The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-19
LESLIE N. SHAW
 APPREHENS|VE County Is Drifting T'Ward a
 Pure Democracy
THE PEOPLE ARE SUPREME
Former Secretary of Treasury Ad- dresses Bar Association of Kansas City and confesses Alarm at
 Drift of Public Opinion.

Kansas City, February 1S.-Lesile M. shaw former secretary of the treas- ury. was the guest of honor and prin- cipal speaker at the annual banquet of the Kansas City Bar association at the Midland hotel in this city tonight. Mr. Shaw, in discussing the subject, The Next Step said:
 Lust now there is a manifest ten dency to depart from the central thought of the constitutional fathers and t, drift toward pure democracy. We h we developed so rapidly. we have grown to such gigantic proportions, we have prospered to such an amazing degree. while adhering to the principles of representative government, that I confess some apprehension as I view the trend of the times away therefrom. l am against the idea that the de- tails of legislation should be attempted at the polls On the other hand, I supposed that the people would choose their representatives, heir delegates, their servants, who should give their special time and attention to the study and practice of state craft.
 Under conditions as they existed when the government was organized, there was abundant time and opportun- ity, for there certainly existed abun- dant incentive to the consideration of the public questions. Thomas Jefferson and his compeers lived on large estates. There were no railroads and no daily papers. We of the present age are now too busy for state craft We are a reading people, but we read light fic- tion and news. We are thinking peo- pie, but we think almost exclusively along commercial lines. We are an active people, but our energies are de- voted to business. We are not medi- tative. A half century ago. the press was filled with ably written editor- ials covering every phase of public questions Today, the press has be- come conveyor and occasionally a perverter of news. As a people, we are too busy to read pamphlets if they were written, or editorials if they were printed.
 Pure Democracy.
 Notwithstanding all this, the trend of the times Is in the direction of a pure democracy.
 "The initiative and referendum is be- coming more and more popular.
 "The American people are abundantly able to choose between great under lying principles
 Tt seems strange that at time when we are each intensely occupied ir, of fa airg time less disposition to study the details of legislation, the press and the stump should resound with the demand that every question, however slight and unimportant, shall be referred to a direct vote of the people,
 MT. Shaw said he was addressing men who belonged to a profession more likely to be well informed on public questions than any other, yet he felt prefectly free to offer to divide 5000 equally among any five gentlemen pres ent who could name the nine mem hers of the Presidents cabinet. He told of answering a letter of public official of a large state who wrote to him recently as secretary or the agrl- cultural department, Washington, D. C.
 He cited this and other instances, he said. as illustrations that the Ameri- can people do not mediate, do not put together the things that they read, do not analyze do not study relations
 "Irnder these conditions" he said, eve do well to adhere pretty closely to the chart prepared by those who had abundant time as well as great aptitude to think out plans TOT the guidance of those who were to attempt for the first time in human history self-government on a large and con servative scale."
 shaws Statement.
 MT. Shaw tonight gave out signed statement to the Associated Press III which he declared that number or un- authorized reports had been puphsheu concerning his visit to Chicago yesterday MT. Shaw declared that politics had III no degree influenced his visit to that city' He went there, he said, "at no man instance and in no mans interest Ills visit he said. was on matter of personal business. Mr. Shaw in his statement, continued:
 "I am not seeking to defeat any mans nomination for the presidency. There Is not a man whose name Is mentioned who is not my personal friend and Tor whom I would not cross the continent to pestow n kindness That I prefer some does not imply that l would ntt my hahus against others.
 "I am intensely interested in business
 
 conditions The number of men out or employment and the number soon to be dismissed Is to me alarming. The inter ests of these men and the effect of their enforced idleness upon business generally far transcends any candidates ambition.
 q wish that factionalism within the party to which I belong might cease and that convention of broad-minded patriotic, unselfish and unambitious men, uninstructed and unpledged, might gather in Chicago on the 16th of June next and in the light of conditions as they then exist to select a man who is ever to pc most likely to lead the party to victory and whose election will best conserve the moral and industrial interests Of the country The nominee of such conven- ton, if such a convention be held, will be elected whoever he may be, for the party thus will be united.
 Praise for Administration.
 q allow no man unrebuked to speak derogatively in my presence of the ad- n.inistration with which l was connected for five years. No man within my knowl- edge has said more in commendation of that administration than 1 have. The fact, however. that I believe the special work which our unceasing evolution has