The National tribune., 1909-10-14
A GOOD CITIZEN.

President Taft certainly has mgr
talent for defining important facts aho
truths in a way compact, forcible and
con,prebensible. He was particularly
eloquent in this respect in sermon
that he preached at Fresno, Cal, on
Sunday. Oct 10, before great conGie-
CATION made up of the attendants oil all
the churches. Roman Catholic and
Protestant, and held in the City Han
Square. 1t is estimated that .',eoe
people were standing before the open
air pulpit, and ON the platform sur
rounding the President were al, the
clergyInen in the city and big cholr.
The services were opened most impress
sIyely by all bowling their heads and
following the words of the leader in
repeating the Lords Prayer. The Pres
ident took for his text: He who con-
quereth himself is greater than he who
taketh city, After some pertinent
observations on temperance and The
duties OF husbands TO wives in making
homes pleasant, the Presid mt took up
mems relations to public affairs, and
made a most admirable definition of a
citizens public duties. saying in part:
Popular government we all approve
of, tho sometimes don't think We know
exactly why we do approve it. ] think
we mistake frequently ends for reasons
We talk about Liberty as somethiag TO
be accomplished as an end. We think
of popular government as something to
he accomplished as an end. Well. neith-
er is true: liberty is a means in the pur-
suit of happiness. Popular government
We have because We believe in the long
run that II is the best government. that
ii is the government which makes most
people happy. You cannot run popu-
lar government by merely calling il so.
You have to have some means of deter
mining what shall direct the course Of
government. What shall decide? that
is the majority. 1 don't know any other
method in a popular goernment We
do have checks; we do have Indirect
means of giving expression to The vote
of the majority. but when you get down
10 the basis it is the control of the ma
jority"
The President discussed the various
efforts made by other countries to set
or less failures owing TO the fact that
the majority when IL got into power
was absolutely unsparing in the use of
that power. and the minority had no
other recourse than to take to the
woods and organize revolution. They
had yet to learn our lesson, that when
the majority gets into power II must
use that power moderately and accord
ing to carefully prescribed bounds. He
said:
And that is the application of the
text that comes home to me in thinking
and dealing with these countries that
are struggling for popular government.
a minority that is beaten in the cleo
ton cannot stand the defeat. IL has to
go TO the woods. They are not good
losers and the majority are not good
winners. Popular government IL q most
difficult thing to establish. We have
haa to hammer IL out in thousand
years of Anglo-Saxon suffering and con-
lroTersy and contest And now it rests
in the common sense and the self-re-
straint of the American people. 1t rests
in the knowledge of the majority that
u has got to keep within the checks Of
the law and the Constitution il the Gov
ernment is TO be preserved And IL
rests In the View OF the minority that it
Is much more important that the Gov
ernment should be sustained than that
The minority should have for the time