Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-02-03
Finds Few
Thinkers in
Legislature
HON. J. X. HOWARD TELLS Y. M. G..
A ABOUT "F0URTH HOUSE"-
MEN WITH IDEAS THE REAL
RULERS.

"The men with ideas are the real
rulers" said Rev. j. X. Howard, Of
Douglas county, one of the ablest mem
bers Of the house Of representatives,
in his address before the Y. M. G. A.
yesterday afternoon on "The Fourth
House." or "The Real Legislature" In
his address the preacher-legislator
spoke in part as follows:
"These are the men who constitute
the fourth house. Legislatures only
record the wishes Of the majority Of
the people. Majorities are created by
devotion to an idea. Ideas come
through the mind of thinker, who
takes time to think. We find a few of
these thinkers in our legislative halls,
but very few. The original thinker
as a rule, never gets there. He is too
radical. He must wait until the dear
people accept his ideas, and by that
time he is dead and gone, unhonored
and unsung
The real legislator must suffer and
wait, like Galileeo, be buried in un-
consecrated ground for his heresy, and
when the people accept his ideas they
80 dig up his bones and give them an
honored place. Tardy honor. And yet
tits q conspicuous Acknowledgement
of the fact that the thinker is the
ruler.
ut is nothing to register the opin-
ion Of majorities into statutory law.
But it is everything to give the world
an idea which creates majoritles. The
thinker is everything. Yet our age is
too busy to take time to think. We
do not like solitude. 1t oppresses us.
We are too much in one another's COM
pany. We like the busy throng.
But take care The noblest individ-
ual characters have their roots in SOL
itude, and national character is much
the same. If our people were less en-
tranced by social life and the enjoy
ment of material well being, and took
more time for reflection and medita-
ton and thought, 1t would be indeed
a great people.
"The first house is a popular body.
and is more or less responsive to the
people. The second house. the senate
is a more conservative body and in
clined to stick to precedent, and listen
to the powers that be. The third
house, the people, holds the suprema-
'cy at times, anyhow, and is, generally
speaking, the final court Of authority
in matters of government. But there
is a fourth house, which stands back
and behind all of them, which rules
not only the first and second, but the
'oft-boasted power Of the third house
must yield to its authority. But what
is 1t that constitutes a fourth house
and who are its members?
1--WE can but answer this question
by following q line Of thought sug-
gested by the text, I neither received
1t of man nor was ! taught It, but by
the revelation Of Jesus Christ Paul
had been accused of plagiarism-that
he had received his gospel from an
other. This he denies and declares
that he neither received 1t of man, nor
was he taught It, but by the revelation
of Jesus Christ Instead Of going 10
Jerusalem to mix with the apostolic
school, he went to the deserts Of
Arabia. There for three years he con.
tlnued in reflection thought and pray,
er and there learned his gospel by
the revelation of Cod a gospel that
the Christian church has not gotten
beyond in these two thousand years.
"Moses, the most characteristic
figure Of the Old Testament dispense.
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