The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1912-05-30
WHAT THE REAL ISSUE In THE
PRESENT GREAT CONTEST IS
1t not Simply Men; Policies; But the Fundamental
Principles and Purposes of this Gov


ait, or Mr.. clark, or Wilson q
Mr.. Underwood, or Mr.. Harmo
shall be the next president.
Is not between persons.
1t is not whether there shal
be a high tariff or low tariff
administrative regulation or judd
clal disruption of great corpora
tions, a recall of judges or of ju
dicial decisions. 1t is not be
tween specific policies.
The issue involves specific pol
lcies; it involves persons; but j
Is broader than either, and broad
er than both combined.
1t is an issue between tw,
great political tendencies. Tn,
question addressed to the Ameri
can people in this campaign is
this; The country has been NOV
ing In certain direction for a
hundred and twenty-five years.
Is 1t time to call a haltg or shall
we go on further in the same di-
rection?
Our fathers established on this
continent new form of govern
ment-government of the people,
by the people, for the people. But
they were men of caution as well
as of courage. And, because this
was a new form of government,
they provided variety of checks
to protect the nation against ire
sponsible actions by the people IS
representatives, and against par
ty prejudice, class hatred, popu-
lar passion. They made a govern
ment of checks and balances.
In nearly all the states there
We're limitations on the right of
suffrage.
Those who had the suffrage
were not authorized to elect their
president. The people of the var
ious states were directed to elect
electors; and the electors were
TO meet and select a president.
Nor were they authorized to
elect their senators. They were
to elect legislature, and the leg
lslature was to elect the senator's.
They were to elect their rep
resentative, but for only two
years; that if he did not serve
them well, they might recall him
Their states and their nation
were provided with constitutions
which took the place of the colon
lal charters and defined the au-
thority of the peoples represen-
tatives. The powers of their ma
tlonal congress were in terms de-
lined by the national constitution
and all other powers were reserv-
ID to the people and the states.
That constitution provided three
departments, independent of each
'ther, each to serve as a check
lpon the other.
And the fathers allowed, by a
which has had all the
fleet of a constitutional provi-
ION, the courts to interpret the
constitution, and so to determine
he limits and bounds of the pow
r possessed by the executive
nd legislative departments.
FINALLY, by constituting the ma
ion out of individual states. each
possessing certain attributes of {
evereignty, they guarded against I
he danger of a national action
MUST and injurious to any por- ]
ion of the Union. I'm the Fed {
raj Republic of the United $
tates, said Alexander Hamil- I
IN, while all authority will be i
erlved from and dependent on t
lie society, the society itself will
e broken into so many parts, in t
rests, and classes of citizens v
lat the rights of individuals or 0
the minority will be in little II
anger from. interested combina- a
ons of the majority" D
During the hundred and TWEEN t
five years of our history the r
18th of the American people in o
'pular government has greatly a
creased. Many of the checks Il
'vised by the fathers have been
Their abandoned or modified. b
The conditions of suffrage have a,
ther been greatly lessened or it
tally abolished. a,
The Electoral college continues Ell
finally to elect the president; CT