The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-02


 W try there is clamor for discard
 W ing the principles of popular government as laid down by the fathers, moro than a century and third ago, it is refreshing to find men high in author ity, who believe in the old landmarks, and have the courage to say so publicly.
 One of these is Hon. oscar Underwood, who represents the Birmingham district in Congress, and who is chairman of the ways and means committee of the House of Representatives. His friends in Bir- mingham honored him last Thursday night by giving a public dinner at which he was the honored guest. He made an impressive speech, not on account of its spreadeagle style, but on account of its sound commmon sense, and its able de- fense of the principles or representative against direct democratic government.
 He began by telling how the federal constitution was written which became the pattern in it's fundamental features for state constitutions. He told how for thousands of years the world had exper- imented with almost every conceivable form of government, and how the states
 
 essentially students of theories Of gov ernment and lovers of the liberties of these and kindred thoughts. MT. Under wood added, among other things;
 "They proclaimed to the world its first written constitution, created a gov ernment of law, in absolute contradis- tinction to a government of men. The framers of, the federal constitution were familiar with the repeated failures of governments based on the principle of a direct law making power and in some instances the ultimate judicial power of the country.
 "They knew from the history of the past that these governments had failed in their purpose; that the liberties of the people had been destroyed by the extremes and excesses which marked the administration of government where the laws were made in the forum by the assembled multitude, and were not the mature product of selected men especially trained for the work in hand. "They knew that the failure of every | direct democracy was due not to the lack of honesty of purpose on the part l of the aggregate citizenship assembled in the forum, but to the fact that they were often swayed by their desires, pas sions and prejudces, and lacked inti- | mate knowledge of the resultant effect | of their actions.
 No honest man in his individual en- tity will controvert the Golden Rule that | all men should do unto others as they would be done by, but it is rarely the case that tho assembled popuIace can divorce itself from it's selfish desires and deal out abstract justice to those wllo may be temporarily in the minority.
 "Realizing the danger and excesses of | a direct democracy, the frainers of our constitution endeavored to establish a government that would protect the rights and liberties of the individual, and at the same time. reflect ultimately the win I of the majority of the enatcment oe the | law of the land.'' 's9ss St
 To avoid the dangers and the probable excesses of g. direct democracy a repre- sentative government was resolved upon, | and. it has been tested and found to be satisfactory Thomas Jefferson spoke of the new form as ''the only device l by which the rights or the people are secured, calling it government by the l people. acting not in person, but by rep resentatives chosen by themselves. finder the constitution there are clisclSs against the lawmaking power: First there is the written constitution which gives limit to the authority of repre- sertatives chosen to make the laws Second, the executive is clothed with mower to veto an act of the legislature In the case of Congress, when a bill is vetoed by the President It takes two thirds majority to pass it over the veto and to become law without his sigma | ture. sIs t+s6ss
 Any one who has lived long in the world or who is familiar with political history, will recall times when public sentiment has lacked the maturity of ] thought Public sentiment, although In inc end it generally comes around to the right, is often as caprIcious as the winds of March. It does seem that any one who takes the trouble to think will see that direct legislation by the 90,00o, ,oo(