Fiery Cross, Volume 2, Number 34, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 July 1923 — Page 7
Friday, July 6, 1923
THE FIERY CROSS PAGE SEVEN
4 1 Back to the Constitution
(Continued from Page 1) lution. Thomas Jefferson was chairman. Upon that committee also were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and R, R. Livingston. Jefferson wrote the document. What he did was to edit and adapt to that larger situation the Virginia Hill of Rights. It was reformed and reflavored by the inspired patriotism of his pen, but it had already been
created and consecrated beyond human power to add or detract. On July 1st, the fateful Issue of federal freedom was debated. Opposition, born both of terrorism and toryism, developed. The vote was divided, the result in doubt. Then, overnight, the tide turned. Twelve of the .thirteen colonies decided, with Benjamin Franklin, that "we must hang together, or assured
ly we shall hang separately. It remained only to consider the phrasing of the Jefferson version. In two days that was done. On July Fourth the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed to the world. John Adams' Vision Looking back almost a century and a half, the exact hour of a nation's birth may be of small conse
quence. We should remember, however, that it was not the fourth, but
the second, that saw the crisis and marked the crucial decision. Moreover, some of those participating patriots always regarded tjhe latter as our natal day. Writing to his wife, before, the action of July 4th, John Adams made this prediction: "The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the
history of America. I am apt to believe that It will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one c id of this continent to the other, fiom this time forward fcfrevcr-
What Fostered the Rcrolntlon
Twenty-seven separate and specific grievances against the British Crown were set forth in the Declaration of Independence. Down deeper than any or all of those causes, was the living love of liberty and justice, which before, and then, and now, are dominant in the hearts of all true Americans. There was a minute man named Levi -Preston, who ran sixteen miles to get into the battle of Lexington. Nearly seventy years afterward, he was Interviewed as to his reasons that April morning: "Oppressions?" said the aroused veteran; "what were they? I didn't feel any." "Stamp act?" "I never saw one of the stamps." "Tea tax?" "I never drank a drop of the stuff;
the boys threw it all overboard. "Well, I suppose you had been reading Sidney or Ixcke about the eternal principles of liberty." "Never heard of them. We read only the Bible, the Catechism, Watt's Hymns and the Almanac." "Then what did you mean by going into that fight?" "Young man, what we meant in going for those redcoats was this: we always had governed ourselves, end we always meant to. They didn't mean we should.'' In seel!nsr to comprehend the genesis of this nntlon, therefore, we
iind the Inerltable, the fundamental, Anirlo-Saxon Inheritance of pride nnd patriotism, the Irresistible nrge toward self-determination, everywhere and always coming to the surface. There were, on England's part, her "unholy writs of assistance," "taxation without representation," "the stamp act," "the sugar act," "the navigation act," and scores of related tyrannies.
But, lor a hundred years, never
any sense a government, .or a legislature. It was a meetipg of delegates for consultation. Its function, according to the best authority, "was not to express a sovereign will, but to assist in the development of a common consciousness, so that there would, by and byTbe a sovereign will
to express. The second continental Congress
had no more authority than its predecessor, but on April 19, 1775, more than a year before the Declaration of Independence, the embattled farmers at Concord "fired the shot heard round the world." The war had come. To meet the emergency, this body assumed governmental power. Its first gTeat assertion of sovereignty was on July 4th, 1776, formally to
give birth to the nation. Considering its meaning to hu
manity, the 6uddenne8s of that event has no parallel in history. The col
onists had been moving steadily to
ward that mighty culmination. But bear in mind that they themselves
then had no thought of tndepend euce.
