Weekly journal-miner., 1911-03-01
Dangers of Innovations in Government Pointed Out by Judge Doe At
 Yavapai Club Dinner
(From Thursdays Daily.)

uoAN NOhAAANIS hOuDblCo5 tO c
 far greater extent than his conflict:
 on the fields of battle, to develop in him those qualities essential to a statesman and leader of men. What
 ever of mistakes he may have made or faults possessed, Washington un, doubtedly stands, in the estimation of the American people, as its ideal of unselfish patriotism and civic vir. tue.
 It is desirable that we shall have an ideal type of good citizenship, not alone for the emulation it may engender, but that we may have a high standard by which to measure public men and measures. Washing ton, by birth, education and associa- tion, was essentially an aristocrat and a conservative, but in the time when class distinctions, long since wiped out in this country, were generally recognized, he entered upon the dis charge of public duties as one of the class whose leadership in public af- fairs was a matter of course, yet he belonged to that portion of his class who recognized that public of flee constituted a public trust, the faithful discharge of which in the interest, not of a class, but of the whole people, constituted sacred obligation. The demagogue, of Wash ington's time, as now, who. in the interest of selfish advancement, and for popular favor, seeks only to discover the popular sentiment of to- morrow in order to commence its ad- ,Aharranf -fn ture. Regardless of personal eOnsid- eratiOns. his conduct was singularly free from influence by the popular whim of the moment in relation to public affairs, and was guided sub stantially by a judgment based, not upon the popular clamor of the mo- ment, but upon those considerations which, after mature and dispassion- ate reflection, he deemed most con ducive to the ultimate welfare of the nation. This phase of his character was strikingly illustrated when the French revOlutionists then in con flict with practically the whole civil ized world. sent emissaries to solicit the aid of this country. That un- bridled license which was masquer- ading in France under the guise of liberty, was growing in popularity here. and that fact, combined with a sense of gratitude for aid rendered by France in our own struggle, in duced general and almost over whelming demand upon the part of the people that the required aid be granted, and. although Washington s immovable opposition prevailed, 1t was attended with such a loss of popularity that from a popular hero Washington became, for the time, the most generally detested man in the nation.
 While the keynote to the character which we, as nation, have regarded as ideal, was intense conservatism, the present national tendency is to- ward ultra radiealism. The general increase in the cost of living in ex- cess of any general increase in in come. together with other widely dis eussed and well-known conditions, have caused the trend of public sen timent to incline toward the adop- tion of comparatively new and un- tried forms and theories of govern ment under the leadership of relativ- ely new and untried men.
 Perhaps the most conspicuous ex- ample of this tendency has recently been thrust upon the attention of the nation from this territory. The cry has gone forth throughout the length and breadth of Arizona, that the s'voice of the people is the voice of God:' that in the people col T III ,l1 truth all honesty and all wisdom; that in the representatives chosen by the people to enact. interpret and administer their laws lies nothing but venality and corruption; that the collective people in every county, with dozens of citizens eligible for legislative du- ties. whose known capacity and in tegritv especially fit them for the discharge of such duties. and who, if generally demanded by their fel- low citizens would, at least. even though reluctantly, consent to act in such representative capacity, will inevitably select for the discharge of such important duties only incOmpe- tent and venal men. Yet we are told that while the people, through venality, lack of interest or some unexplained cause, are prone to se- lect such unfit men for the discharge of these important duties which i'm mediately and substantially affect the interest of every citizen, that those same people will, notwithstanding their more immediate and imperative part in the struggle for existence, de- vote to such purpose the time, the integrity of purpose and the wisdom which are essential to the initiation, formation and enactment of wise and beneficent laws. I snail be convinced of the wisdom of such teachings when convinced that the collective wisdom of the mob is greater than the wis dom of the wisest and best of it's constituent elements, and not before.
 Washington was the president of the convention which drafted our national constitution, and was, per hsps, one of the most zealous and