The Bemidji daily pioneer., 1912-03-09
the JUDICIARY
AND PROGRESS
President Taft Expresses Views
At Toledo, Ohio.
GOVERNMENT BY the PEOPLE
Checks and Balances Of the ,Constitu
~ tion-Duties of the Executive
Enforcement of the Laws
by the Judiciary. a.,
GOVERNMENT BY the PE9PL

In the last year or TWO we NAV
heard much of radical methods
changing the Judiciary system.
we would properly consider these pro
posals and stand on solid and saft
ground we must re-examine the fund
amental principles of stable popular,
government The history OF the worlt
seems to show that our form of 50,
ernment is more enduring and salts
factory than any other. We began as
small union OF thirteen states
strung along the Atlantic coast, o.
100000 people anj under the same
constitution we have enlarged to e
world power of fOrty-eight sovereign
states bound into one of more thar
900 900 of people aud with humaL
guardianship of 100000 more, nine
In the Pacific and one in the Atlantic
We have fought, beginning with the
revolution. four foreign wars, anC
we have survived civil war of the
greatest proportions recorded in his
tory and have united the bat ling
sections by an indissoluble tie. From
our body polite we have excised the
cancer of slaverly. the only thing pro.
tected by the constitution which was
inconsistent with that liberty, the
preservation of which was the main
purpose of establishing the union
We have increased our business and
productive activities in every direc.
ton, we have expanded the develop.
ment of our natural resources to be
continent wide and all the time we
have maintained sacred those inalien.
able rights of man, the right OF liNer
ty, the right of private property and
the right to the pursuit of happiness.
Greatest Good to Greatest Number.
For these reasons, we believe in
popular government. Government is
human instrumenity-to secure the
greatest good to the greatest number
and the greatest happiness to the in
dividual. Experience, and especially
the growth of popular government in
our own history, has shown that ir
the long run every class of people, and
by that I mean those similarly stu
ated, are better able to secure atten
tfon to their welfare than any other
class, however, altruistic the latter
class may be. Of course, this assumes
that the members of the class have
reasonable intelligence and capacity
for knowing their own rights and in
terest. Hence, it follows that the best
government, in the sense of the gov
ernment most certain to provide for
and protect the right and government
tai needs of every class, is that one
In which every class has a voice.
In recognition of this the tendency
from earliest times in our history has
been the enlargement of the electorate
to include in the ultimate source of
governmental power as many as pos.
sible of those governed. But even
today, the electorate is not more in
number than one fourth Of the total
number of those who are citizens of
the nation and are the people from
whom the government is maintained
and whose rights and happiness the
government is intended to secure.
More than this, government by unani-
nous vote of the electorate is i'm
possible, and therefore the majority
must rule. We find, therefore, that
government by the people is, under
our present system, government by
majority Of one fourth of those whose
rights and happiness are to be affected
by the course and condition OF the
government. This is the nearest to a
government by the whole people we
have ever had. -.... .
Woman's Suffrage Coming. .
Woman's suffrage will change this,
and it Is doubtless coming as soon as
the electorate can be certain that most
women desire it and will assume it's
burden and responsibility. But even
then the electorate will only be part
Of the whole people. In other words,
the electorate is a representative gov
erning body for the whole people for
which the government was establish
ed, and the controlling majority of
the electorate is body still less num-
erous. 1t is thus apparent that ours
Is a government of all the people by
representative part of the people. Now
the object of the government is not
only to secure the greatest good to
the greatest number, but also to do,
this as near as may be by securing
the rights of each individual in his
liberty, property and pursuit of hap
piness: hence 1t was long ago recog-
nized that the direct action of tenn
porary majority of the existing ele6.
fnp9fn n1naf hn tnl
tai law-that is, by constitution in
tended to protect the individual and
the minority Of the electorate and the
non-voting majority of the people
against the unjust or arbitrary action
OF the majority of the electorate. This
made it necessary to introduce into
the constitution certain declarations
as to the rights of the individual
which 1t was the purpose of the whole
people to maintain through the gov
ernment against the aggression Of any
temporary majority of the electorate
and to provide in the same instru
ment certain procedure by which the
individual might assert and vindicate
those rights than to protest against
the momentary impulse of a temporary
majority of the electorate to change
fundamental law and deprive the In
dividual or the voting minority or the
non-voting majority of inaiienable
rights. The constitution provided a
number Of CHI hecks and balances where.
by every amendment to the constitu.s
ton must be adopted under forms
and with delays that are intended tt