Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1912-03-07
DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE
RULE Of THE PEOPLE?
Roosevelt Pens Editorial for Current Issue
of the Outlook

entitled DO You Believe in the Rule
Of the People," in the current issue
of The Outlook. The article in full
is as follows:
There has been much effort made
to fog the issue raised in my Column
bus speech. In reality. the issue is
perfectly simple: Do you believe in
the rule Of the people? If you do,
you are with us. If you do not, you
are against us.
Many good and honorable persons
do not believe in the rule Of the
people, and openly say so. We disa-
gree with these persons, but can re-
spect them. There are other persons,
however, who do not believe in the
rule of the people, but who dare not
say so, and who endeavor by trickery.
by chicanery, by fraud, to seem to
give the people the right rule and at
the same time to deprive them OF
that right. These persons we do not
respect.
Let the men Of little faith who
fear the people keep steadily in mind
that they have no part in the heritage
of Abraham Lincoln and of those who
worked with him for the preservation
of this nation. Abraham Lincoln did
not try to trick or defraud the people
into freeing the slaves and restoring
the Union; he appealed to them in
the name of duty; in the name Of
honor and seh-sacrifice to risk all
including life itself, for high ideal;
and the people responded, and Abra-
ham Lincoln Was justified and the
slave was freed and the Union pre-
served. Those who stand for the
cause of social and industrial justice,
to be obtained through the genuine
rule of the people, are but carrying
forward the work which dropped from
Abraham Lincoln's hands when the
patient, tired kindly eyes were closed
forever. He strove against intrench-
ed wrong, against privileges in the
most hateful form of his day. We, in
our day, strive against hateful forms
Of intrenched wrong and privilege.
We are not striving in bitterness of
spirit, or with anger and hatred; as
far as In us lies, We seek to emulate
Abraham Lincoln's charity and kind
ness in dealing with those who, as
we believe, think enormously; but We
also endeavor to emulate the unflin-
ching resolution, the answering pur-
pose with which he fought for the
great cause Of righteousness.
Abraham Lincoln believed in the
liberty and the power of the people,
achieved in lawabiding and orderly
fashion. He believed in that liberty
of the people which has law and order
as its twin handmaidens. He respec-
ted the judges. But he regarded
them as the servants and not the
masters of the people, and he believed
that the people had the right to de-
eide for themselves the great funda-
mental questions o" public policy, up
on the proper solution of which it
depends whether there shall or shall
not be true social justice in the land.
Therefore we hold that, as regards
these questions of public policy
courts, like executives and legisla-
lures, must bow to the sober and
well-thought-out judgment of the
people.
Let me repeat once more what I
have so often said-that ! am not
now speaking of ordinary cases OF
Justice between man and man, such
as must be decided by judges here in
as they are decided by Judges
in all other lands. shall speak of
these cases in some subsequent ar.
;icles, in which shall ask the people
:oberly to consider such facts as those
set forth by Mr.. c. P. Connolly in
lis recent article in 'Everybody's
Magazine" In this article speak
purely of the kind of decision which |
,nly American courts are entitled to |
kind of decision which no
Judge in our neighbor Canada, in Aus
ralia, in England, in Germany, or in
france has the right to make, or
would for one moment be PERMITTED
o make. Nor. at the moment, am I
reating of the action of the National
ourts, because the federal form of
'ur government makes it more diff
ult to propose a working remedy in
he case of the Nation than in the
asses of the several states. I am
peaking of the action Of the court of
State when it declares that law
'assed in the collective interest of
he whole community is unconstitu-
ional; and I have especially in view
he laws affecting human rights from
most vital standpoint-the laws af-
Getting the terms and conditions Of
lie and employment among the wage
I am not primarily concerned with
Methods; my aim is to secure the
light Of the people to decide for them.
elves, according to the principles of
ommon sense and justice, what the
ublic policy shall be in these matters.
am concerned with the end, not the
means. If in any state the constitu-
ion so clearly defined the power of
be legislature to act for the general
Welfare as to prohibit the courts from
ullifying any law that is consonant
With morality and public policy as
Understood by a majority of the
eople; and If in actual practice the
ourts respected such constitutional
rohibition then there would be no
eed for what I nrODOSe: because in