Less than a year before the real
crisis developed, even those later to
echo Patrick Henry's "Give me lib
erty, or give me death," denounced
as 'villainy" all talk of separation. Otis, Dickinson and Hamilton
printed pamphlets characterizing in
dependence as a crime. In 1774
Washington wrote that independence was "not desired by any thinking
man In all America." Franklin, only
a year before the birth of freedom,
declared that he had never heard
word In its favor "from any person, I drunk or sober." Even after Lexington and Concord, Washington said "that If the friend (to whom he was writing) ever heard of his Joining in any such measures, he had leave to set him down for everything wicked." And again, on June 26, 1775, there was the public announcement that he would exert himself to establish "peace and harmony between the mother country and the colonies." Jefferson and John Jay at this time expressed similar sentiments. After Lexington, the continental
Congress asked the King for reconciliation. He contemptuously refused
to consider their petition, and the
British ministry made answer by raising an army of Hessian troops. "The Father of Independence" In that critical hour, when "the dropping of a feather" might have turned events one way or the other, there came forth the most daring figure of the revolution. It was Thomas Paine, the first of all known patriots publicly to demand independence. In January, 1776, he published a fifty-page booklet, called "Common Sense." Every word of It was a clarion call for freedom. One hundred and twenty thousand copies
were circulated, one for every three families throughout the colonies. Never before and never since has
any publication had a per capita reading and influence comparable to that attained by Paine's pamphlet. No one else had yet dared to speak. Tom Paine did dare to stand alone and speak what patriots in every colony hailed at once as their own unspoken thought. Let me quote from that booklet rightly called "Common Sense." Said Paine: "The period of debate is closed.
Arms .... must decide. ... By referring the matteT from argument to arms, a new era in politics is struck . . . All plans .... prior
to the nineteenth of April are like the almanacs of last year. . . . All talk of filial affection for England has become archaic. . . . "Where, say some, is the King of America? I'll tell you, friend. He reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind, like the royal brute of Britain. ... A government of our own is our natural right . . . Ye who oppose independence now, ye know not what ye do; ye are opening a door to eternal tyranny. . . "O ye that love mankind! Ye
that dare oppose not only tyranny
to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Al
mighty God I I know hot what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" Americans did not at once become of one mind. In fact, they were so
divided that the ensuing - struggle from beginning to end was as much
a civil war as it was a revolution. Toryism was within and without. But the real patriots came to the front; they were unified; their limbs
trembled, and yet they were un
afraid. The result, within six months,
was the immortal birth certificate of a new and mighty nation, at Philadelphia, on July 4, 1776.
Immediately it became necessary
to provide a federal Kovernment
The answer to that need 'was the
Articles of Confederation, so piti
fully weak and inadequate that the
strong men of that period preferred
public positions in the states rather
than national service.
The ensuing thirteen years, from
1776 to 1789, not taking into account the incidents of war. but ' viewed
wholly from the standpoint of gov
ernment, were the darkest, most dangerous of our history. Then
came the miracle of the ages, a con
structive achievement without precedent or parallel in the annals of humankind the American Constitution.
they knew, better even than we know
today. Throughout those deliberations, there were courage, conviction and freedom of speech, a holy trium
virate that now, as- then, will triumph over every public slavery and injustice.
once dreaming of independence until but the tyrant,-stand forth! Every
the crisis came, in almost uncon
scions response to the divtne spark which they themselves did not know was burning In their hearts, the forefathers had been painfully, patiently, progressively advancing toward that momentous hour whore the citizens should emerge as sovereign instead of subject. Occasionally the colonists paused In these evolutions to demonstrate that they were warriors as well as statesmen. "The Boston massacre," was In 1770 and "The Boston. Tea
rf'arty" a few yers later. Y'et, although our historians do not give it propsr emphasis, the outstanding fact is that this period saw ontinuous, uninterrupted progress in the foundations of federal life. Id 1618, ninety-one years before the American constitution, William Penn had drafted a plan for colonial federation. Benjamin Franklin, perhaps the greatest constructive mind of the revolutionary epoch, In 1754 presented to all the governors a con
stitution for a federated colonial
state.
