The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1911-04-14
RAND FORKS N D. FR1DAY, April. Il, 1911

our legislation in the interest of spe-
cial bodies of capital and those who
organize their use. We mean the al
lance for this purpose of political
machines with the captains of or
ganized industry. We mean the ex-
ploitation Of the people by legal and
political means. We have seen our
governments under these influences
cease to be representative govern
ments, cease to be governments rep
resentative Of the people, and become
governments representative of the
special interests, controlled by ma
chimes, which in their turn are not
controlled by the people.
We are not attacking men, we are
attacking a system. The men are,
most Of them, honest. The great ma
jority Of them believe that in serv-
ing their own they are serving the
interests Of the country at large.
Their conception Of prosperity is that
1t will best, proceed and gather un-
der their management. They are will
ing. indeed they are anxious. that the
people should Share 1t it, hut It must
originate with them and be under
their experienced control. They stand
at the wrong point az view; they seek
their objects, not by nublic argument
but by private management and ar
rangement, by influence, not by open
political process.
They are serving, served and as
sisted not only by the political or
ganfzations which, put men into Of
fice and into our legislatures, but also
by our present methods Of legislation.
legislation as we nowadays conduct 1t
Is not conducted IN the open. It is
not threshed out in open debats upon
the floors Of our assemblies. It is
on the contrary, framed, digested and
concluded in committee rooms. It is
In committee rooms that legislation
not desired by tho Interests dies. It
Is in committee rooms that legisla-
tion desired by the Interests is fraan-
ed and brought forth. There iss not
enough debate of It In open house, in
most cases, to discover the real mean
ins of the proposals made. Clauses
lie quietly undiscovered in our sta
tutes which contain the whole .gist
and purpose Of the act; qualifying
phrases which escape the public at
tention and casual definitions which
do not attract attention, classification
so technical as not to be generally
understood and which everyone most
intimately concerned is careful not
to explain or expound, contain the
whole purpose Of the. law. Only aft
er 1t has been enacted and has been
come to adjudication, in the courts is
its scheme as whole divulged. The
beneaciaries are then sife behind their
bulwarks.
"Of course the Chief triumph Of
committee work. Of covert phrase and
unexplained classiGcAtic is the tar
IN law. Ever since ! ~ psssage of
the outrageous PatHsssA Atdrlch tariff
law our people have been discovering
the concealed meanings and, purposes
which lay hidden in it. They are dis
covering item by item how deeply, and
deliberately they were deceived and
cheated. This did not happen by ac-
cident; 1t came about by design, by
elaborated, secret design. Questions
put upon the floor in the house and
senate were not frankly or truly an
swered and an elaborate piece of leg
islation was foisted on the country
which could not possibly have passed
If 1t had been comprehended by the
whole country.
. .@'"But there are other ambushes.
Take for example, the entirely legiti-
mate extensions made of the idea of
private property for the benefit of
modern corporations and trusts. A
modern Joint stock corporation can
,nN tn a n
base it's rights and powers upon the
principles of private property. Its
powers are wholly derived from legis-
lation. 1t possesses them for the con-
venience of business at the suffer-
ance of the public. Its stock is wide-
ly owned, passes from hand to hand,
brings multitudes of men into it's
shifting partnerships and connects it
with the interests and the invest
ments of whole communities. 1t is a
segment of the public: bears no
analogy to a partnership, or to the
process by which private property is
and managed, and should
not be suffered to a:ord any covert
whatever to those who are managing
it. Its management is Of public and
general concern. is in a very proper
sense everybody's business.
"Hence our objects as a party. II
take these objects to be to open all
the: processes of politics-open them
wide to public view; to make. them ac-
cessible to every force that moves,
every opinion that prevails In the
thought Of the people; to give society
command of its own economic life
again, not by revolutionary measures.
but by steady application of the
principle that the people have right
to look into such matters and to con-
troll them; to safeguard our resources
and the lives of our workmen and
and children (our chief natu- |
raj resources) against the selfishness
Of. private use and profit: to cut all
privilege and patronage and private |
and secret use of our fiscal
to equalize the burdens
Of taxation, and to throw open the
gates of opportunity to mankind"
AFTER THE NEGRO I!
Washington, April 14.-Representa-
3s. /