The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1912-02-22

T.
Pointed tho Way We Must Follow.
Approves Initiative and Referendum.
Direct Nominations and Popula,
Election Of Senators.
Mr. President and Members OF the
Ohio Constitutional Convention:
! am profoundly sensible of the hon
OF you have done me in asking me to
address you. You are engaged in the
fundamental work Of self government.
You are engaged In framing consti-
tuition under and in accordance with
which the people are to get and to do
Justice and absolutely to rule them-
selves. No representative body can
have higher task. TO carry it through
successfully there is need to combine
practical common sense Of the most
hard headed kind with spirit Of lofty
tdealisHl. ..'.'.:,. - =. e.
L believe In pure democracy. With
Lincoln hold that "this country, with
it's institutions, belongs to the people
who tnhabit it. Whenever they shall
grow weary Of the existing govern
tional right of amending it." We pro-
gressives believe that the people have
the right, the power and the duty to
protect themselves and their own well
fare that human rights are supreme
over all other rights; that wealth
should be the servant, mot the master,
OF the people. We believe that unless
representative government does abso-
lutely represent the people It Is not
representative government at nj. We
test the worth Of ill men md all meas.
ures by asking how they contribute to
the welfare Of the men, women and
children Of whom this nation is com
posed. We are engaged In one Of the
great-battles Of the age long contest
waged against privilege on behalf of
the common welfare. We hold it 4
prime duty Of the people to free our;
government from the control Of money
in politics.
This country, rs Lincoln said. hc-'
longs to the people. So do the natural
resources which make it rich They
supply the basis Of our prosperity now
and hereafter. In preserving them,
which is national duty. we must not
forget that monopoly is based on the
control Of natural resources and nat
ural advantages and that 1t will help
the people little to conserve our nat
ural wealth unless the benefits which
1t can yield are secured to the people.
Let US remember also that conscrva-
tlon does not stop with the natural re-
sources, but that the principle Of max
Ing the best use of all we have re-
Iuires with equal or greater insistence
that we shall stop the waste of human
life in industry and prevent the waste
OF human welfare which flows from
the unfair use of concentrated power
and wealth In the hands Of men whose
eagerness for profit blinds them to the
cost OF what they do. We have no
higher duty than to promote the eff
cheney Of the individual There IS no
surer road to the efficiency Of the na-
ton.
Power Is tho Peoples.
Ia m=emphatically- believer in con-
stitutionalism, and because Of this fact
no less emphatically protest against
any theory that would make Of the
constitution 4 means Of thwarting In
stead Of securing the absolute right Of
the people to rule themselves and to
provide for their own social and in
dustrial we'll being. All constitutions,
those Of the. states no less than that
sM the nation, are designed and must
Sbe interpreted and administered so as
NO fit human rights. Lincoln 50 IN
5terpreted and administered the ma
4ttQn@1 constitution. Buchanan at
itgmpted the reverse, attempted to fit
haman' rights to and limit them by
MS constitution. 1t was Buchanan
WAo treated the courts as a fetish,
who protested against and condemned
ain criticism of the Judges For unjust
and, unrighteous decisions and upheld
the 'constituti0n as an instrument, for
the protection Of privilege and Of vest
ed wrong. 1t was Lincoln who ap-
pealed to the people against the judges
when the judges went wrong, who ad-
vocated and secured what was prac-
tically the recall Of the bred Scott de-
clslon and who treated the constitu-
ton as living force for righteous
ness. We stand for applying the con-
stitution to. the issues Of today as Lin
coin applied it to the issues of his day.
Lincoln, mind you, and not Buchanan,
was the real upholder and preserver
Of fthe constitution, for the true pro-
gressive, the progressive Of the Llh~
coin stamp, Is the only true constitu-
tiohalist, the only real conservative.
If sthe constitution is successfully IN.
voked to nullify the effort to remedy
injustice 1t Is proof positive either: that
the constitution needs immediate
amendment or else that 1t is being
wrongful1y and improperly construed.
I therefore very earnestly ask you
clearly to provide In this constitution
means which will enable the people
readily to amend It II at any point It
works injustice and also means which