The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1911-03-01
THE FREEDOM OF
HUMAN THOUGHT
AS Applied to Principles
OF Government.
CONCRETE IDEAS OF JUSTICE
The Principle of Doing Right
Because II is Right Is
Always Best.
THE DUTY OF EVERY CITIZEN

pressly for The Herald.)
Way back yonder. when the beet
le-browed saints of our race rejoicet
in hair shirts as marks of theil
priesthood and the fierce, heece-growr
pot-belied laity wore streaks Of
sunshine with possibly few jays
feathers and stubs of tails, it took
hickory withes, stone mauls, despot'
isms and birthstone to keep the
peace. But, as we laborously climb
ed the rugged sleeps of advancing civ
ilization, we revised and refined our
politics Just as we revised and re-
fined our morals and religious laws;
precepts ard examples always fol-
lowing, never preceding, the result,
not the cause, of moral awakening
that mysterious principle in mans
nature always Juggling at his heart
to lift his eyes toward the stars.
Otherwise, tell me why could not
Congress enact law requiring all
men to repent and be baptized and
thus. at one fell swoop, as it were
settle the whole moral muss? Yet,
in the face of the many dangers with
which changes of systems are al
ways fraught and of which we
should scarcely allow ourselves to
even think without gravest fears and
forebodings, considering our direlic-
tions and Indifference to public duty,
our temper, character and all our
shortcomings in self-government and
moral imperfections, are the latter
day theories, ultra progressive apos-
ties of discomfort, not to say discord,
who so flippantly indict everything
that is and much that is not, and
who strangely confuse cause with eff
feet, got their cart before the horse,
committing the fundamental error
of assuming that forms of govern
ment lead-blaZe the way-instead
of following in the wake of progress
sive civilization. I say, are they pre-
pared TO demonstrate that we are
now equal to that high order of ideal
citizenship upon which a Pure Dee
mocracy or Utopia so helplessly de-
ponds? Remember that a people
who enter this field of experiment
leave all hope of representative gov
eminent behind.
May not this be but the one ex-
IRENE of the arc of theoretic gov
eminent and New Nationalism which
is but another name for one-man
power) the other, from which grave
dangers our Bill of Rights and Con-
stitution so wisely sought to save us?
May not our short terms of Office,
just as they were intended, consid-
ering the popular indifference to
public affairs, be a better system of
Recall" than the subversive one
proposed? May not our rights to
public assemblage, with all our facul-
ties for discussing matters of public
concern, thereby creating a strong,
commanding public opinion before
which the tyrant whom the law may
not reach, trembles and which ambi-
ton, corruption and vice, even when
the arm of the law is helpless, so
much dread, be a better system of
initiative and referendum than the
revolutionary doctrine of which we
begin to hear so much and whose
strongest supporters are the theor-
lists and Missionaries who religiouslv
believe that laws make men instead
of men making laws, which brings us
back to the idea of the creature un-
dertaking the task of reforming its
creator?
One thing is sure and that is, mi
tiative and referendum destroys the
character of our sys-
TEN of government. Has the aver
age citizen, so absorbed in the ar
duous task of supporting family,
schools, churches, char
tiles and a thousand other drains
upon his over-taxed energies, either
the time or inclination to dismiss
his public servant. abolish the Office
and add it's duties to his endless
work? Certainly there must be lin
itations to his powers of endurance
and fancy this would be the pro-
verbal straw. Society could not
Justly ask such sacrifices, because
hat citizen is not a mere beast of
burden and has certain inalienable
lights which even governments can
lot abridge with impunity. But it
would not be asking too much to re-
uire him. as he values the safety of
is country, to intelligently partici-
ate in maintaining that strong, ag-
ressive compelling public opinion
hitch keeps the hand of ambition