Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-11
TAFT breaches
ON BIBLE TEXT
PRESIDENT MAKES SPEECH
AT FRESNO
DELIVERS SERMON ON sU5JUGA-
TIoN OF SELF
Chief Executive Visits Bakersfield Id
for Brief Time, Then Resumes
Journey to City of the
angels
tcontinuea from pare onel

tContinued from Page OneI
he who taketh city Now the home
application to the individual of that
text l need hardly point out.
There are so many instances in little
things | like to dwell on the import
ance of little things in life, for life is
not made up of one great series OF
grand-stand plays. 1t is made up of
the little things that go either to make
others happy or to make them un-
happy.
Coming Home After Work
''It is the conduct of the husband as
he comes home after a tired day in
restraining 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. Per
haps something has happened that
does not please him, and he does not
like to refer to it, and he cuts her Off
with a short answer
"Oh, I know it and so do you. You
have done it. So have I. Now it is
the overcoming of that disposition, the
keeping constantly in your mind and
heart her happiness, and not your
comfort and disposition. That is what
makes you greater than taking city
But l am disposed to look at things
from a political and governmental
standpoint, and the text appeals to me
more strongly in that regard, possibly,
than in any other, because of some
very acute experiences that l have
had in political matters.
Popular government we all approve
of, though sometimes I don't think
we know exactly why we do approve
it. think we mistake frequently ends
for means. We talk about liberty as
something to be accomplished as an
f,,l- of Ia p. r1oart
as something to be accomplished as
an end.
Liberty the Means
well neither is true., Liberty is a
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 gov
ernment which makes most people
happy.
but you cannot run a popular gov
ernment merely by calling it So You
have got to have some means of deter
mining what shall direct the course of
government. what shall decide. That is
the majority. I don't know any other
method in a popular government. We
do have checks.
1--WE have indirect means of giving
expression to that vote of the majority,
but when you get down to the basis IL
is the control of the majority.
Now you cannot have a decent pop
ular government unless that majority
can conquer itself, that is, unless that
majority exercises the self-restraint
that men with great power ought to
exercise. And why?
"I am not going into the various parts
of the world, but I can call your atten-
ton, If it was not that I am in re-
sponsible position now with respect to
foreign countries, and 1 have got to
speak with care-I could call your at
tention to a good many instances where
those who are in favor Of popular gov
ernment, and who If 1 may use the ex-
preston, pull the tail feathers out of
the eagle in defying liberty and apos-
trophizing 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
absolutely, and If the minority show
any disposition to question it, they send
them to Jail.
What is the effect of that? They
say this Is popular rule; this is the
rule of the majority. So what does the
minority do? Why, the minority says,
we will take to the woods and they
do take to the woods. And so we have
that system that alternates between an
ton and an election, and you call that
popular government?
Why 1t Works So
"Now, why is it that it works that
way? 1t is because the majority and
the minority do not govern themselves
and do not exercise that self-restraint
without which popular government is
absolutely impossible. And that is the
application of the text that comes home
to me in thinking and dealing with the
countries that are struggling for pop
ular government. A minority 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 most diff
cult thing to establish. We have had
to hammer it out in a thousand years
of Anglo-Saxon suffering and contro
versy and contest. And now 1t rests
where? 1t rests in the common sense,
and the self-restraint of the American