The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1922-09-07

l., OAhOxA
ures his powers as it also fixes his
responsibility. The return to govern
ment by law instead of government
by individual ipso facto is the most
promising as well as the most pleas
ing feature of our effort to return to
normalcy. The American people have
the initiative, the enterprise, and the
resourcefulness to continue our mar
velous development as a nation unless
their efforts are hampered by govern
mental repression or discouraged by
socialistic policy which relieves the
Individual Of responsibility and robs
him of opportunity. The Harding adj
ministration wisely instituted the poll
cy of less government in business.
because public discussion has most
frequently directed attention to
George Washington's advice on avoid
ance of foreign entanglements, many
people overlook other and even more
important features of the famous
farewell address. Before speaking of
foreign relations, Washington pre-
scented two subjects which he appar-
emily considered more vital to the
perpetuity of American liberty. He
first emphasized the Importance of
preserving that national unity which
constitutes US one people and then
warned against the dangers of usur.
patton of power. The text of this
portion of his address is we'll worth
quoting in full.
"It is important, likewise, that
the habits of thinking in "a free coun-
try should inspire caution of those
+; intrusted with it's administration to
confine themselves within their re-
spective constitutional spheres, avoid
ing, in the exercise Of the powers of
one department, to encroach upon
another The spirit of encroachment
tends to consolidate the powers Of all
the departments in one, and thus to
create, whatever the form of govern
ment, a real despotism. A just esti-
mate of that love Of power, and prone
ness to abuse it which predominates
in the human heart, is sufficient to
satisfy us of the truth of this posi-
ton. The necessity of reciprocal
checks in the exercise of political
power, by dividing and distributing it
into different repositories, and con-
shutting each the guardian of the pub
lie veal, against invasions by the
others, has been evinced by expert
ment, ancient and modern; some Of
them in our country and under our
own eyes. To preserve them must be
as necessary as to institute them. If,
in the opinion Of the people, the dis
tribution or modification of the con-
stitutional powers be, in any particu-
lar, wrong, let it be corrected by an
amendment in the way which the con-
stitution designates. But let there be
no change by usurpation; for though
this, in one instance may be the in
strument of good: it is the customary
weapon by which free governments
are destroyed. The precedent must
always greatly overbalance, in per-
manent evil, any partial or transient
benefit which the use can, at any
time, yield
"It would have been easy for Presi-
dent Harding, in the present strike
disturbances, to overstep his constitu-
tional authority and usurp the power
Of the states in preserving peace and
protecting life and property. That
power, once assumed and conceded,
would mean the devitalizing Of state
and municipal governments, and the
weakening of the sense of RESPONSE
bility of the people for the kind of
government they have at the hands
of their chosen state and municipal
officials. No act of President Hard
ing means more for good government
in America than his refusal to change
the Federal constitution by usurpa-
ton"
1-