Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1920-05-20
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PROBLEMS FACING
STRICKEN WORLD
Shall Chaos or Reconstruction in
Europe Follow the Great
World War?
Cold Reasoning Easily Proves Fallacy
on Which the Idea Is Based
Demagoqism Its Foundation
Stone
Article XXI.
Rv FRANK cOMERFORD.

Lenine has frequently observed that
representative government is a fail
ure. He has insisted that the demo
cratic form Of government is de-
bauched and destroyed by the political
machine; that political corruption We
toes the will Of the people. If Lenine
is right in this conclusion, then the
bolshevik government in Russia offers
Just from three to five times as much
chance for political corruption as our
own form Of government. If it is dan
gerous for the American people to
entrust their business to an agent
whom they directly elect and who is
directly responsible to them, how
much more dangerous must it be to
turn over the public business to II
men appointed by central executive
committee, the members OF which
have been appointed by an All-Russian
congress, which All-Russian congress
is elected by soviets for whom the
people did not vote? Applying this
plan to our own government, our con-
gress would be elected by the state
legislatures and the aldermen of the
cities, then this congress SO elected
would pick an executive committee of
200, and this committee would elect
II commissioners to whom would be
given the supreme power of the state,
both legislative and executive power,
the right to make laws, and the au-
thority to enforce the laws.
Democracy or Autocracy?
All down through history two the
cries of government have been at war.
One is that the majority shall rule
the other, that the minority shall rule.
The people struggling for freedom
have battled for the former; the few
seeking special privileges have fought
for the latter. The first is democrat
ic, the second autocratic. No compro-
mise is possible; there is no middle
ground. These two antagonistic ideas
have nothing in common; like parallel
lines, they can never meet, in their
nature they are separate and apart
The government Of the late kaiser Of
Germany the government Of Nicholas,
the autOcrat Of Russia, were founded
on the idea that the minority shall
rule. History shows that minority
rule has always enslaved the major
ity. The rule of a minority over
majority means slavery for the many.
It is human nature. The principle
always works the same result. If it
is a political meeting and the minor
ity runs it, the result is a machine
and a boss. When it is a nation, you
have a bureaucracy and dictator, de-
irving his power not from the consent
of the governed, but from the bay
for honest differences of opinion be-
tween honest men on many questions,
but there is not any room for differ
ence of opinion among honest free
men on the proposition that minority
rule is a menace.
In Article III of the bolshevik con-
stitutiOn we find incOntrovertible evil
dence that the government of soviet
Russia is built on the tyrant's stone,
minority rule. Section % reads:
"The All-Russian congress is com
posed of representatives of city sow
cts in the ratio Of one delegate for
every $4,000 voters, and of represent
atives Of the soviets of the provinces in
the ratio of one delegate for every
125,0O0 inhabitants"
Discrimination Against Peasants.
No explanation is given for basing
the representation in congress from
the cities on the number of voters,
while the representation in congress
from the provinces is based on the
not synonyms, a voter is an inhabit-
ant of certain age and possessing GER
tain qualifications. An inhabitant is
anyone who lives in the province, re-
CARELESS of age or qualifications. II
the word inhabitant is given the same
meaning that the word voter is given,
then it is apparent that the constitu-
ton unjustly discriminates against
the poor peasant" AS they have had
no general elections in Russia, it is
impossible to give the official construc-
ton of these two words. If the word
inhabitant means any man, woman OF
child living in the province, the dis
elimination against the poor peas
ants is just as obvious, although il
does not go to the same length. AS
an illustration, if we read this i'm
portant provision Of the constitution
giving to the word inhabitant the same
meaning as we give to the word voter
! then we see that the voters of the
city have one congressman for every
/ $4,000, while the poor peasants
! have one congressman for every 125,
900. If we construe the word voter
TO mean the qualified legal voter, and
/ the word inhabitant to mean any hui
man being living in the provinces, we
learn that the people of the city have
one congressman for every 25,OO(
voters, while the people of the prov
inces have one congressman for every
62.5OO voters. I reach this estimate