The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-03-22
WHO ARE THE PEoPLEa

Eugene ". Debs, like our good
friend. Sartorius, holds to the opin-
ion. as expressed in recent letter
to the New York World, that the
United States is misgoverned because
he says that congress represents the
ruling classes and not the people.
As soon as a certain number of our
people are selected to become our
representatives or rulers, do they i'm
mediately cease to become part of
the body of the people? Are not our
rulers as much a part of the people
as are the people whom they rule?
In order TO make it possible for the
people to rule should we select as
our representatives in congress and
i'm the several state legislatures men
unskilled in statecraft and in the
science of government merely be-
cause they are supposedly represent
atives of labor, not capital, the peo-
pie. not property interests? Are
not our preachers, doctors, lawyers,
editors, bankers, lecturers, authors,
poets, historians, ETC., as much the
people as one could gather from a
miscellaneous assemblage, and is it
not possible for them to be as true
and patriotic and loyal to our insti-
tutiOns as it is possible for the aver
age man of a miscellaneous gather
ing to be? Mr.. Debs and his follow
ers have a great deal to say of the
prepOnderance of lawyers in our rep
resentative bodies, which make them
represent the interests and not the
people. Is this true? Because Bryan
is a lawyer, does it unfit him from be-
ing an American? Does it unfit Wat
son? See the list of lawyers who
have taken a conspicuous part in con-
secrating this government to the
principles of liberty. Thomas Jeffer
son. Can any American mention his
name except in reverence? Patrick
Henry. Who more than he stirred
the patriotic fires? Henry Clay. The
"millboy of the slashes." Was he
ever suspected of drawing I'm unpa-
triotic breath? Daniel Webster Was
not his whole life spent in warming
the spirit of liberty? John C. Cal
houn. How luminous and profound
we're his expositions of the constitu-
ton and as his life is more and
more studied the larger space he oc-
cupies as a patriot and a statesman.
Andrew Jackson. Did he belong to
any special interests" except the
burning desire to serve his country
with unsullied honor. Abraham Lin
coin. Does anyone occupy a greater
alteration in the affections of the peo-
pie? Andrew Johnson, so misunder-
stood. yet so lofty and heroic. Charles
Sumner. Wendell Phillips, William
Lloyd Garrison, Alexander Stephens,
Benjamin H. Hill, L. @. C. Lamar,
John w. Daniel, and thousand 9TH
ers. all lawyers and all luminous in
the pages of history. Immortal
names that were not born to die"
Because, being lawyers they were not
aristocrats nor plutocrats, nor were
they bound by the special interests"
And II they were not, why is it i'm
possible for lawyers, preachers, edi-
tors. etc., of today to be patriots, low
ing our institutions and being bound
by them. Why does it go without
saying that being lawyers and profess
sional men that they must perforce
be the representatives of capital, not
labor: property interests, not the peo-
pie?
All this talk is the veriest rot, and
candidates who pander to a sentiment
so out of keeping with our American
life should not be tolerated.