During a decade prior to the revo
lution, throughout the colonies, there came a flood of public activities and developments. Samuel Adams originated and organized town meetings. Virginia launched her intercolonial committees of correspondence. The Individual colonies were even then adopting constitutions. Bills of Rights were appearing everywhere. Genesis of Our Government
Out of all this, In 1774, came the
spot of the old world, is overrun with oppression. Freedom has been hunted round the globe. Asia and
Africa have long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger; and England has given her warning to depart. Oh, receive the fugitive and prepare in time an ayslum for mankind." With that flaming torch, Tom Paine lighted the fires of patriotism
everywhere. Quickly, magically, sentiment changed. It became vocal,
militant. Patrick Henry spoke as I'alne had written. Like Paine, he sousrht no barred and bolted doors behind which to make his patriotic plea. "Freedom or slavery," was
the Issne he presented. There was
no middle ground. He would not and conld not compromise with tyr
anny. Patrick Henry's Patriotic Plea
In the closing paragraph of hi3
address to the Virginia Assembly, this fiery prophet of liberty did not
say, as cringing, cowardly, campfollowers always have said, "You lead the way." Instead, he revealed
what he, himself, had determined to do; he bared his own breast and defled the lightning that was sure to strike. Hear now what Patrick Henry said: "It is vain, sir, -to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, peace,
peace but mere is no peace, xne war is actually begun. The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of re
sounding arms. Our brethren are
already In the field! Why stand we
continental Congress, the first timefhere idle? What is it that gentle
in history that any public body had
ver held that name, It was not in
men wish? What would they have?
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as
The Constitution a Living Legacy We are linked to all the life of the revolutionary days by ties of 6entlment and patriotism ties that no one should desire ever to see broken. Its memories and traditions
are a sacred heritage but representative government demands food and
drink not found in the archives of history. In that period there was
only a single event that is today a living legacy the constitution. At this hour, and during every hour that is to come, the Constitution of the United States is, and will
be, as crucially vital to us- as it was to those who conceived and created it. Nay, it is as much more essential to the republic today as our public
obiems are vaster and more com
plicated than those of any yesterday. It is the key to our sovereignty, the bulwark of all our rights and liberties. It is the fundamental law of
the land, under which statutes are enacted, interpreted and executed. It Is the contract by which human relationships are adjudged and adjusted, the covenant of a free people with their servants in public life. The Founders Deemed It a Failure It is a remarkable fact that the two greatest ot American achievements were regarded by their" authors as worse ttiau failures. The speech of Gettysburg will live long alter the battlo of Gettysburg is forgotten. For generations no human
utterance has approacneU its Godguiued tnougnt. let, under its delivery, Abrauam Lincoln sat crushed with the consciousness of humiliating failure. -Likewise, the men who made the constitution felt the deepest disappointment and dejection at what they had wrought. Alexander Hamilton is quoted as saying that it was "a shilly-shally thing, of mere milk and water, which could not last and was good only as
a step to something better." Almost
at his death, Hamilton wrote of the
constitution: "Contrary to all my expectations of its fate, as you know, I am still trying to prop the frail and worthless fabric." George Mason said that such a constitution "must end either in monarchy or tyrannical aristocracy." In one of his historical discussions
of that period, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge says: "When the constitution was adopted by the votes of states at Philadelphia, and accepted by the votes of states in popular conventions, it is safe to say that there was
not a man in the country, from Washington and Hamilton on the one side to George Clinton and George Mason on the other, who regarded the new system as anything
but an experiment, entered upon by
the states, and from which each and every state had the right peaceably to withdraw a right very likely to be exercised."
Reviewing the history ot its crea
tion, it is notdifficult to comprehend
the disappointment of those pioneers of liberty who made the constitution,
not what it is, but what it was and ought still to be. They dealt with a force the mightiest and the most unknown in all the human universe. Their task was a shifting of sovereignty from a ruling house or class to society itself. All the experiences of the world had been with the old idea of the individual as citizen instead of subject. It was an uncharted sea upon which they embarked, with
monsters of the deep and mighty forces of wind and tide to confuse and terrify. There was no compass to guide them,- no instrument to
measure their progress, no landmark
even to identify the destination
which they had set out to attain.
Since public bodies began no fo
rensic struggle is comparable to that
of the Constitutional convention
For months the rival groups locked horns, the one contending for the
Virginia plan, the other for the New Jersey plan. At the end, out of that controversy came compromise, a divine compromise, yet one which the tlred-out delegates of both factions looked upon only as an expedient, and beyond that a failure. No patriot then could summon the results ot the past, either to sustain his views or to measure the result of his labors. Therefore, they looked upon It all as transient and temporary. But they bullded better than
If the Founders Were Here Today
I have studied the mind and motive
of those constitution builders. I
want to bring them here and let
them speak to you, through my hum-
Die interpretation, about their crea tion In Its relations to our govern
nient ana our public problems as
they exist today.
