The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1918-11-26

II not paid in advance add so cents year extra
AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS ARE
WORTH FIGHTING TO PRESERVE
September 18th perhaps the most i'm:
portant anniversary in the calendar OF
American patriotism, passes by each year
almost without notice. 1t is the date OF
the adoption Of the American Constitu-
ton by the Philadelphia convention over
which George Washington presided,
twelve years after the adoption OF the
Declaration Of Independence. The adop-
ton of the Declaration was q great ev-
ent; the achievement Of national inde-
pendence in a struggle Of eight years
against the mightiest nation Of the time
an even greater one; but greatest Of all
achievements of our Revolutionary fore
fathers was the adoption Of frame Of
government, "the greatest work." as
Gladstone said, fever struck off at CIV
entime by the hand and brain Of man."
which has so well stood the test of time
that under it there has been developed
upon this continent the freest and nigh
test people Of all time.
So much is said in depreciation of our
"A OF government by demagogues and
doctrinaires, so little in its defense, that
the supreme merit of our national Consti-
tuition is not generally understood eve'l
by the American people. The trainers Of
the Constitution did NOT throw together
q plan of government in haphazard fash
ion. It represented the most conscien-
tous research into every governmental
experiment in history by the greatest
group Of pasifists that ever appeared in
one group in the life Of q nation. They
cast aside the untried schemes Of vision
aries. ,. sss.., sgss. Il 81.
nAnd more devoutly prizes
6Than all perfection theorized
The more imperfect, that had roots,
and grew"
nfhese later days critics Of the Amer
Ian Constitution have appeared who
complain that It does not provide pure
democracy. The trainers Of our Consti-
tuition knew, from the study OF history,
the dangers Of pure democracy, . form
Of government which even in little Greece
banished wise men for being called just
and courageous men for speaking the
truth. They knew that unrestrained rule
by q majority was just as much OF an au-
tOcracy as unrestarined rule by mon
arch. They devised the great plan Of
checks and balances, of responsibilities
and restraints, Of divided prerogative
and supervision, which has given us that
liberty safeguarded by law that is the
glory Of all civilization.
We are pointed too, in these days, to
the virtue Of the exaggerated state url-
der which the citizen IS the creature,
rather than the master, Of government.
This form Of state is not progressive but
reactionary. 1t had an early example in
Sparta, and under it developed nothing
but slave spirits and stole deeds. The mo-
dern example is Prussianism, which the
whole world has had to rise up and fight
because it has substituted the soulless
state for the individual conscience.
OF the perils of mere majority rule,
without the restraint of law we have the
horrible example Of Russia under the
Bolshevih socialists, The word Bolshev-
Xxi means the majority. Without consti-
tutional restraints this majority has pro-
ceeded upon the theory that only the class
in power has any rights that need be re-
spected. Therefore we have had murder
and rapine on a scale unprecedented in
history, and the net result is a people re-
duced to such depths of misery as the
world has never before conceived.
With so much agitation against our