The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-03-08
(NationaJ News Association,

(NAttonA News As4oclAtionl
NEW YORK. March S.-Under the
caption do You Believe In The Rule
OF The People," Colonel Theodore
Roosevelt laid down the gage Of battle
and defined the stand he will take In
the campaign against President Taft
for the Republican nomination in an
editorial which appears In the current
issue Of The Outlook"
Let me ask those who disagree
with me frankly to state whether or
not they believe that the people have
the right to rule themselves, and to
settle for themselves the course they
wish to pursue rs regards and vital
questions of public policy" says the
Ex-President.
Colonel Roosevelt's chief argument
is directed against the criticism Of
his policy in regard to the recall of
judges as declared In his platform
speech" before the Ohio Constitutions
al convention.
There has been much effort made"
he said, TO fog the issue raised in
my Columbus speech. In reality, the
issue is perfectly simple: Do you be-
lieve in the rule of the people! II you
do, you are with US. If you do not,
you are against us.
MANY good and honorable persons
do not believe in the rule of the peo-
pie. and openly say SO. We disagree
with these persons, but We can respect
them. There are other persons, how
ever, who do not believe in the rule
of the people, but who dare not say so,
and who endeavor by trickery, by
chicanery, by fraud, to seem to give
the people the right to rule and at the
same time to deprive them Of that
right. These persons we do not re-
spect.
Those who stand for the cause of
social and Industrial justice, to be OBJ
| tanned through the genuine rule of the
people, are but carrying forward the
work which dropped from Abraham
Lincoln's hands when the patient,
tired. kindly eyes were closed forever.
He strove against intrenched wrong.
against privilege in the most hateful
form of his day. We, in our day,
strive against hateful forms of in
trenched wrong and privilege. We are
not striving in bitterness of spirit, or
with anger and hatred as far as in US
lies. we seek to emulate Abraham
Lincoln's charity and kindness in
| dealing with those who, as We believe,
think erroneously; but We also en-
! deavor to emulate the unflinching re-
solution, the answering purpose, with
which he fought for the great cause OF
righteousness.
abraham Lincoln respected the
judges. But he regarded them al the
servants and not the masters of the
people: and he believed that the peo-
pie had the right to decide for them
selves the great fundamental questions
of public policy. upon the proper So
there shall or shall not be true social
justice in the land.
| Therefore we hold that, as regards
these questions of public policy, courts
like executives and legislatures, must
| bow to the sober and well-thought-out
judgment of the people.
Let me repeat once more what
have so often said-that am not now
speaking of ordinary cases of justice
between man and man, such as must
be decided by judges here in America
as they are decided by judges in all
other lands. l am speaking of the
action of the court when it declares
that a law passed in the collective in
terest of the whole community is un-
constitutional; and / have especially
in view the laws affecting human
rights from a most vital standpoint
the laws affecting the terms and con-
ditions of life and employment among
the wage-workers.
If in any state the constitution SO
clearly defined the power of the legis-
lature to act for the general welfare
as to prohibit the courts from nullify-