The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-03-29

Doggy. To2TGtS
and said that presidential primary
law, to consider which the legislature
is in session, was an important SteE
towards securing to the people the
right to rule themselves. He assailed
the politicians and the crooked men
of wealth. who, he said, were oppos-
ing such measures.
Colonel Roosevelt received a tumul-
tuous welcome when he reached the
armory. All of the seats were filled
and hundreds of persons were stand
ing AS he mounted the platform, the
people rose to their feet with cheer
waving small flags which the Roosevelt
committee had distributed.
Governor Hadley introduced the col
onel. The first reference which Col
onel Roosevelt had made to the tariff
in his present campaign was brought
into the speech.
IT have not spoken on the tariff"
he said, because / have little to add
to what l said two years ago, in up
holding an honest fulfillment of what
the Republican platform contained on
that subject
The colonel said he would lay emf
phasis on one additional point, which
was that the tariff should be regulated
for the benefit of the wage Garner ano
the farmer. and that the benefit should
not all accrue to the men at the heads
of large business operations.
The speaker repeated the charges
that improper means We're used to De
feat the Roosevelt candidates at the
primaries in New York.
What happened in New York" he
said, shows that there is ample mis-
sionary work down there for any Mis-
sourians you can spare.
Here in Missouri he continued,
"they have arranged for contestlng
delegations to the Chicago convention
in districts where they could hardly
r. o II
the contest. They can only hope that
at Chicago they can repeat what was
done IN New York"
His ArmOry Speech.
In his speech at the Armory last
night he said:
when 1 say that / believe not only
in the right of the people to rule. but
in their duty to rule themselves ana
to refuse to submit to being ruled by
others, 1 am not using ngufe OF
speech, I am speaking or a vital lSsue
which fundamentally aHects our WHole
American life.
There are peoples in the world VINO
have proved by their lamentable ex.
periences that they are not capable OF
this Self-control; but i contend that
the American people most emphaucal-
" are capable of it. l hold that, TAX
en- as whole, our people can, ana
will govern themselves a great deal
better than any small set OF men can an
Gently been made to improve on
Abraham Lincoln's statement that
this is a government of the people,
for the people, by the people As
substitute therefore it is proposed
that this government shall hereafter
he government of the people, for
the people, by a representative part OF
the people. 1t is always a dangerous
matter to try to improve on Lincoln
when we deal with the rights and du-
ties of the people. In substance II OF
course means nothing except that inns
is to be a government OF the w"oie
DeopIe by a part OF the people,
Now I want each of you to CONSIDER
this governmental proposition from ms
own Individual standpoint. Our conteh-
zion is that just as each individual
wishes, and ought to wish, to RUE ms
own life for himself. so that all lndl-
viduals taken together; tIlat - .lle
people must wish themselves to rule
their collective life and not to be ruled
NV others Each of us here wants to
lead his own life himself. Is not tnat
true of you? 1t certainly is true OF me-
and if 1 found it was not true OF any
of my sons would reel IKE olsl SIM iieo
ing them. I want to lead my own NE
for myself and not to have anyone else
lead it for me or boss me in leading IT.
TyrannicaI Majorities.
eff people can not rule themselves
then they are not fit for free govern
ment and all talk about democracy is
sham. do not for a moment mean
that we the people, will not OCCASION
alIv make mistakes, but after all, they
will be our mistakes and not somebody
else's and we can cure them ourselves
Experience has shown that the effort
to substitute for the genuine rule OF the
people something else always means the
rifle of privilege in some form or other,
political privilege, some
times financial privileges, often a mix
ture of both.
whenever there is tyranny by the
ma iority I shall certainly fight it. But
the tyrannies from which we have been
suffering in this country have, ninety
nine times out of a hundred, been ty-
rannies of a minority, that is tyranny
by privilege. Sometimes, as in the case
of some public utility franchise or other
bit of grabbing by few of what be-
longs to the many, the tyranny is pri-
mariIy commercial; at other times it is
primarily political. This, for instance,
is true Just at the present day in those
states where the people have been de-
MED the right to vote at primaries in
order to express their preferences for
president BY the way, a ludicrouS
feature of the Michigan situation has
been that the men who denied the right
of the people to vote at the primaries
did it by passing the primary law N
such shape that it would only take
effect after the latest date that pr1-
naries could be held to elect delegates
to the convention in June. This repre-
sents a merely meaner form of opposi-
ton to the movement for public de-
cency than would have been a straight
out vote against the entire proposition
We Rule Ourselves.
I'm a government like ours, our rep
resentatives do not rule US in the sense
that a monarch or an aristocracy rules
over the people. We. the people, rule
ourselves and what we really want
from our representatives is that they
shall manage the government for us
along the lines we lay down. We Wei
come leadership and advice. of .courSs