Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1934-09-06
CONSTITUTION Is PROGRESSIVE
Editor Askov American:

Editor ASkOV American:
New contentious are being put forth
daily by the reactionaries of the state
why the FarmerLabOr party's can
didates should be defeated. The old
line parties of the state Republicans
and Democrats claim they only want
to perpetuate Americanism and are
not concerned with the more sordid
ideas, such as making a living and
getting on the government payroll.
They claim to represent the old
American stock who fought through
the Revolutionary, Civil and other
wars to preserve liberty for all man
kind. These self-appointed guaran-
tors of our liberties should join hands
with the American Liberty League
recently formed in New York. Here
they would find congenial company
with ra-millionaires, rejected poll
ticians, in their pay, who want to
save the liberties of the masses,
which at the present time can be
summed up in the right to starve.
They talk vaguely about the rights
of our forefathers constitutional
rights" liberty and other human
rights which they don't understand
and have the least conception Of
They have lived too long on easy
street, in my opinion, to understand
anything but the immediate physical
comfort of themselves and their close
associates.
T a~1 hnr
the Declaration of independence and
the Constitution lately that 1 thought
| would refresh my memory in its in
spring ideas and to me its language
is progressive and l am sure some
of our leading Republican and Demo-
cratic candidates of Minnesota have
lost contact with it. For instance
quoting from the Declaration of INDIE
pendence, in Congress July 4, 1776
reads: Extract: when, in the course
of human events, it becomes neces-
sary for one people to dissolve the
political bands which have connected
them with another, and to assume
among the powers of earth, the sep
arate and equal station to which the
laws of nature and natures God en-
title them, a decent respect to the
opinion of mankind require that they
should declare the causes which i'm
pei them to the separation.
I'VE hold these truths to be self
evident:-that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain .unalienable
rights: that among these are life, lib
erty, and pursuit of happiness. That,
to secure these rights, governments
are instituted among men, deriving
their just powers from the consent of
the governed; that whenever any form
of government becomes destructive of
these ends, it is the right of the peO-
pie to alter or abolish it," Quoting
further) ''But when a long train of
abuses and usurpatiOns, pursuing UNI
variably the same object evinces
design to reduce them under absolute
despotism. 1t is their right, it is
their duty, to throw off such gov
eminent, and to provide new guards
for the future security"
After reading this l come to the
conclusion that the men who wrote
this were not reactionaries such as
our Republican and Democratic lead
ers of our state who prattle so blight
ly about liberty, constitutional rights,
etc. However, in face of these would
be hypocritical supporters of Amer
lean ideas. l claim it was written
by progressives who understood that
human rights supersede property
rights-that it is necessary for $40
of the population to eat regularly as
well as the other three per cent who
think that the sun should shine only
| for them.
To me the old line parties of this
state represent only the past which
they don't understand. They think
there is nothing reaEthat resem-
blance of merit is as good as merit
itself-they cling desperately to the
known in hope something will put