Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1919-09-18

torians have agreed <on their wisdom.
''They were not fooled into any pres
ent-day" pitiiess publicity" humbug.
and they knew that II there was any
pitiless publicity they would never ar
rive at completed scheme of govern
ment. Their proceedings, and they
We're only Madison's notes, were not
published until nearly fifty years after
the close of the convention.
For four months they sat In secret
session, and on the 18th day of Sep
TENDER, 1857, day which ought to be
forever date of anchorage in the his
tory of these United States, as the
true birthday of our nation, (for as
Mr.. Lowell said, all else that went be-
fore were birth throes) 80 mmebers of
that convention signed it, and the Con-
stitution, like a star newborn, that
dropped into it's place, was submitted to
the 10 states for their ratification. John
Fiske says that when all was over
many of the members seemed awe
struck and Bancroft says that the Con-
stitution was a nobler work than any
one of them had believed it possible to
devise" How little did they know
that they did great work, unconscious
it was great!
SOAP BOX AGlTAToRs.
THE assaults upon the Constitu-
ton and its trainers are not confined
to the charlatans and demagogues of
the soap-box variety. They but spew
the malignant vituperation of those
traducers of character who, clothed in
the habiliments of responsibility, sit in
the senate house, the judgment seat
and the university. Chief Justice
Clark of North Carolina "A leading
Socialist muckraker of the Constitu-
ton, whose sympathy with Socialism
far exceeds his knowledge of the Con-
stitution of his country, which he took
an oath to support, says that the
courts in the exercise of the power to
pass upon the validity Of legislative
enactments have become super leg
lslative body and are guilty of judicial
usurpation that whether an act is
constitutional or not is for the legisla-
ture because, he says, they always have
in their ranks more intelligence than
The courts for the reason they are more
numerous.
What are the charges against the
Constitution and it's trainers? They
say it is not responsive to the people;
that it does not readily reflect public
opinion; that representative govern
ment has failed; and that the great
panacea therefor is direct democracy.
If history repeats itself, and it usually
does, a direct democracy has invar-
ably led to what the old Greeks call
ochlocracy, which is nothing other
than mob rule.
BLIGHT OF SOCIALISM,.
Others again, with a ''preternatural
gift of articulate wind" are trying to
fasten upon US the deadly blight of So
cialism, which cuts out the very roots
of personal character, self-help, fore
thought ambition, frugality the
homespun virtues which nourish and
sustain the trunk and branch of every
vigorous commonwealth, far more
precious to the world than all the
Utopian vagaries of thimble- Drained
Missionaries.
OF all the proposals submitted, and
in some states adopted, the historically
diScredited initiative and referendum
and recall are the most vicious. The
iniquity OF the initiative and referen-
dunn, and they are always bracketed
together, is in it's destruction OF the
principles of discussion and delibera-
ton and representation and majority
rule, the great contribution of the
English speaking race to the science
of government. 1t is a subtle device to
enable small bat powerful minorities
to obtain legislation which they might
not otherwise obtain through open dis
cnSSinn There iS nntbino in nv
of these innovations. Historically they
are several thousand years old and
were debated by the fathers in the con-
vention which framed the Constitution
and thrown into the discard; they
knew that the representative theory
was coincident with liberty and that
when it persisted liberty persisted with
it.
The principle of the recall is essen
tally socialistic. Read the national
platform of the socialist party and its
one time leadn gorgan, I think now
suppressed, The Appeal to Reason.
UNDER WHICH FLAG.
These scavenger-c of history
have no constitutional right to defame
the memory OF those illustrious men
and they should be informed against
and convicted as the Tacoma editor
some years ago who DETAINED the char
acter of General Washington was con-
victed and his conviction sustained by
the supreme court of Washington.
The question confronting the Amer
can people today is, shall this gov
eminent continue to be a republican
form of government, with constitutions
al limitations defining the coordinate
branches of the government, insuring
the stability, equality of opportunity,
and liberty necessary to the peaceful
enjoyment and protection of life and
ppyarpp,apt Of