Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1912-04-04

ton. I introduced 1t because | don {
want TO come to very much more rad
ical methods, 10 which or people
surely will come If tkey az forbld1 .
the chance o. getting justice as t. -
should get justo z. tar; - the cour =
And the pres. deEJ cas- sa.i that this
propos- ton o. mine lays &. . AK at tho
foot OF the tree of constitutional lib
erty.
who loses her arm by dangerous ma
chinery and has to go thro-sh life
crippled. to give her a chance to re-
cover.
my proposition is to give the brake
man who falls off freight Of flyer
on some winter night and loses his
legs, to give the chance not to put the
burden on his shoulders and on the
shoulders OF his wife and children, but
to distribute the burden among all of
US by making all pay his loss.
MY proposition Is that we shall say
that men and women who have to
struggle hard In life at best are given
as good chance as We are able to
give them to do their work and live
their lives under conditions which
will enable them to bring up their
children decently as American chill
dren should be brought up. Gap
plause) And my proposition Is that
this be done, not against the constl
tuition but by fitting the constitution
to life, by amending 1t so that after
due elaboration. a deliberation that
would certainly, as I have described
the operation, take at least two years;
that after due deliberation the peo-
pie shall be able to vote to do justice
under the law Of the land. That Is all
that | ask.
Trust the People.
Another sentence of the presidents
was, that this was to substitute the
whim or the impulse of a moment
for the deliberate judgment of the
court.
"Whim? First, you have got to vote
the law; have to elect your legisla
ture to put the law through. Then
thresh it out before one house.
Then before the other Then be-
fore the governor Then it goes up
to the courts; thresh 1t out before
them, then the courts give their
opinion. Considerably over a year
will have elapsed by this time; and
then at the next election, after four
or six months debate the people vote,
and If, after two years of discussion
and deliberation, their verdict is still
that of a within, that it still represents
an impulsive judgment, then the peO-
pie could not form any judgment that
was not a whim, if they deliberate
for a hundred years.
Now it is just like the talk of the
impulsive judgment Of the people, that
Is like the primary law. I would rather
trust the impulsive judgment of sac
people than the tricky deliberations Of
the bosses in the primary. applause
Position of Fro9ressives.
I'm these matters of which | speak
1t is not my purpose to put the AK to
the root of the tree Of constitutional
liberty. The ak is put TO the root OF
that tree by those who deny to the
people the right to work justice, be-
cause our constitution, the national
constitutions, followed therein by the
constitutions of the several states,
says In the preamble that the purpose
OF the constitution is to secure justice
as between man and man And l hold
with Lincoln that the constitution
was made for the people and not the
people for the constitution. CAP
plause.)
That 1t is not intended, as our. op-
ponents seem to think, to bear the
same relation to the people that
straitjacket bears to an unruly pa
tent. 1t is intended to be an instru-
ment for securing justice, by giving
the deliberate and well-thought-out
Judgment Of the people full effect. 1t
Is not us; II is not the men who think
as | do, who represent a danger 70
this country.
"The danger comes from those men
who decline to do justice, who work
against every method for getting bet.
ter justice in this country, and who
by their actions encourage the dark
and sinister spirits who do demand
extreme violence.
1--WE stand. we who seek to reform
every law. every method OF American
life which tends towards Injustice We
who seek to bring about the reign OF
real justice. for the reign Of righteous
dealing between man and man, and
righteous dealing and fair dealing to-
ward the helpless among US. we who
are doing that, so far from tearing
down the bulwarks against this order.
are doing everything In our power
TO build those bulwarks high, by max
ing our people understand that now.
rs In the time of Abraham Lincoln,
the American government. the gov
eminent OF the United States, is In
very truth a bulwark for justice,
bulwark against disorder, because
II Is bulwark under the shelter
of which justice and right and
law are secured alike to the weak
A.