Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1912-02-22


address you. You are engaged in III,
fundamental work OF self government
You are engaged in framing consti
tuition under and in accordance will
which the people are 10 get and TO dt
Justice and absolutely to rule them
selves. No representative body Cal
have a higher task To carry 1t through
successfully there Is need to combine
practical common sense OF the most
hard beaded kind with spirit OF lofty
Sdealism.
l believe in pure democracy. With
Lincoln / hold that this country, with
tts institutions, belongs to the people
who inhabit it. Whenever they shall
grow weary of the existing govern
ment they can exercise their constltu-
ttonal right Of amending It," We pro
gressives believe that the people have
the right, the power and the duty to
protect themselves and their own wei
fare; that human rights are supreme
over all other rights; that wealth
should be the servant, not the master,
OF the people. We believe that unless
representative government does abso-
lutely represent the people 1t is not
representative government at all. We
test the worth Of all men and all meas
ures by asking how they contribute to
the welfare OF the men, women and
children OF whom this nation is com
posed. We are engaged in one Of the
great battles Of the age long contest
waged against privilege on behalf of
the common welfare We hold it
prime duty of the people to free our
government from the control OF money
In politics
This country, as Lincoln said, be
longs to the people. So do the natural
resources which make it rich They
supply the basis Of our prosperity now
and hereafter In preserving them,
which is national duty, we must not
forget that monopoly is based on the
control OF natural resources and nat
ural advantages and that 1t will help
the people little to conserve our nat
ural wealth unless the benefits which
Il can yield are secured TO the people
Let us remember also that conserva-
ton does not stop with the natural re
sources, but that the principle Of max
ing the best use of all we have re
quires with equal or greater insistence
that we shall stop the waste OF human
life In industry and prevent the waste
Of human welfare which flows from
the unfair use Of concentrated power
and wealth In the hands of men whose
easerness for profit sNlnds them to the
cost Of what they do We have no
higher duty than to promote the eff
cheney of the individual There Is no
surer road to the efficiency Of the ma
ton.
Power 10 tho Peoples.
] am emphatically a believer In con-
Stitutionalism, and because Of this fact
I no less emphatically protest against
any theory that would make Of the
a means Of thwarting in
stead Of securing the absolute right Of
the people to rule themselves and to
provide for their own social and in
dustrial we'll being. All constitutions,
those Of the states no less than that
Of the nation, are designed and must
be interpreted and administered so as
to fit human rights. Lincoln so in
terpreted and administered the ma
ttonal constitution. Buchanan at
tempted the reverse. attempted to fit
human rights to and limit them by
the constitution. 1t was Buchanan
who treated the courts as fetish,
who protested against and condemned
al criticism Of the judges for unjust
and unrighteous decisions and upheld
the constitution as an instrument for
the protection Of privilege and Of vest
"a wrong. 1t was Lincoln who ap-
pealed to the people against the judges
when the judges went wrong, who ad-
vocated and secured what was prac-
ideally the recall Of the bred Scott de-
cision and who treated the constitu-
t3on as living force for righteous
0oss. We stand for applying the con-
otitution to the Issues OF today as Lin
coin applied 1t to the issues Of his day.
lincoln, mind you, and not Buchanan,
Was the real upholder and preserver
q the constitution. for the true pro
grVesive, the progressive Of the Lin
eoln stamp, Is the only true constitu-
t1onalist, the only real conservative.
II the constitution is successfully in
voked to nullify the effort to remedy
injustice It Is proof positive either that
the constitution needs Immediate
amendment or else that II Is being
wrongfully and improperly construed.
I therefore very earnestly ask you
clearly to provide In this constitution
means which will enable the people
readily to amend il II at any point It
works injustice and also means which
VIII permit the people themselves by
popular vote, after due elaboration
and discussion, but finally and with
out appeal, to settle what the proper
construction OF any constitutional
point Is. 1t IL often said that ours Is
n government Of checks and balances.
But this should only mean that these
checks and balances obtain as among
the several different kinds of repre-
sentatives of the people-judlcial, ex
ecutive and legislative-to whom the