Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 65, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 March 1912 — DELIBERATE JUDGMENT OF PEOPLE SAFE GUIDE. [ARTICLE]

DELIBERATE JUDGMENT OF PEOPLE SAFE GUIDE.

_ - I.- - • _ Z - • ■_. President Does Not Fawn For Favor In Saying That People May Make Mistakes by Hasty Action. The following is an extract from the speech made by President Taft in Chicago last Saturday night: “We all believe in popular government. I am aware of the exposure to criticism which the suggestion that the American people may make mistakes by hasty action and lack of deliberation will expose one. I am aware of the ease with which such a suggestion can be tortured into an expression of distrust in the American people. I am aware that a body of the people does not differ in certain traits from the individuals who make it up, and that .people like to be flattered as do individuals. ,“I know that people do not, any more than* the individuals, enjoy having their own defects pointed out to them. The truth is, though, that the man who tells the people of the danger that may arise from mistaken and hasty action pays a higher tribute to them than the one who constantly fawns upon them as if they were» incapable of error. “The most abiding compliment that can be paid to the American people is to point to the fact that in the constitution which they framed and have maintained they have recognized the danger of hasty action by themselves, and have, in its checks and balances, voluntarily maintained a protection against it. The truth is that in this last century we have vindicated popular government in a way that it has never been vindicated before. “Distrust of popular government! The pride that 1 have that this is a popular government and that it has shown itself the strongest in history is as deeply imbedded as any feeling that is in me. I Would be the last man to exclude from the direction of the ship of state the will'of the American people. That is the ultimate source of authority, and it does not in any way minimize my faith ‘ and my love of popular government that I insist that the expression of the popular will

shall be with the deliberation to make it sound and safe. “I fully and freely admit and assert that when the American people have had time to learn all the facts, and have had time to consider their bearing, their deliberate judgment is a wiser and better guide to be followed by the state than the judgment of the most experienced statesman, the anost learned jurist, the most profound student of history. In this popular sense the voice of the people is nearer to the voice of God than any other human decision.”