Martinsburg statesman-democrat. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1906-1921, 1912-08-23

/ they may cast auc = 7a7z-s- r.=trsy-
4 cries they may utter. there are but
I three grades OF citizens The first
/ grade is made up Of the favored few
their hangers-on and their benehciaries
/ who think the eagle IS upon the dollar
/ not as an emblem OF liberty. but as du
I emblem of power, and who look upon
! government as an annex to their bust
| ness affairs. These are they who in the
/ past years Of Republican misrule have
turned the temple of constitutional free
/ dom into a money changers mart and
! have made of the coordinate branches
( OF government obelsant laekeys Of the
/ Jingllng guinea.
| The second grade consists Of those
whose outlook upon life has been en-
| larged by the civilization under which
We live, who have been taught by the
school and the college. by the press
and the magazine, who enjoy the
good things Of life, whose horizon has
! been enlarged and whose capacity for
/ joy aud sorrow has been increased
Year after year they have seen the
! boundless resources of the richest couu
! try the sun ever shone upon pass into
! the control of the favored few. 1ney
/ have observed that the laws have been
enacted construed and enforced 81
| that, struggle ms they will and act as
I they may. they see before them naught
/ but long years of Servitude and certain
poverty at the end. Conditions have
become unbearable to them. They
hesitate to hope for reform. so often
| has 1t been promised to them and so
pfteu has 1t been denied They have
reached the point where, In the strug
/ gle for that which they believe to be
right, they are willing to destroy the
! ideals of the republic. How many
/ there are of these do not know, but
do know that special privilege In the
| republic Is breeding them day by day
like rabbits in a warren.
The third grade OF citizens it plenses
me to call Old fashioned constitutional
| Democrats These are they who be.
ieve that the equality of mankind
does not consist In an equality of brain
and Drawn. but In an equality where
uy every man. native and foreign born,
has an inalirnabIe right to exercise all
Of bis ability in getting on in the
world Just SO he realizes that in get
ting on he owes It to himself. to his
family and to the republic to see to Il
that he gets on honestly and that he
does not prevent any other man from
obtaining the reward of his honesty
and enterprise. These old fashioned
Democrats believe In making money,
but they believe that every dollar
made should be so clean that an in
FAINT may cut It's teeth upon It. They
hold that it is no part of government
to boost one man and to boot another
and that any system of government
which enables one man to take advan-
take of another Is not a system under
which a Democratic condition of life
can thrive. They hold that from age
to age social and economic conditions
change. but that the great principle of
the equality of all men before the law
can never change while time shall last
and that the honest Interpretation of
this great principle in statutory en-,
actment, judicial construction and ex-
ecutive conduct will take from the life
of people the mighty avarlce of the
few, bind up the broken hearts of the
many and loose the bonds of all who
are in slavery to wrong. injustice and
ignorance.
Jefferson's Indivdualism.
The indlvidualism of Thomas Jeffer-
son is not dead. 1t has not moldered
back to dust in the grave at Monticello.
It walks the earth this day, knocking
at the door of rich and poor, of wise
and ignorant. alike. calling upon all
men to make of this age the millennium
of statecraft wherein no one shall
claim to be the master and all shall be
glad to be the servants of the republic
1t cannot he that it is the system of
government which is wrong. 1t Is the
unjust use of the system. From Jeffer
son to Lincoln the republic grew in
might, in majesty. in pomp and splen-
dor, and the humblest OF its citizens
could obtnin justice, not as a beggar
crawling In the sun. but as a man. 1t
has not been the use but the misuse
Of the powers of government which
has produced this discomfort In the
minds of men.
The historic Democratic party moves
forward now, rs always, true to the
principles of the Declaration of indie
pendence, loyal to the constitution ana
confident that If men will be imbued
with the spirit Of these two documents
and will guide their public and private
life by the concepts Of righteousness
therein contained peace and plenty
will bless their homes and come as a
benson to every weary, downtrodden
and oppressed soul.
The contending forces In America
are as they are In nature. There is a
centripetal force which is ever draw
ing the earth toward the sun. There
Is a centrifugal force which is ever
drawing it away. These two contend