The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-04-14
Governor Lowden, Illinois, Ad-
dresses Kansas Bankers Here.
Agencies in Washington of Un-
known Number, He Says.
BACK TO OLD PRINCIPLE
Says Theory of American Rule
Distorted and Abused.
"GOyernment Should Serve PeO-
pie, Not Master It"

pie, Not Master It"
Liberties of the forefathers are slip
ping, Governor Frank o. Lowden. of
Illinois, told the Kansas state bankers
at their convention in Memorial hall
this afternoon. The Illinois governor
and presidential candidate urged a re-
turn to sound constitutional govern
ment, a breaking away from bureau
cratic policies in official Washington
and a recognition of individual rights
and responsibilities.
Common sense and patience must
| be shown in the reconstruction work
| before the nation, Governor Lowden
said, in an appeal for sane thinking
and sane action. 1t is not a new world
| which is to come out of the world war.
he declared. but safety of government
| to principles and policies as old as
| government itself. Governor Lowden
| told his Kansas audience that the
| theory of American government had
| been distorted and abused. 1t was
Governor Lowden's first speech in this
state.
| Bureaus Like Stars-Numberless.
| Government by board and commits
sions was bitterly condemned. Criti-
| ClSIH was at Ine pOHCleS OF
| official Washington, where, he as
| serted, there isn't living man who
knows how many hundreds of indie
| pendent departments of government
there are in Washington" The Illi-
nois executives speech did not deal
with national political issues. There
was no discussion of the tariff, the
( league of nations. war expenditures
and the peace treaty. He reviewed at
length his efforts to coordinate
branches of state government.
! Many men and women prominent
in public and business affairs in the
state heard Governor Lowden's speech.
Included in iout-of-town visitors were
a number of delegates to the national
! q .. P. convention. Governor Low
den said N part:
Wants "Homely Virtues" Again.
I We are in the midst of difffcult times
| Uncertainty is in the air. Abnormal eondf.
t1ons are about u.s. This is what might
have been expected. History teaches that
after every great the restoration oi
society to normal conditions is a difficult
task The war just closed was the greatest
confronting the present generation is the
| largest that civilization has had to under.
| take. There is infinite need of patience
| mon sense.
l have no panacea the application OF
which would bring the -nfllennium.
/
too much about the new world that was
going to be ushered in when peace should
come. There are still some Fundamental
! principles as old as civilization itself which
must be applied in this crisis, if we are
to endure. Among those principles is this
That you can't divide among the members
Of society what you don't produce. An
other of these homely old principles is that
industry is still essential to progress, and
that thrift and economy. the old path are
still the only path to wealth. / believe
that the time has come for the revival oi
some of the old bomely virtues which oul
fathers practiced and which the wisdom
4 of centuries has found to be the only re
lief for man.
Doctrine of Our Fathers.
This is government of representativ,
form, and all the innovations which We
are taught of substituting something else
of applying some notion or majority rule
have to be abandoned and we have got t.
go back to the old fundamentals of tn
constitution, our fathers understood
them when they wrote it in independents,
Hall This is not government merely o
the majority, as the soviets of Russii
would have us believe. Their notion o
majority rule is that the majority has alb
solute power to do what it will with th'
the minority. That is not the American
doctrine, Those old fathers who met IL
J Independence Hall knew history. The,
| had studied the republics of the past
They found those republics had beer
, short-lfved and had fallen because OF fac
tional differences and disturbances be
tween the classes. and so they ordained
first that this should be above all thing
a government of justice and righteousness
administered, 1t is true. by the majority
But they held that there were certain
rights so precious that even the larges
majority should not have the power to de
prive the humblest individual in the LAM
= of those rights. Among them was tn
right to freedom of religious worship
They held that altho all the world nigh
be against it, the humblest and obscures
individual in the land should have absolut
liberty to worship God in accordance witt
| the dictates Of his own conscience
Saw Evils of Communism.
They held too that life and liberty an
: property must be secure, IL civilization
were to endure. They had no illusion
They knew that the saFages who had pre-
, ceded them in America had practiced com
! munism more thoroly than it is advocate
} today. And so they said life is SO preciou
: to the Individual. liberty means SO muc
to man ProRsTTtty Is so tsss essential to Pro
no matter what its power or its numeri
cal strength. should take those right
away except by due process of law, as du
the centuries by the judgments of tn
wfsest men Of those centuries. So the
made a representative government base
upon these fundamental principles. W
are getting away from them today. W
have got to return to them. We have go
TO make constitutional government aliv
again and make it function. or the libertie
which our forefathers bequeathed to u
will be in deadly peril
Among other old ideas We have got I
get back to is the idea, my friends. tha
the government should be made to serT
the people and not become the master O
the people. The employees in the govern
meDt service have multiplied SO rapidly
so many. new classes Of appointees hay
been made, that we are in danger of bein
borne down. TO the point where we can n
longer endure IL. by the burdens Of gov
ernment- We have gotten into habit Q
late years. whenever anything went wron
Of creating 4 commission by law and the
Of going off and leaving that commissio
alone TO perform its own sweet Will an
wander where it will. and then thank Go
that we have disposed of the new problem
That is going on everywhere. It has bee
! going on in Washington 1t has been &c
ing on in Illinois .
Too Many Bureaus
The other day the chairman of the hous