The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1918-01-28
WHO SHALL RULE?
CHAS A DEXTER.
BY CHAS. A. DEXTER.

Every section OF this country has
Its good points, no one corner of the
country commands a monopoly OF them
all. The intellect, ability and power
of authority is not conferred in any
one community or class Our form
of government is democratic, not mon
archie. The capital 'I'' is the back
bone of out union: 1T stasds for
Independence" and not for Imperial
ism" The public officers are the ser
wants of the people. not their mas
tiers. There must be some acknowl-
edged head to our body polite but that
head is elective. That head in this
country is the President, who is the
embodiment of the will of the people.
The heads of the regular departments
of the executive office, designated as
Secretaries, and the heads of the
emergency departments, known as Adj
ministrators, are not overlords beyond
the reach of authority-set up to is
sue mandates and to measure out pun
ishment according to their own will.
They are appointed to enforce the will
Of the people.
The will of the majority OF the peo-
pie must and shall rule. 1t is not
the will of the majority that ship
ments of commodities and war neces-
stiles consigned to foreign ports be
routed through, and blockaded at GER
tain Atlantic ports, when other better
anxious to relieve the situation. The
people have made known their wants
repeatedly and forcefully through
their proper representatives at Wash
ington. and had their wants been
needed, the present, perhaps fatal con-
gestion would have been impossible.
The people insist that the harbors
now unused, but exceptionally equip
ped and located for best despatch, be
Immediately utilized. One such port
permanently available and serviceable,
is Pensacola.
Thousands upon thousands of cars
of coal and other commodities con-
signed to north Atlantic points for
shipment abroad ar now buried in the
snow and blockading traffic through
out the north and east. Pensacola,
with every modern facility for the
quick handling of coal at many piers,
has no snow, ice or other obstruc-
tons; a perfect land locked harbor
and the deepest water south of New
port News Even the proposed hand
ling of nitrate by the government has
been denied it, when every mariner
knows that Pensacola is the nearest
deep water to the Panama Canal
through which the nitrates must pass.
and that it is also nearest by rail
to the center of population to the
United states. The harbor is well
fortified but If it is not amply pro-
tected from invasion or blockade by
the enemy in modern warfare, its
strategic position demands that it
should be-
The people Of the interior do not
simply request that the open facilities
of this and similar ports be put to
immediate use, they demand 1t. And
who has the power to deny them
administrators and secretaries by APP
pointment? Positively not! The un-
swerving loyalty of our people to the
cause Of their country, and to its
purpose as expressed in it's constitu-
ton will never be shaken, and is not
questioned, but their patience and
forbearance and liberation of efficiency
of men in high places is severity
strained.
The wise men of the East would
do we'll to recognize the equal wis
dom and potency of the men or the
North, the West and the South, and
to govern themselves and the country
accordingly.