Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1912-03-29
Takes a Fling at Recent Prefer
ence Primary Elections and
Michigan's Ruse to Avoid
Holding One,
DANGEROUS TO TRY
TO IMPROVE LINCOLN
Tyranny Not by Majorities But
Usually by Minorities Look
ing for Special Privileges at
Public Expense,
Rv Morning journal Special Leased wirel

fBy Morning journal Special Leased Wire
st. Louis, March 2S.-Theodor'
Roosevelt spoke in this city tonight
His address, entitled THE Right o.
the People to Rule" was in part as
follows:
When I say that l believe not only
In the right Of the people to rule bu'
In their duty to rule themselves and
to refuse to submit to being ruled by
others, / am not using figure OF
speech, / am speaking of a vital Issue
which fundamentally affects our
whole American life. ! not merely
admit, but insist. that in all govern
ment, and In especially popular gov
ernment. there must be control, and
furthermore, that If ca u does not
come from within it must come from
without.
There are peoples in the world
which have proved by their lament
able experiences that they are not ca
pable of this self control; but ] con-
tend that the American people most
emphatically are capabl of it.
hold that in the long run taken@as a
HHOiS Jul PtOpic e'h p'' 49, o.
ern themselves a great deal better
than any small set of men can gov
ern them.
"The attempt has recently been
made to improve on Abraham Lin
coins statement that this Is gov
erninent of the people, for the people
by the people AS a substitute there
for II is proposed that this govern
ment shall hereafter he govern
ment of the people for the people,
by representative part of the peo-
pie. 1t is always a dangerous thing
TO try to improve on Lincoln when we
deal with the rights and duties of the
people, and this particular attempt al
Improvement is not a happy one. In
substance ii. of course means nothing
except that this Is to be a government
of the whole people by part of the
people. We have had such govern
ment in various parts Of this union
from time 10 time and, stripped OF
of verbiage, it simply means gov
ernment of the people by the bosses
"Now, l want each of you to con
slider this governmental proposition
from his own individual standpoint
| want to lead my own life for my
self and to have any one else lead nj
fer me in leading it and each of YOU
who are in my class, the parent class
you mothers and fathers want to feel
that way about your boys as they
grow up. This does not mean that
none Of US will make mistakes; on thel
contrary each of us will some timesl
make mistakes
We'll, it is just the same way about
the people as whole. All of us, youl
and ], all of us together want TO rule
ourselves, and we cont want to havel
any body of outsiders rule US. That isl
what free government means. III
people cannot rule themselves then
they are not fit for free government
and all talk about democracy is a
sham
In actual life here in the United
States experience has shown that the
effort to substitute for the genuinel
rule of the people something else al |
ways means the rule of privilege in
some form or other. Whenever therel
Is tyranny by the majority | shall GER
tainly fight it. But the tyrannles
from which we have been suffering
in this country have. ninety-nineI
times out of a hundred, been tyran' /
nies of a minority. that is tyranny by
privilege. Some times as in the case
of some public utility franchise or
other bit of grabbing by few that
belong to the many. tyranny is pri-
marily commercial; at other times IL
is primarily political This, for in
stance. is true just at the present day
in those states where the people have
been denied the right to vote at pri- |
maries in order to express their pref
erences for president.
by the way. ludicrous feature of
the Michigan situation has been that
the men who denied the right of the
people TO vote at the primaries dld IL
by passing the primary law in such
shape that it would only take effect
after the latest date that primaries
coulo he held 10 elect delegates to the
convention in June This represents
merely meaner form Of opposition
To- the movement for public decency
than would have been a straight out
vote against the entire proposition.
We rule ourselves and we choose
our representatives.. not To rule us
but To manage the public business i"r
us along the lines we have laid down
and approved. The men who disbe-
iieve in the rule Of the people ana
who think that the people should be
ruled by a part OF them ffor to eah
such part a representative part Is
entirely meaningless, treat the con-
stitution as a straight jacket for res
sirainine an unruly patient-the Peo-