.
 Temple Church and. Gray's Inn Chapel in, London are known as the | N..wv NAa