The Daily Alaska empire., 1948-02-20

ned a century and three quarters ago by Thomas Jefferson--the Declaration of Independence. 1t has endured because it has been responsive to the will of the peo- ple-the only sovereign power in a nation of free men and under a government by the consent of the governed. When at intervals the Democratic party has become the minority party, 1t is because it has faltered in it's course, fallen short in it's deals and failed to live up to its traditions.
 But the needs of the nation aga.n and again have recalled the Democratic party to leadership and responsibility. We face such a call today which will be answered by a rescunding majority in AL
 ska and throughout the nation"
 Basic Freedoms
 The Governor said the party ewes it's birth to founders of the nation who forced addition of the Bill of Rights to the U. s. consti- ution, so Americans would have guarantees of basic freedoms of press. assembly, speech, worship and trial by jury. This move was an answer to Alexander Hamilton and John Adams of the Federalist party who were engaged in mak- ing cur nation citadel of privi- lege under a rule of wealth with property the basis for voting. Our new, independent naion was being headed toward autocracy and gov- ernment by the few.
 The popular revolt against these reactionary policies gave birth to the Democratic party in 1900 when John Adams was defeated for re-elec ion to the presidency by Thomas Jefferson"
 He said that humanitarian ideals then began to be followed and there followed 40 years of pro- gress under Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Jackson. The nation expanded wes, ward, the Louisiana purchase by Jefferson nearly doub- led the American domain and fun damentals of American foreign pol icy were laid down. in the epoch making Monroe doctrine, extending protec ions to the embryo repub- lies to the south, making the western hemisphere the new world"
 Split On Slavery
 Andrew JackSon's crucial strug- gle to wipe out the private Bank of the United States, which had corrupted the press and the public, eliminated in his refusal to re- new it's charter which would have made the rich richer and the 20. .ent more powerful"
 Governor Gruening said the Democrats lost power when they became split on slavery and that wounded nation kept the Re- publicans in power because of after effects of the Civil War and not because the Republican par ty carried on the ideals of Abra- nam Lincoln. The early Republi- cans of the eighteen fifties had been the apostle of freedom, of free soil, ol free men, filling the gap when the Democrats under such weak figures as Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan aban- doned the doctrines of Jefferson
 Jackscn. . But the yelling forces of freedom inevitably found new leadership in the man who called for a new birth of free dom and government of the peo- pc, by the people and for the .-ecple'"
 "The Democratic party, misled by its misleaders, deserved the .4ile 1t received. That lesson should be ever before us. For party, my friends, is only a means to an end; an instrument of ~ur cherished se-f-government. Like trus sword, it mus Ne kept lean and shining"
 Then-"New Freedom
 From the time of Grant to Cleveland, big corporations had control, the governor said, with railroads and utilities running the country, but these conditions brought about a revolt under Teddy Roosevelt of the Republican party