The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1919-09-20

whose ideas must not now be modified by the crossing of a
It" or the dotting of an 81"
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Having lived long in dread of entangling alliances he
would now entangle us i'm everything and for all time-and
he having changed his own mind, thinks that we must all
change ours forthwith to correspond TO his autocratic and
ambitious changes. Why should anyone in America think for
himself when Woodrow Wilson is there to think for him and
why should a mere senate deliberate when he is in Washington
to rule, not only this mere U. S. A., but the world and the
universe?
There is an apochryphal story circulating in the social
circles of Washington to the effect that the presidents new
inother-in-law who is not a Boiling, for the blood of Pocahon-
tas flowed from the other side. of the family-said proudly last
winter that it was a pity that Woodrow Wilson was president
Of no more than the United States. The story is probably mere
gossip. but it illustrates at least a state of mind, and that state
of mind is now all over the country.
Flauntingly and flambuoyantly, Mr.. Wilson started his
swing around the circle by saying that he had come to report
to the people, the only power to whom he felt 1T necessary 10
report and the only place where he sought advice. That
sounded brave and even confiding. 1t was flung at the United
States senate. They all do %that--they all talk in the name OF
The people in the same way-and they tell the people how and
what to think. The kaiser used to think it out that way for his
people and Lenine has been acting in the name OF the people,
the plain people he calls them, and bolshevik means MAJORITY
Inc majority of the people, you see. Napoleon talked that way,
and so did Robespierre. until the guillotine ended his career
as a tyrant. That is the cheapest kind of talk, also the most
deceptive and alluring. 1t is apt to catch what Hamlet called
the "groundlings" who move about and between the legs OF
o hinge colossus and shout and throw up their caps when
they hear something brave and defiant said, no matter what II
means or who is defied.
And in this case i. is the American people and the Ameri-
can constitution that are defied. The people long ago decided
that matter and named in writing the way in which their Dusi-
ness should be done for them. Washington helped to provide
mat way when he presided over the convention that made the
constitution and Lincoln observed that way to the letter OF II
when he laid down his life to save the Union. The way is pro-
yided and let not even Woodrow Wilson in all the arrogance
of a one-time professor be too proud to walk in it, whatever
other pride we may have outgroWn in this world.
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Treaties are not made by presidents in appeals to audiences
here and there composed of those who feel under obligations
TO say yes because they are. officeholdess under that president,
or because they feel that it is incumbent upon them to honor
the office which Mr.. Wilson for the time is filling. Ihat IS
not a way to make treaties or laws of any kind and the con-
stitution which was made to sum up the calmest WISDOM II ihe
fathers, does not so provide.
No. the men who made the constitution, men who had
thrown off the yoke of autocracy and absoluhsm, and who
wanted to establish a government for and of and by the people,
provided exactly against what is now being done, against one
man power. They did not provide for one man to make the
supreme laws of the land, which treaties are in their very
nature, but they guarded that function and that duty against
such usurpations by inserting the words by the aid OF, with
The consent of and through the cooperation OF the United
States senate. There are in Washington ninety-siX senators,
two from each state. And most of them We're as wise and as
great and as well known as even Mr.. Wilson was before he
became president. Al wisdom did not come to him In a mere
election, nor was autocratic power conferred by the fact that ne
had q few more votes in the final count than his opponent.
SIS
No. the president is not greater than the constitution and
the constitution provides the way for doing what he is now
trying to do in bolshevikian ways that are spectacular appeals
to the people, when every one knows that the few he can
reach, who are apt to be mere partisan shouters, do not really
represent all the people.
ONE OF GERMANY's PENALTIES