The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-07
Much. Effort Made to Fog the Issues Raised at
 Columbus
END NOT THE MEANS
 OF CONCERN TO HIM
Claims That Supreme Court Reeog. nized Right of People to Be Su- peri0r 10 Courts and Eleventh
 Amendment Resulted

ht1Aitih
 New York. March G.-Colonel Theodore Roosevelt has an article entitled Do You Believe in the Rule of the People?f in the current issue of The outlook. Tho ! article in full is as follows:
 There has been much effort made to fog the issue raised in my Columbus speech. In reality. the issue is perfectly simple: Do you believe in the rle of the people? If you do, you are with Us. II you do not. you are against US.
 Many good and honorable persons do l not believe in tho rule of the people, anu openly say so. We disagree with these persons, but we can respect 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 l triekery, by ehieanery, by fraud, To seem to give the people the right to rule and at the same time to deprive them of that right These persons We do not respect. Looks to Lincoln
 Let the men of little faith who fear the people keep steadily in mind that they have no pnrt 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 slave and restoring the union; he appealed te them in the name of duty. in the name of honor and self sacrifice to risk all, in- cludisg life itself. for a high ideal: and the people responded, and Abraham Lin- coin was justified and the slave was freed and the union preserved. Those who stand for the cause of social and indus trial justice, to be obtained through the genuine rule of the people. are but carry ing forward tho work which dropped from Abraham Lineoln's hands when the pa tlent, tired. kindly eyes were closed for ever. He strove against intrenched wrong. against privilege in the most hateful form of his day. We, in our day, strive against hatefui forms of int.encned wrong and privilege We arc not striving in bitterness Of spirit. or with anger and hatred; as far as in us lies we seek to emulate Abraham Linsolns charity and kindlness in dealing with those who, as we believe. think enormously; but we also endeavor to emulate the unfinchng resolution, the unswerving purpose with which he fought
 
 His Belief
 Abraham Lincoln believed in the liberty and the power of the people. achieved In law abiding and orderly fashion. He be- ieyed in that liberty of the people which has law and order as it's twin hand maidens. He respected 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 decide for themselves the great funda- mental questions of public policy, upon 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 legislatures, must bow to the sober and well-thought-out judg- ment of the people.
 Let me repeat once more what l have so often said-that l am not now speak ing of ordnsry cases of justice between man and man. such as must be decided by judges here in America as they are decided by judges in all other lands I shall speak of these cases in some subse- quent articles. in which I shall ask the people soberly to consider such facts as those set forth by MT. C. F. Connolly in his recent articles in "Everybody's Mag azine." In this article I speak purely of the kind of decision which only Ameri- can courts are entitled to make-the kind of decision which no judge In our neigh bor. Canada: in Australia, In England, in Germany, or fin France has the right to make, or would for one moment be per mtted to make. Nor. at the moment am treating of the action of the national courts, because the federal form of our government makes 1t more difficult to propose working remedy in the case of the nation than in the cases of tho several states.
 State Courts Only
 I am speaking of the action of tho court of a state when it declares that law passed in the collective inter est of the whole community is uncon stitutional: and have especially in view the laws affecting human rights from a most vital standpoint-the laws affecting the terms and conditions Of life and employment among tho wage workers.
 I am not primarily concerned with methods: my aim is to secure tho right of the people to decide for themselves. according to the principles of common sense and justice, what the public poll icy shall be in these matters. I am concerned with the end. not the means. If in any state the constitution so clear ly defined the power of the legislature to act for the general welfare as to DrOl1D1L the courts ITOUI iullllylnE any law that Is consonant with morality and public policy as understood by a majority of the people: and if in acruai practice tho courts respected such con- stitutional prohibition, then there would be full recognition of the abso- lute right of the people to decide the policy of their representatives, legisla- tive and judicial, in these matters-and this is all for which contend.
 No State Does
 But in actual practice know no state where such conditions prevail; they cer- tainly do not prevail in the state of New York. Therefore I hold that pro- vision should be made fin the constitu. tions of the several states which, in the event of 8 clash between the legis- lature and the court as to the constitu- tionality of such legislation as I have spoken of. should permit the people themselves to decide what tho true in- Iterpretation of the consttution Is. 1 am not concerned with terminology. Whether this is called 0 referendum to the people or whether 1t is called a shorter and simpler way of amending the. constitution. to my mind matters nothing. The essential thing Is to get the power for the people.
 It Is not merely unrruthful but silly to say that such process would leave us lat the mercy of the mob.' Such a ----~~~~~~~~~~-~~>>~--~-->~ ->~----->>~--~>-~~-~~-
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