Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-11
moral standards and to everything that
goes to make our country worth living

moral standards and to everything that
goes to make our country worth living
for.
There is a text. 1 don't know that
can quote it exactly, but to these gen
tlemen before me who have taken part
in the battles of the war it will come by
reason of it's comparison, with great sig
nificance: He that conquereth himself Is
greater than he who taketh city.
Now, the homely application TO the
individual Of that text / need hardly TO
point.
The Little Things in Life.
There are SO many instances in little
things I like to dwell upon the i'm
portance of little things in life, for life
is not made up of one great series of
grandstand plays. 1t is made up of little
things that go either to make others
happy or to make them unhappy.
1T is the conduct of the husband as
he comess home from tired day in re-
straining himself when he is met by his
eager, curious wife, who wants to know
how he has been living during the day
and what has happened. Perhaps some
thing has happened that does not please
him or that he does not like to refer to,
and he cuts her off with short answer.
Oh, l know it, and SO do you. You have
done it. So have l.
Now it is the overcoming of that
disposition. the keeping constantly in
your mind and heart her happiness, and
yet your comfort and your disposition
that is what makes you greater than
taking city.
But 1 am supposed to look at things
from a political and governmental stand
point, and the text applies to me more
strongly in that regard, possibly, than
in any other, because of some very acute
experiences l have had in political mat
tiers.
Popular government we all approve of,
though sometimes l don't think we know
exactly when we do approve it. 1 think
we mistake frequently ends for means.
We talk about liberty as something to
be accomplished as an end. We think
of popular government as something to
be accomplished as an end. Well, neither
is true. Liberty is means in the pursuit
of happiness. Popular government We
have, because we believe In the long run
that it is the best government; that it is
the government that makes most men
happy.
But you cannot run a popular govern
ment merely by calling it so. You have
got to have some means of determining
what shall direct the course of govern
ment; what shall decide; that is the
majority. 1 don't know any other method
in popular government. We do have
giving expression to that vote of the
majority. but when you get down to the
basis it is the control of the majority.
Now you cannot have a ecent popu-
lar government unless that majority can
conquer itself: that is. unless that ma
jority exercises the self-restraint that
men with great power ought to exercise.
And why? l am not going into the vari-
Gus parts of the world. but / can call
your attention-if it was not that 1 am
In a responsible position now with re-
spect to foreign countries. and I have
got to speak with care-I would call
your attention to a good many instances
where those who are in favor of popu-
lar government, and who,- if 1 may use
the expression, pull the tail feathers
out of the eagle in defying liberty and
apostrophizfng everything that we think
dear, and yet just as soon as they be-
come a majority they think that gives
them the right. to control the minority alb
solutely, and If the minority show any
to question 1t, they send them
to Jail.
Good Winners and Good Losers.
What is the effect of that? They say
this is popular rule; this is the rule of
the majority. So what does the minor
ity do? Why, the minority says. We
to the woods. And so we have that sys-
and a revolution, il you call that popu-
lar government.
Now, why is it that it works that way?
1t Is because the majority and the mi
nority do not govern themselves and
do not exercise that self-restraint with
out which popular government is abso-
lutely impossible. And that is the ap-
plication of the text that comes home to
me in thinking and dealing with these
countries that are struggling for popu-
lar government. A majority that is
beaten in the election cannot stand the
defeat 1t has to go to the woods. They
are not good losers and the majority are
not good winners.
Popular government is a most diff
cult thing to establish. We have had
to hammer it out in thousand years
of Anglo-Saxon suffering, controversy
and contest. And now it rests in the COM
mon sense and the self-restraint of the
American people. 1t rests in the knowl-
edge of the many that it has got to keep
within the check of the law and Constl-
tuition if the government is to be pre-
served"