Imperial Valley press., 1911-12-29
LA FOLLETTES
CAMPAIGN IS NOW IN
ACTIVE PROGRESS

The La Toilette campaign is now on.
Yesterday Senator La Toilette delivered
the premier address of this campaign in
Ohio. The subject was one of the great
issues before the American people to-
day, self government and the trusts In
this address Senator La Toilette said
y tremendous power has grown up in
the country in recent years. Again and
again it has proven strong enough to
nominate the candidates of both political
parties. 1t rules in the organization
of legislative bodies state and national,
and of the committees which frame legis-
lation. It's influence is felt in cabinets
and in the policies of administrations.
It's influence is seen i'll the appointment
of prosecuting officers and the selection
of judges upon the bench. -
At any time within the last ten or
fifteen years whenever IL voice has been
| raised in protest, it has been silenced
or dscredited as an attack upon busi-
ness and prosperity. Honest unselfish,
patriotic effort to awaken the public to
an appreciation of the dangers threat
ened by this great power, has been de-
nounced as the work of the demagogue
and self seeker Whoever has been con-
state or national. that man has been
marked and proclaimed dangerous, and
wherever such a leader has been thor
ough- going and effective in his work
through Il controlled press and upon the
highest busines sauthorty, every such
man has been especially characterized
and the public particularly warned
| against him. But finally. the time seems
to have arrived when even the most con-
servative citizen admits the gravity of
the problem confronting the American
public.
Mr.. Chairman, it is a simple matter to
define the present day progressive move
! ment. 1t can be expressed in IL single
sentence. 1t comprehends the aspira
tion of the human race in it's struggle
from the beginning down to the present
| time.
The will of the people shall be the
| law of the land. Constitution, statutes,
courts, and all the complex details of gov
| ernment are but instruments to carry out
the will of the people, and when they
| fail-when constitutions and statutes and
all of the agencies employed to execute
! constitutions and statutes fail-they must
| be changed so as to carry out and express
the well formulated Judgment and the
| will of the people.
| For over all and above all and the
| greater than all and expressing the SUI
preme sovereignty of all, are the people.
Now that is simply saying in modern
! phrase. what Washington said when he
declared the inherent right in every peo-
pie to write and make their laws and
| their constitution of government. That
| is expressing what Abraham Lincoln de-
| clared when he said that government of
| the people, by the people. shall not perish
| from the earth.
| That is what the struggle in Wiscon
sin, California. in Ohio, and Pennsyl-
vania, New Hampshire and Kansas, and
| in every other state in this Union, means;
| that government shall be brought back
| to and committed to the hands of the
people; that they are supreme over leg
| islatures, over government. over pres
dents, over constitutions. over courts.
| The people have never failed in any
great crisis in our history. The COM
posite judgment is always safer and
wiser and stronger and more unseltish
| than the judgment of anyone individual
| mind. The people have been betrayed
| by their representatives again and again.
| The real danger to democracy lies not in
| the ignorance or want of patriotism of
| the people, but in the corruptinS influence
of large business organizations upon the
representatives of the people The real
cure for the ills of democracy is more
democracy.
Surely the time has come to put stop
to this miserable business of permitting
the courts, the trust attorneys and the
department of justice in unofficial con-
ference, to fasten these millions of dol
lars of tribute perpetually on the Ameri-
| can people. and To find some way by which
the splendid work of the expert econo-
msts. statisticians and accounts of
| board like the bureau of corporations can
be made to count for the solution of the
trurst problem. This can only be done
by creating component commission with
adequate powers to investigate the facts
and enforce the provisions of the anti
trust laws.
Whatever may be said in criticism of
commissions the alternative is govern
ment nv federal courts acting as COM