The Mena weekly star., 1912-02-29

kEAcefptS from the speech maze II
Columbus, o.. February 81.
We progressives believe that tn,
people have the right, the power
and the duty to protect themselye,
and their own welfare; That human
rights are supreme over all Other
rights: that wealth should be TIA,
servant, not the master, Of the PEG.
pie.
I believe in the initiative and ref.
erendum, which should be used no
to destroy representative govern.
ment, but to correct ii whenever j
becomes misrepresentation.
believe in providing for direc
nominations by the people, includ-
ing therein direct preferential pri-
maries for the election of delegate.
to the national nominating conven-
tions.
believe in the election Of UniteC
States senator's by direct vote.
The opposition which person.
ally have encountered from bis
business has in every case arisen
not because | did not give a square
deal, but because | did.
big business" in the past has
been responsible for much Of the
special privilege which must be un-
sparingly cut out of our nationa
life.
IT is nonsense to say that i'm.
parchment meets the difficulty. II
actual practice we have found tina
Impeachment does not work. tina
unfit judges stay on the bench il
spite of il. A quicker, a more sum
mary, remedy is needed.
am emphatically a believer il
constitutionalism and because o.
this fact | no less emphatically pro-
test against any theory that would
make of the constitution mean:
Of thwarting instead of securing The
absolute right Of The people to rui,
themselves and to provide for Their
own social and industrial we'll
being.
II was Lincoln who appealed tC
the people against the judges whef
the judges went wrong; who advO-
Gated and secured what was practi-
cally the recall Of the bred Scott
decision, and who treated the con-
stitution as a living force for right
eousness. We stand for applying
the constitution to the issues Of to-
day as Lincoln applied 1t to the is
sues Of his day.
1t is impossible TO invent consti-
tutional devices which will proven
the popular will from being effect.
i've for wrong without also pre-.
venting it from being effective fol
right. The only safe course to fol
low in this great American democ-
racy is to provide for making tn,
popular Judgment really effective
When this is done, then it is ouI
duty to see that the people having
full power, realize their heavy re-
sponsibility for exercising thai
power Alright.
II has been well said that in the
past we have paid attention only tc
the accumulation of prosperity
and that from henceforth we must
pay equal attention to the proper
distribution Of prosperity. This is
true. The only prosperity worth
having is that which affects the
mass of the people. We are bound
TO strive for the fair distribution
of prosperity. But il behooves us
to remember that there is no use in
devising methods for the proper
distribution Of prosperity unless
the prosperity is there to distrib-
ute.
II is both futile and mischievous
to endeavor to correct the evils of
big business by an attempt to re-
store business conditions as they
were in the middle of the last CEN
fury, before railways and tele-
graphs had rendered larger bust
ness organizations both inevitable
and desirable. The effort is to re-
store such conditions, and 70 trust
for Justice solely to such proposed
restoration is as foolish as if we
should attempt to arm our troops
with the flntlocks of Washington's
Continentals.
Following Senator LaFolIette, a
number of practical workers and
thinkers in Wisconsin have turned
that state into an experimental
laboratory of wise governmental
action in aid Of social and industrial
justice.
You trainers of this constitution,
be careful so to frame it that un-
der il the people shall leave them
selves free to do whatever is nee
essary in order to help the farmers
OF the state to get for themselves
and their wives and their children
not only the benefits of better
n-l n