Mohave County miner., 1916-10-07

DeCduSe ll Is only lHe party, venture to say, all of whose life has been gov erned, or at any rate, inspired by a definite principle - an absolute belief in the control of the people, their right to control their capacity to control their own affairs and shape them in the common interest.
 "The Democratic party has commit ted many errors, the Democratic party has made some fatal mistakes of ac- ton, but the reason it has lived, the reason it is only the party that has apparent immortality in our politics is that is the only party that has con- sistently based its beliefs upon the things and the convictions that under lie all American history-the belief in the government of the people by themselves and their own representa- tives.
 Ut has witnessed the life and death of two great parties, and unless l am qerv much mistaken, it will witness the early disappearance of another. It witnessed the life and disappearance of the Federalist party. It witnessed the life, the increase, the demoraliza- ton, the decline, and the disappear ance of the Whig party.
 And then there appeared upon the scene the Republican party, first of all organized for a great and difficult purpose; to prevent the spread of the institution of slavery into the free portions of the United States. That object they greatly accomplished. And then there seemed to descend upon them the spirit of the Federalist and the Whig parties and ever since the in creasing demoralization of that party has been evident.
 ''The spirit of those parties was one of limited control of the affairs of the nation by those who had the biggest material stake in the prosperity of the country. Some of them professed this very openly and some of them practiced it without protesting it. The theory of Alexander Hamilton, who founded the Federalist party, was that the best kind of government is gov ernment by guardians and trustees and that only those who represent the great material enterprises of the coun- try, are capable of acting as trustees and guardians. So that throughout the period, when the Federalist party was in control, the whole idea.was that small group of carefully planning men should govern opinion and con- trol administrative action in the United States.
 "The Whig party, when it arose, had a somewhat more liberal conception, but before it had lasted very long it acted upon exactly rne same principle that the great body of the people is not capable of doing its own thinking, and that a small group of persons must be allowed to do its thinking for it, and the Republican party has in herited that idea; not the idea of gov ernment by, the people, but of govern ment for the people and control of the people by those who govern it.
 'It was a foregone conclusion that parties that held such principles could not live in America. The only reason they existed for a short time was that they did rally to their support some of the fine, planning, enterprising minds of the country and that so long as those men had the conscience of pub lie service, great things were con ceived and great things were done; but just so soon as they were put in the control of the government, those were attorneys of special interests, the decadence of the party inevitably ensued.
 "The Republican party as now con and led, believes in govern
  ment by the attorneys of special in terests. They are perfectly willing that the attorneys of the people should appear before them and plead for the rights of the people, but they are not willing that the country itself should determine action, shall be participated in by the allies of the people.
 "One of the things that they are most constantly talking about is the protective tariff, and there was a time when a very wide taking of counsel entered into the formation of our tariffs, but not toward the end. Then a small group of selected counselors always determined what the items of 1 the tariff should be. The only per sons heard were the attorneys for the special interests and the attorneys of the people could batter at the doors 1 as they pleased and never get a hear