The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-10
SOME OLD FAILURES AS
 APPLIED TO MODERN "ISMS"
Initiative and Referendum and Its Historic UseJohn Law Mississippi Bubble Contrasted With Proposal to
 Fix Prices of Commodities By Law
By R. H. LEINAD

increased necessarily in price many lol-
 lars per ton. Our present supply of ores
 and our methods of production-hasty in
 the extreme-will forever bar such a
 scheme.
 If government should, as these philo-
 sophie CD statesmen desire. price products and commodities, where would it stop, in
 order that such legislation would not be
 sclass legislation !? Every product of fac tory, of mine and farm, of land and im-
 provements, of labor itself, all have equal rights, all would demand equal opportu- nities and protection. Take butter as an example Shall virgin, pale faced, or chemically colored to resemble June grass
 butter, be the standard? Shall it be oleo
 or the old fashioned product? If the lat ter. shall the additions of a part of the
 hairy coat of Jersey add to its value or be considered an adulteration? It's all but
 ter, and it would be just as easy to de- elare by law butter standard as a steel standard.
 Editors of newspapers have had forced upon them recently so many new schemes
 that they have to label them in order to
 know them. And now Prince Teddy. Nim-
 rod AfricaIfus Ia Roosevelt, comes to the front with one startlingly new. He does not propose to be outdone by the late
 president of Princeton university, so he filings his hat and new ''recalP' scheme ', in the ring at the same time. Teddy recall system'' may have value; it will
 doubtless show the people how ridiculous
 the recall would be in actual use. It is l just as impossible to recall decision of a court of law as it is to recall any other
 fact It is just as impossible to recall
 a truth today as it was when Calico
 made the then startling announcement
 that the earth revolves-that the plan
 etary universe was not at rest, but in mo-
 ton.
 Laws can be repealed by the same power
 that enacts them; they can be set aside by
 a higher tribunal, but a decision cannot | be rgcalled South Carolina enacted a | ''nuliifcation ordinance" and as long as | that ordinance was not repealed or pro-
 nounced unconstitutional by a proper | tribunal all the courts acting under and | by virtue of the legislative power of that
 state were bound to be influenced in their
 decisions by it. Only omnipotence can re-
 call acts of its own, and omnipotence cannot recall a fact. It may be abrogaJ- l ed, it's effect can be nulltied, but once
 done the act is fact for all time. l The good old ways that the prophet ad- vised his people to pursue may not have | been direct plenary inspiration, but the 1 fountain of wisdom endowed the prophet with powers of reasoning and the spoken 1 truth is equally applicable today. l Aabamians and all other people that desire real progress should be proud that the man of destiny from the Magic City | is like the prophet of old--that he clings | to the good old ways-the lawful, consti- l tutional ways. and that he is not a follow CT of isms and dogmas and schemes that give promise of nothing but failure, re- l gret, losses and blasted hopes. The peo- pie are rapidly contrasting his course with the new lights that flicker on the waters of the slough of despond.