Those fonnders. If they were func
tioning in the public affairs of this crucial period, would do three vital things. They would not alter or nmend one lota of the principles and
purposes of the constitution, but they would First, purge that Immortal docu
ment of certain elements, never In It or Intended to be in it, which the ever-growing menace of spoils poli
tics has placed there and kept there
my practices as un-American now as
they would have been then:
Second, they would correct the subsequent political perversions of
some of its most sacred and funda
mental provisions by rewriting those provisions so simply and specifically that no enemy of representative Kov
ernment could any longer, or ever again, distort or evade themj and Third, they would write into It
such new features as chantrim? con
ditions have made essential to the
common welfare and high destiny of
mis repuouc. They Would Keep It Up to Date
The very first thing that the found
ing fathers would find to be repul
sive in the constitution created and
consecrated by them is its rigidity
Progress or retrogression it is the eternal law of nations that one or
the other must prevail. Block evolution and sooner or later, in the generations that are as days to a government, revolution must come. There is no alternative. The men who made the constitution understood all that. In controveritibly it was their thought, their intention, that the basic law should
be continually improved and kept up to date. Those unthinking citizens who now insist that the constitution is too sacred for constructive, evolutionary alteration themselves run counter to perhaps its most
sacred Implication. Did not those pioneers emphasize both necessity and intention with respect to amendments when they imposed but a single prohibitive against
against change? No state was to be deprived of its representation In the Senate. AH other provisions could be, and obviously it was their thought, might, very Quickly, re
quire alteration to keep pace with new needs and conditions of the people. The stage coach symbolized the period of their creative activity. We travel in the air. News is a matter of minutes instead of months. With them everything was natural; with us artificial. We have a thousand complexities in social and public life about which they could not
know or for which they could not provide, except as they intended to
provide, through a flexible, funda
mental law.
Do you doubt that the forefathers
desired progressive change? That they intended to provide for evolu
tionary alteration? Consider these
historic facts: That the very forces creating the constitution amended it ten times within two years: That it would not have been ratified, if it had not been assured that the document at once would be amended by the inclusion of the Bill of Rights; That, at the same time they voted
ratification, the state conventions presented and asked Congress to
adopt 124 separate new amendments. That during the decade and a half, from 1776 to 1791, more changes were considered and actually made than have come in the succeeding one hundred and thirty-three years. Those constitution-makers did not hesitate to discard the Articles of
Confederation, nor quickly, again and again, to illustrate their own fundamental attitude by improving their own creation. To them the spirit and principles
and purposes of the constitution
were sacred, not its form. It was not a monument, but an implement,
whose use would necessitate continuous repair and replacing of parts.
Were those men here today, In every nook and corner of the republic, their voices would ring out against
the uustatesmaniike supers tit ion
that the constitution is not a thing of
life and growtn. They would demand that its sa
credness be asserted in terms of po
tent, practical, up-to-date utility,
They would not today harvest their
crops with a cycle, or thresh them with a flail. The objects of human effort and of social organization are
not fundamentally different, but the methods of attainment, the related difficulties, are as different as day
and night. Government, dealing di
rectly and determinatively with every change that affects humanity, and
more vital in itself than any or all
of the issues with which it has to
deal, should be progressively re
modeled, perhaps in every decade
certainly with each new generation
of public problems. There is no other way to safeguard our heritage- of
sovereign freedom and justice. "The
consent of the governed" and Its
sacred corollary, "the common wel
fare," can not otherwise be protected from prostitution and perversion. In this connection, were the founding fathers here today, when they had ceased amazement at the well-meant stupidity of their pos-
an amendment which will provide! that no people shall ever be brought under the flag of our country except in every way upon an equality with the states of the Union, and not then
until, in an uncontrolled, uncoerced election, they have voted that choice. We want neither slaves nor subjects,
only citizens, and those of a single
class, the highest and best. Classes are as much a curse to any nation as subjection is a crime. We can not with honor deny to any people
the inherent right of self-determination, nor can we with safety merge
into our sovereignty any alien element of citizenship which would lower the quality and standards of
our own people.
terity, they would at once write into
the constitution "a gateway amendment," making it possible for the sovereign power more easily and ex
peditiously to amend It. Then, I am equally sure, they would undertake, through the most thorough, country
wide education and organization, to bring about a constitutional convention in which the entire basic law
could be given a patriotic, statesman
like revision, to make it conform
in modern practice to what It has al
ways been In spirit, principle and
purpose.
