Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1912-11-03

legttmate bounds. Eitel nal vigilance is the price of liberty.
 Then again, besides the Federal administration, We have State govern ments and county rules: we have city and own and village municipalities. If all of these m nor corporations were absorbed by the general govern ment, if our Governors, and State legislators, and Sheriffs, and Mayors and Councilmen, were all under the control of the President; if he could at all decapitae all obnoxious sub ordinate rules, with one blow, all our political liberties would be at an end. But, happily, all these lesser off c:als enjoy full authority in their spheres and are independent of the Chief Magistrate.
 Our system of governments is very molex. It may be compared to colossal engine, containing innumer- able wheels within wheels. Each wheel works in it's own orbit, like the planetary system. If the great, Fed eral wheel gets out of order, the small CT wheels are not much deranged, but keep on moving til the. big ma chine is repaired.
 We areI all familiar with the mem- orable Titanic disaster, which result ed in the loss of s1' many precious lives, als we'll as the peerless vessel itself. Had all the compartments of that steamship been wate1tight, the loss of life would have been avoided.
 Now our government is often call ed a Ship of State. This great Ship of State is divided into 49 minor States. Each of thees states may be said to be waterproof in the sense of the engulfing of one that would not involve the hiking of the others. California, fer example, might be overwhelmed by the waters of po- litical revolution without disturbing t;he neighboring states of WasAin gton, Nevada or Arizona.
 'If oupr states were mere provinces or te1r tories, without autonomy and sovereignty, like other republics less favored than ours, we would enjoy less stability and less hope of endur ing freedom thah we now possess.
 "The safety and permanence, there fore, of our Republic. largely depends lon the autonomy of the several States, without the danger of absorption by the general government. Should our Governors and Legislators ever be- come the subserv;ent creatures of the Federal Government they would be mere puppets, subject to the will of tha thief Executive They would cease to be waterproof and would share the fate of the Titanic.
 1.-TWO momentous crises occurred in my own aysswhich are calculated to the vi.alitp and strength of the Republic The first was the war be- twen the States, when the nation was cut m twain, when fratricidal blood was she'd over the land and a tremen- dous conflict was carried on for four years. This calamity has happily ended and the dismembered States are now more firmly united than ever before, because slavely, which was the bone of contention, has been re- moved once and forever.
 "Tne second crisis occurred in the Presidential contest in 1876 between Tilden and Hayes Mir. Tilden was robbed of the fruit of the victory which, I believe, he honestly won, and by. questionable devices Mir. Hayes was declared the successful candidate.
 "A nation that would survive these terrible strains must be possessed or extraordinary vitality and resources, and leads us to hope that in any fu- ture emergency the leaders and statesmen of the Republic will rise to the occasion and bring order out of cae chaos.
 "It is my profound conviction that if ever the republic is doomed to de- cay. If the future historian shall ever record the decline and fall of the Am- ericar Republic, its downfall will be due ,iot to a hostile invasion, bur to the indifference, lethargy and poliu-