Evening star., 1924-05-04
Sees Lurking Perils in Pathway
Of a Government of Expediency

ever the people OF a community can
do for then selves they should have
the right to do, and not only that but
they should be compelled to do 1t.
l have said it before, but i wish to
repeat, that 1t is the business of
people to support their government
and not the business of the govern
ment to support its people. II is not
the duty of the government to wipe
the noses, blacken the shoes and
brush the clothes of its children. Rep
resentatives OF the government are
not to be regarded as head walters,
catering to the varying and vagrant
tastes in the republic. That is why
some of us cry out against the pro-
posal that the government guarantee
the price of wheat or the price of cot
ton. Government was never intended
to do business and 1t cannot make
men wise or just or Industrious. LO-
cal self-goyernment should have the
largest control over the individual
National powers must remain re-
stricted. What may produce good or
der in the rural villages of Maine may
produce riot in South Carolina The
general government Is the farthest
distant from the individual and it's
workings are the least understood by
him. 1t is one of limited authority,
does not have and ought not to have
anything to do with local or state
affairs.
However. there has been a reversal
in the minds of many men as to the
theory of government. Washington
is looming larger all the time. More
and more men are looking toward the
federal government, not only for the
preservation of their inalienable
rights, but for aid in business. Many
contend that the government should
recoup the losses which they may
sustain either through incompetence
or misfortune. We hear now that the
government should guarantee the
cost of commodities with pronts 10
the men who produce tnem: 10
greater and greater extent analrS IN
the republic are being left to the dis
cretion of boards and commissions
sitting in Washington ! would sug-
gest that we take day on ana re.
read our histories. That would recaii
to us that those who led the hrst mon
in the French revolution would not
have led IL had they foreseen the time
when a succeeding mob would take
them to the guilIotine. Getting away
from fixed principles and wandering
into the realm of discretion, however
beautiful il may seem TO be. Is dan
gerous. The spoke of the wheel which
is up today may be down tomorrow.
do not imagine that the founders
of the government beiieved tnat the
practical application of their princl-
pies of government would be invaria-
bly, Just and inevitably satisfactory.
but they did believe. and the history
of the republic discloses that they
were right, that this COVER nnent, so
long as it kept its three ct ordinate
branches separate and distinct. so
long as IL remained a government of
laws and not of men. would furnish
such peace, stability and prosperity
as had never been vouchsafed to a
people.
There must be many men suffici-
emily interested in the perpetuity of
the old form of government to be
willing to make a fight to restore
the republic to real representative
democracy, in which men are tried by
equal and exact justice to all men ex-
lists and in which special privileges
are barred. There is much to be sad
in favor OF a revivication in which
local self-government shall again bc
supreme and under which the state
may again have It's rights AMI the
courage 20 discharge its dutins. This
would require great sacrifices. We
desire democracy, but We do not care
to pay it's price. We wish to reap.
we do not care TO SOW. Principles
preferably are TO be applied to other
men, other mems business ani other
mems conduct. Self-interest alone is
to govern our lives. How 1t would
gladden. my eyes if all the men and
women in thi. country who believe in
law and order and justice and equal
ity and who feel that these can be
assured only Ey the maintenance of
the principl es upon which the govern
ment was founded would join them
selves together in opposition to those
who seem - think the world Is just
within the narrow horizon of their
own personal hope and private in
tereStS.
Copyright. 1924 by Twenty FIRST Century
Press.l