The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1912-04-05
A DISHONEST ATTACK.

n DI0TIONGol ~ AVN
Does Mr.. Roosevelt propose to base
his campaign against Mr. Taft on a
lie?
In his Portland speech Mr.. Roose-
welt represented Mr.. Taft as having
proposed at Toledo that hereafter
we should act on the theory that this
is a government of the people, for the
people, by representative part Tor
class) of the people" He knew exact
ly what Mr.. Taft said, and he took
pains to garble the Presidents words
and to distort his meaning.
Mr.. Roosevelt has since tried the
same trick on half a dozen platforms.
In the statement issued by Mr..
Roosevelt Sunday on his way home
from the West he spoke once more of
1.-THE Presidents doctrine that we
should have a government of the peo-
pie by a representative part of the
people" 1t was done deliberately and
with purpose to mislead.
Mr.. Roosevelt has not the moral
courage to quote in full the passage
from the Presidents speech Of which
he has so often misrepresented the
conclusion. To do so would be to re-
veal his own unscrupulousness as a
politician. The World will quote it
for him. What Mr.. Taft said was:
Experience, and especially the
growth of popular government in our
Z own history, has shown that in the
long run every class of the people, and
by that l mean those similarly situat-
ed, are better able to secure atten-
ton 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 gov
eminent, in the sense of the govern
ment most certain to provide for and
DIOlCCI IHc llbhNS anu
needs of every class, is that one in
which every class has a voice. In
recognition of this, the tendency from
early times in our history has been
the enlargement of athe electorate tc
include in the ultimate source Of gov
ernmental power as many as possible
e ra6 nut
the electorate is not more in number
than one-fourth of the total number o.
those who are citizens of the Natior
and are the people for whom the gov
eminent is maintained and whose
rights and happiness the government
Is intended to secure. More than this
government by unanimous vote of thu
electorate is impossible, and there
fore the majority of the electorate
must rule.
We find, therefore, that government
by the people is. under our presen
system, government by majority o
one-fourth of those whose rights an
course and conduct of the government
This is the nearest to a government
by the whole people we have ever hat
Womans suffrage will change thif
and it is doubtless coming as soon a
the electorate can be certain that mos
women desire It and will assume 1t
burden and responsibility. But eve
then the electorate will only be PAL
of the whole people. In other wordl
the electorate is a representative go'
erning body for the whole people 70
which the government was estal
Iished. and the controlling majority {
the electorate is body still less nj
merous.
1T is thus apparent that ours Is
government Of all the people by a rel
resentative part Of the people. Nov
the object OF government is not onl
to secure the greatest good to tn
greatest number, but also to do this q
near as may be by securing the right
of each individual in his liberty. prof.
erty and pursuit of happiness.
Hence It was long ago recognize
that the direct action Of Temporal
majority Of the existing electoral