The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1912-02-29
CHARTER OF
DEH OcRACY,
bYali'S Address Bgi3l3 tie
0a0ConsIiiuii1adl COngsRiiJn.
FARS RECALL OF JUDGES.

Control of Trusts Should Be Admins
rasive and Not Judicial-Linco!n
Parted the Way We Must Follow.
Aeproves Initiative and Referendum,
p.asct Nominations and Popular
essction of Senators.
PRESIDENT and Members Of the
4s Constitutional Convention:
al profoundly sensible of the hon
~ have done me II asking I4e 70
sss you. You are engaged ia the
atEental WORK OF self government.
are eng6ged IN framing conssi-
"a under and III accordance with
- the people are 10 get and to Do
and absolutely to rule them
serves. No representative body can
have higher task. TO carry it through
successfully there is need to combine
practical common sense of the most
hard headed kind with a spirit of lofty
idealisrn
/ believe in pure democracy. With
Lincoln / hold that this country, with
its institutions, belongs to the people
who inhabit it. Whenever they shall
grow weary Of the existing govern
ment they can exercise their constitu-
tional right OF amending it." We pro-
gressives believe that the people have
the right, the power and the duty to
protect themselves and their own well
.s,I,
over all other. rights: that wealth
should be the servant, not the master,
Of the people. We believe that unless
representative government does abso-
luteIy represent the> people it is not
representative government at all. We
test the worth of all men and all meas
ures by asking how they contribute to
the welfare of the men, women and
children of whom this nation is COM
posed. We are engaged in one of the
great battles of the age long contest
waged against privilege on behalf Of
the common welfare. We hold it a
prime duty of the people to free our
government from the control of money
in politics.
This country. as Lincoln said, be-
longs to the people. So do the natural
resources which make it rich. They
supply the basis of our prosperity now
and hereafter. In preserving them,
which is a national duty, we must not
lorgef that monopoly is based on the
cenfroI OF natural resources and nat
zeal adxaptages and that 1t will help
the people little to conserve our nat
uraI waalfh unless the benefits which
i can yield are secured to the people.
Let US remember also that conserva-
ton does not stop with the natural re-
sources, but that the principle Of max
ing the best use of all we have re-
quires with equal or greater insistence
f1at we shall stop the waste of human
life in industry and prevent the waste
Of human welfare which flows from
the unfair use of concentrated power
and wealth in the hands of men whose
eagerness for profit blinds them to the
cost Of what they do. We have no
higher duty than to promote the eff
csency Of the individual. There Is no
xurcr road to the efficiency Of the ma
ton.
Power 10 the Peoples.
am emphatically believer In con-
ftltutionaiism, and because Of this fact
no less emphaticaliy protest against
any theory that would make Of the
constitution a means Of thwarting In
stead Of securing the absolute right Of
the people to rule themselves and to
provide for their own social and In
dustrial well being. All constitutions,
those Of the states no less than that
Of the nation, are designed and must
be interpreted and administered 30 as
to at human rights. Lincoln 80 In
terpreted and administered the ma
tional constitution. Buchanan at
tempted the reverse. attempted to At
human rights to and limit them by
the constitution. 1t was Buchanan
who treated the courts as fetish,
who protested against and condemned
all criticism Of the judges for unjust
and unrighteous decisions and upheld
the constitution as an instrument for
the protection of privilege and of vest
ed wrong. 1t was Lincoln who ap-
pealed to the people against the judges
when the judges went wrong, who adj
vocated and secured what was prac-
tically the recall Of the bred Scott de-
cision and who treated the constitu-
ton as a living. force for righteous
ness We stand for applying the con-
stitution to the issues of today as Lin
coin applied it to the issues of his day.
Lincoln, mind you, and not Buchanan.
/ was the real upholder and preserver
Of the constitution. for the true pro-
lgressive, the progressive of the Lin
lcoln stamp. is the only true constitu-
ltionalist, the only real conservative.
If the constitution is successfully in
IvoEed to nullify the effort to remedy
injustice it is proof positive either that
The constitution needs Immediate
amendment or else that it is being
vrongfully and improperly construed.
therefore, very earnestly ask. you
iegrly to provide in this constitution
scans which will enable the people
eddy to amend it if at any point 1t
Isks injustice and also means which
III permit the people themselves by
I 3sllar vote, after due elaboration
Nr51 discussion hut finally and with