Spoils and Perversions of Politics Can you imagine those statesmen
wise enough to create a new kind of
government, putting the Infant na
tion Into a stone-like vise, making
for it a mold so unyielding that de
velopment in any direction would be impossible, except through cracks
and crevices?
Because succeeding generations
held that view, distortions resulted,
distortions chiefly of the constitution itself, which its authors would now
be the first to see and give their all
to remedy
If Benjamin Franklin or Tom
Paine were here he would at once
point out the one great perversion that is responsible for most of the entire brood. He would say to yau
that the most menacing special prlvi
lege in America today is not big
business but big politics
A vicious, incompetent, parasitic political system has. grown up in this country. A ruling caste power has developed which is as expensive
and perversive as any ever centered In czar or aristocracy. Statesmanship is not lacking, but those citizens of greatest character and capacity are in private and not in public life. Fundamentals have become so twisted, public .opinion so grossly misdirected, and the instrumentalities
of elections so completely controlled and supported by selfish", sinister influences, that only through a miracle can any save professional politicians emerge and survive. Politics is the gateway to every
thing government has to offer or to withhold from the people. That is the only legitimate function politics
has to serve as the agency for the application of moral and economic
principles to the life of the people. Politics should be only the means to that end; yet, in violation of its very spirit, and because the constitution does not specifically safe
guard against It, modern political organization has become an end in itself. That end is office and the
ever-increasing compensations that come with control of a public busi
ness vaster than any ot which his
tory teaches.
Politics, the servant, the incidental
element, has grown so great as to overshadow and subordinate all else in our public affairs.
To the politicians, public service has come to mean "serve us," a condition that mocks and menaces representative government. No great president of the past would be possible today. No longer does the nation know a real president whose heart and mind encompasses all the people. Instead, in the White House, we have the
heads of dominant political organiza-
The Electoral College Fiasco
Let us hurry throuerh a list of
political perversions, pausing just
long enough to identify them, where
as each should have detailed, de
scriptive discussion.
The Constitution provided for an
electoral college through which the people should choose their president and vice-president. It was Intended that each elector would represent his state in that capacity; that he would
be as free to vote his best Judgment as a legislative representative was
in his field of delegated power. At first the system operated according
to tne original plan and purpose
Then quickly did the party politt
clans perceive their opportunity and
begin its prostitution. The electoral college became meaningless, a mere
rubber stamp, a mockery, a sham. Its members were no longer clothed with authority; they had no choice; they became bound by party man
dates.
This electoral college Is so archaic that to some it may seem innocuous. On the contrary it is one of the chief bulwarks of the vicious political system. In the selection of a president it operates to nullify the sacred
principle of "the consent of the gov-
who can Ho more than make the wild.
cat guess as to the actual fiscal con
dition of the federal government.
The treasury does keep, and pub
lishes annually, an account of
moneys received and paid out. It doe? strike a balance on that basis.
But no figures, or even estimates, are given with reference to matters almost equally important and sometimes of staggering totals. At this moment, there have been filed and
are pending unpaid bills against the government aggregating ten billions.
no treasury statement reveals such trifles.
