Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-05-23
SELF-DETERMINATI0N
The Great Principle at the Basis OF
Sovereignty Which the Trainers OF
the American Constitution
Discovered
TO the Editor Of the Evening Public Ledger:


take measures to prepare for real and dem
ocrntic international government, one may
very properly search for the most important
problems to be solved. ! would like to pre-
sent what I conceive to be- by all ODDS, the
most important one.
In all of that great movement of the last
century and quarter. in which the world has
come more and more to single out the United
States as the great excmplar and model Of
democracy, probably 30 per cent OF those
who have considered the subject have at
trbuted those democratic virtues of our gov
ernmcnt to its form.
can conceive of no need so great in Amer
ican legal education as n course, handled by
n political scientist who has studied law,
showing the legal and political cleavage in
legal classics. For example, while Black
stone is superb legal classic, it is the most
vicious political textbook that has ever won
n place in American legal education.
Why, then, is Blackstone n vicious polti
cal textbook in the hands of an American
lawyer when it is also his best legal classic?
1t was written after the English revolution
of 1885, but before the British colonial revo
luton of 17I6. otherwise known the
American Revolution. What was that latter
revolution? Separation from the mother
country? Why, separation was merely a
by-product No. she had n long political
tutclagc in living under the specified and i'm
piled powers of royal aud proprietary char
tcrs or constitutions, and in that school of
political research she evolved new political
principle, namely that original sovereignty
is undivided and has its seat in the individual.
In this they passed far beyond the British
principle of consent of the governed"
which grow out of divided sovereignty, n
crown on the one hand and Parliament or
Commons on the other; and in the vague
feeling that the Commons ought to govern
had to resort to the Subtcrfuge of holding up
the crown by refusal to vote money. Amer
lea discovered and adopted fundamental
political principle on which to build her
political structure, while Great Britain, in
hcriting compact like her common law as
II product of custom, retained the eXpedicnCy
and opportunism that had always character
izcd her political life. This is what Black
stone voices as by product of n noble Brit
ish classic, and this is why, in the hands of
an American law student, it becomes
vicious political textbook
The difference between the two peoples po-
litically, therefore, is not dissimilar to the
difference morally between two individuals
ono of whom has adopted rigid principle
and the other acts upon cXpcdiency and Gus
tom.
Ii was perfectly natural proceeding that
lie fOurtcpn lOntS SnOulu nave DePn
American and of the nature oe Il creed, with
self determination" as their cardinal point.
1t was the United States, not Mr.. Wilson
personally, who put forth 1.-The Fourteen
Points,; he merely interpreted his country
correctly. "Scf determination is a form
of the principle of individual sovereignty,
and it is perfectly safe to say that the Amer
lean people will never take permanent part
in any international union not based upon
that principle. 1t is equally safe to say that
International union will live with that prin-
cipe or die. The American people will never
go backward from it, and will stand united
with it or stand separately with it, That is
why it is absolutely impossible for the Amer
lean people to accept the league of nations
as anything else but temporary provisional
government They will suddenly become
aware of the ogarchical character of the
executive council some day after the acute
emergency is over and sweep it away in
short order, as far as their participation in
it is concerned.
This principle of the location of original
sovereignty in the individual j.; vast and far
reaching in its operation. First it denies
the assumption of sovereignty anywhere else
as a natural crime; it is impossible for it to
be located elsewhere, and it's assumption, cx-
| cept in temporary tutelage or crisis, is itself
| who holds the principle may take the league
| Of nations as D provisional government or
| take the Philippines in minority tutelage, but
it must avOw the temporary nature of both.
| Then again, this principle makes govern
mental forms according to natural develop
ment and so fits all possible conditions of
| growth.
| No state or nation, such, has anything
| but a secondary sovereignty, granted to it
1 I.z..
The people of the world have original SOW
ereignty to make a world government in the
field outside of the national field and wholly
different from it. field in which nation is
competent, but in which a nation is imper-
| tincnt just as a state would be in the ma =
tonal field. So this great principle fits the
world in all stages of its progress.
Why should not Great Britain adopt this
| great principle? 1t is bound to be recog
nized as the greatest fundamental principle
| of political science over all the world There
is no possibility of its not being SC accepted.
| Under the form of "self- determination it is
sweeping over the world like prairie fire al
ready. To locate original sovereignty any
where else is to make part govern the
whole, and then part may be anything
crown, upper classes, middle classes, lower
classes, wealth. a church, a clique and the
like, and all in impudent assumption-all
equally tyranny. The only hope of the world
against autocracy, aristocracy, classocracy
mobocracy. plutocracy or any of that brood
of political devils is the reorganization Of
this great political principle. Bolshevism il
the child of autocracy. And all Of these
monstrosities are maggots in a rotten body
polite, in which the pure blood OF this grea
natural political principle 1oes not circulate
No permanent International government
can be created except the peoples composin,
it adopt this principle. America will hell
put out the fire and help clean up the debris
with any one on any basis but she will neve
countenance union of any permanence on an!
other principle than that of individual sover
| eighty To do so would be voluntary corrup