Evening star., 1924-03-02
u. s. DEPARTURES FROM
CONSTITUTION ALARM
'''Whither Are We Tending?' Is Ques'
ton Asked by Those High in
American OfficialdOm.

basis of and according to population
and would not then be employed eX-
cept in times of extreme domestic
I emergency or in war.
Wrapped up in all this is what
could be gathered under the term
| s'paternalism,' which means, in prac-
/ tical application, extravagances ana
! the taking over by the government
! of functions which the CONSTITUTION
never contemplated,
The more-and this is paradox
YOU place the power directly in the
hands of individual voters (as by
extending the number OF elective
rather than appointive officers, as
mentioned above). the more you
| centralize government and create
state socialism. which in turn must
necessarily and as natural cor
ollary restrict the liberties and ac-
! tivities Of the individual.
| Hence. we have more regulatory
( laws than ever before OF all KINDS.
which are merely an earnest oI1: OF
| in the future If there is noe a re-
| turn to the Constitution.
Summing up, the republican char-
! acter Of both state and national gov
| ernments is being changed-some-
times fiagrantly and sometimes IN
sidiously-and this tendency unless
checked is constantly toward pure
! democracy.
Not long before he died President
| Harding called attention to that in
an address at the luncheon of the
Associated Press in New York. whore.
J after pointing out that "a great
f, change has taken place vitality in
! fiuencing the work of administrative
and legislative fulfillment," he said:
ut is the change in our political
system. the rule Of the primary. the
drift toward pure democracy and the
| growing impotence Of political par
representative system; we have
| reached a point where the lack OF
! party loyalty has made party spon-
.sorship in government less effective
| than it was. We have come to the
| time when party platform Is re-
! garded by too many men in public
| life as even less important than a
scrap of paper. and groups or blocs
| are turned to serve group interests,
| and many individuals serve their
own, while contempt for party con-
| ference or caucus has sent party
Drift to Pure Democracy.
! President Harding concluded that
democracy. and no pure democracy
| ever long survived.
| History is repeating itself. This
! is the way that the ancient republics
went. We do not seem, with all our
| own experience behind US, to have
! learned from the experience OF an
Client generations.
| When our forefathers established
this government under the Constitu-
| tlon after the failure of our govern
ment under the articles of confedera-
! tion. which were as mere rope of
| sand, they not only had their own
wisdom and the knowledge OF every
man in the convention OF the English
! system. but they knew that for GEN.
lures men had aimed to establish a
government as permanent as human
! ingenuity could do 1t, which would
resist the tendency toward autocracy
on the one hand and pure democracy
on the other. Their aim was to get
away from both these extremes and
establish a government here that
would occupy middle ground. The
there was middle ground some-
where, but could not fix il.
Forefathers' Adoption.
Our wise forefathers, with all the
experience of mankind as a guide,
deliberately and purposely framed
what has become known as the rep
resentative system or republican form
of government.
Madison. who, with Hamilton, had
more to do with the adoption Of the
Constitution than any other man, in
an article in the Federalist defines
clearly the difference between pure
, demo and a republic, and in the
convention it was frequently pointed
out that such and such proposition
! leaned too much toward democracy.
Madison said: The true distinction
between these forms is that in a
democracy the people meet and eX-
ercise the government in person. In a
republic they assemble and administer
! it by their representative agents.
Hamilton during and after the con-
vention favored the republican plan.
In the convention he said:
"The members most tenacious OF re-
publicanism We're as loud as any in
declaiming against the vices Of
democracy" and he concurred with
Madison in thinking I'VE were now to
decide forever the fate of republican
government"