Arizona republican., 1912-03-24
Roosevelt Makes Bitte r Assault on President Taft's Government tai Ideas
MAKES SPEECH
 AT PORTLAND
Sticks to Socialistic Idea of Investing Electorate
 With Judicial Powers
[ [ASSOciatcd Press DiSbdichl

HSSOciatcd Press DiSPGichl PORTLAND. Me. March 23.-CoL
 Roosevelt, in an address here tonight at mass meeting held under the aus
 piceS of the Roosevelt state commit
 tee. look issue with a statement in
 recent speeches made by President Taft. He quoted Abraham Lincoln to prove the presidents theory of govern ment meant q government by a com
 bination of political and financial priv ileges."
 The president of the United States has. in a number of recent speeches, ably and correctly stated the issue be-
 tween him and us" said Roosevelt We stand for the right of the people
 to rule: We stand for this as a real, living fact, not as a juggling formula ilgeniOusly devised so as not to find eX
 pressiOn in fact. h a recent speech,
 the president paraphrased Lincoln's
 great statement that this is govern menJ of the people, for the people and by the people proposing as a sub- Stitute that We should hereafter act on the theory that this is a government
 
 represen ative part Cor class )Of the people. IL is dangerous work for any man to try tO improve on Lincoln's doctrines Of popular sovereignty and popular rights. or course. everybody.
 whether believer in despotism or in democracy, agrees there must be gov
 ernment of the people. In the next place. even the ruling classes in a des- po.ism always publicly state their
 government is for the people. The point Of difference between believers in genuine democracy, genuine popu
 lar rule and those who lisbelieve in such genuine popular rule and believe
 in a government by minorities. comes in connection with Lincoln's thir1
 proposition that government should be
 by the people.
 Those who believe in government or
 rule by part of the people, by a minor
 ity of the people. by a privileged class
 or caste over the rest of the people, al-
 ways insisted. under every form of
 minority government from ariStocracy
 to plutocracy, tha- they really were representing the people. that they knew how to represent the people. how to govern them a great deal better
 than the people did themselves. In actual practice, the presidents theory
 of government by the people means
 simply government by the bosses Roosevelt reiterated his arguments on the right of the people to recall the decisions Of state courts, declaring that in no other English speaking country
 or in France. Or Germany would jujg- ! es be given such power as in the Amer jean state courts
 Roosevelt named Senator Penrose. of Pennsylvania, Senator Gallinger, of New Hampshire. William Barnes. Jr., of New York; Congressman Mckinley. the presidents campaign manager; and Congressman Tawney, of Minnesota, as representing the chief political ad- herents Of the president. and said: ! They are precisely the men. who. | under the presidents theory would be. as they are to certain degree all l ready, representatives of part of the people which governs the rest of the people, which does not really repre- sent them at all but misrepresents | them"
 The speakers platform collapsed but Roosevelt was uninjured.