Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1912-06-06
CHRISTIANITY AND Governments

Below win be found the address de-
livered in New York, April 10, 1912
before the conservation congress by
Hon. j. A. Mcdonald, Of Toronto. II
produced a profuonl impression Rcat
it.
What message has Christianity foi
the govcrnmg nts of America What
can Christianity do, through this Met
and Religion Forward Increment, tC
make the government of the people, by
the people aud for the people reality
on this continent What power il
there ia the religion Of the men Of this
movement to litihze and sustain Amer
lean democracy, and to warrant il IN
aspiring TO project itself over the
world! How are the principles of right
eousness and the power for service
represented in this religious congress
to be made energizing and dominant in
state legislatures and in the national
congress at Washington and in proyia-
ciaI legislatures and in the dominion
parliament at Ottawag
Questions snch as these are suggest
ed by. the theme of this evening s pro-
gram. Such questions must have been
in the minds Of the committee RESPONSE
BILE for assigning to this theme an
American political leader and Can
adian newspaper man. II that be
true it is our duty to face such ques-
tiOns, and to make this congress face
them, without nlincing words and with
out evading issues. | shall therefore
press upon you some points which
seem to be pertinent and to call for re-
cOgnition.
az The fact of American democ
racy puts responsibility for American
government directly and immovably
on the American people. If there is
evil in the land, injustice, oppression
wrongdoing, the people are responsible.
There was time when responsibility
rested on the king His was the au-
thority and his the blame. But il we
the people have dismissed the king, if
we have put on the royal purple and
climbed up to the throne of power,
then ours is the blame and ours the
disgrace-our and our children g after
us. For this is the distinction Of our
democracy; that we have taken the
sceptre of government from the hand
of the king and put it into the hand
of the crowd.
(2) The character Of government is
judged not by its forms, but by its
fruits. Names and phrases and sym
bOls do not signify. We may talk of
the monarchy or of the republic. We
may pirate about autocracy or about
democracy. That government is best
which produces the best results in indi-
vidual freedom, in civic efficiency, in
national character. A system is Judged
not by its favored few, its aristocracy
of privilege, but by what it does for
the average man. In England there is
or rather was, for it is passing with
the steadily rising tide Of British dem
ocracy-in England there is the rem.
nant of an aristocracy of birth and of
privileged position which through gen
erations dominated English life and
character. In America, both in the
United States and in Canada, there is
growing up an aristocraey of wealth
and of the power of politics and in in
dustry that wealth controls. Under
both flags every special privilege to
the few involves a special loss to the
many. Glass privilege on one side
means danger to class rights on the
other side. The danger is none the less
in America because we have changed
from one type of class domination to
another. Our fore fathers came to
these United States and to Canada to
escape the injustice of land laws and
the exactions of landlords. | ask YOU
II our children will inherit from us
that larger personal liberty and that
juster equality of opportunity which
We inherited from the pioneers of this
continent If the older landed arts
tocracy of Britain chastised the peo-
pie with whips, what have we whereof
20 boast if our privileged American
olutocracy chastise the people with
scorpions
CD In so far as government under
,ur democracy has come short. that
forthcoming is due not to the inadequa-
y OF democratic institutions, but to
he frailties and failures of the peo-
lie, who are the government them
elves. Henry Ward Beecher used to
70 through the country lecturing on
he Reign of the Common People,
lie gloried in the opportunity of Amer.
ca to give to the world a true inter-
'retation of the government of the
'eople, by the people and for the peo-
lie. He caught the Vision. He fol
owed the Clean. But scarce had one
generation passed when from Z stage
vider than even Beecher commanded
here arose many-voiced cry, surging
II the way from Maine to California
hat the promise of equality made in
he Declaration of Independence had
ot been fulfilled, and that Lincoln 8
Inspiring dictum at Gettysburg had
cen degraded into government of
he people, by the rascals, for the
ich." On all sides the cry is raised
gainst trusts and combines and big
interests. Each party sets itself to out
nv the other in the name of law and
astice and the common people. But
eeper than the voices of constituted
more determined than the
|ogans of political parties there rises
new, strange and alien cry, not heard
, congress, ominous, threatening, un-
odly, all the way from New York to
90 Angeles: "a curse on both your
ousesl The bomb . the thing!'
But, sir, these cries of discomfort
card all over this continent, heard all
vor this continonf heard o1lHDOA AFRO |