Recently an unofficial effort was
made' to determine a national balance sheet, such as any legitimate
business concern would be expected to show. Those investigators, competent and painstaking as they were, had to admit almost complete failure. No records existed upon which to make more than the most fragmen-. tary report. It wts revealed that the treasury does not keep books, beyond a cash book, which perhaps does not contain fifty per cent of what obviously should be known about the stupendous public business of this " great nation. Out of that inquiry, however, did come two staggering facts, for which I vouch: First, that, if in a single year this
government were to pay its current, unbonded debts, wipe out deficits, liquidate even those pending claims which have been audited and approved, and meet regularly appropriated annual expenses, at least ten billions of revenue would be required. Second, that the government has at least five billions of current liabilities, with about one billion of quick assets on the right side of the ledger. Since its creators are not here to rewrite that provision of the
constitution to make it function
emed." it has no popular utility, as they intended, let us now unOniy a duly organized political party dertake, in their honor and our can use it because the electors them- , ... i , i u selves are chosen by and through interest as Citizen stockholders, party machinery. to make the basic law so specific What this means is that the people with reference to all-important are practically helpless, at the mercy fi . mai4prfi fu man of boss-controlled conventions. If nscal matters mat no man,
they are dissatisfied with the polit- woman or Child Can tail to know ically chosen candidates, their only to the last Copper penny where means of exercising the sovereign w .4aiMi nnii wi,A i rPonnnuright supposedly in their hands is io we stana, ana wno is i responsi organize a new party, an almost 1m- "Ie for whatever conditions may possible task, and as burdensome as exist. it should be unnecessary. That part of the constitut!on Just as the forefathers would now should be rewritten to provide for an impose the strictest constitutional annual balance sheet, a balance sheet safeguards against the spoils of poll- which would reveal to the last detics, so would they provide at once tail the actual condition of the treastnf (ho Ali-oof oWfinn f nrulni Uiy. It Should BhOW
and Tlce-presldent The people of Receipt ud ezpenitores ; each state would be empowered and All unpaid bills, wrth their audit; Tnf Outstanding claims against every out any intervening political per- f1pnntmpnt
version, and the popular, vote of that There Bhoul(J be reveaied fully the state wonld then count In the elec- extent and status of the public's na-
uon, accoraing w me Dumper oi us tional property.
All debt transactions should be detailed.
senators and congressmen.
That is what the founders intended; it is what they would provide now.
The lid should be lifted with reference to all internal revenue matters. Tax returns, refundments, fines and ruling should be regarded as public
counting room are
eyes
can be no survival of the fittest
among those best equipped for pub
lie service. All that we are per
A Parliamentary System
The public business becomes more records, and treated accordingly.
and more a matter of administration. In short, the present practice of
tions. Partisanship not cltzenstlP- legislation now concerns the depart- should be superseded by a constitunas placed them there. Party in- t. v- v, .. tinnoiiv ninnui nrinxinto nt th
.1 . ' l ', Z ment at Washington. Lawmaking, whole truth, and nothing but the their objective. Both caucus and h . ,t rnmnitiv n th comnlete. Impartial truth, with re-
mg room are ciosea to me Qanda of poiitlcian8( wMe "bureau- spect to all that the treasury is and and ears of the people. There crata" do tho "executing." Statesmen all that it does in every major and
should occupy both fields, and then minor relationship to the people their relations should be openly and upon whose backs rests the burden.
vrhAlahAapfarilv nrrot otItta TTnnn i ...
mitted is a choice between politically ZnilZZl' .inV to Congressional KeconstrncUon
seiecieu cauuiuaies, eacu ul "UB i (.jf departments, cabinet secreta-l l ne national legislature nas aechlef aim and end Is further to In- rip, chnniri nnt n'niv hn nriviiAo-nri scended to such depths of political
a 1 . I -.11 A I I J 11 41 . 41 .
crease auu loruiy mo euuiis auuii,,) Bvnpp.tfirt to Tinrtlrlnnf a in etc. ueyiavjcy luai mo tunouiuiiun uihjv-
perquisites and privileges ot politics, bate; it should be made compulsory ers would hardly recognize it as the "The consent ot the governed" was that they reveal, with the fullest representative institution established the principle underlying every act frnnknMs nnfl tn th Inst retail all by them.
- . . . .. ..... ' I YV I 1 1 , 1 1 ..
01 me colonies uirougnoui tiie revo- important data, both fiscal and polit-1 "iucuui i v JS mo uuuse u mlutlonary period ; it was in the soul of iCal, with respect to their executivo P'etely boss-controlled that its con-
now it has so far receded that our PrnexoaHivnlT tn nmn(, .Tia mn. a violation of the constitution, spir-
situation can only be summed up on stitution for that object would not Uually and literally. It organizes It-
Mm ahnmpful naranhrase "ft Ofovern. In thA t rttset riee-ron fiMiflW with sen upon a uoeis oi tsuons raiuer
muni. nf. hv nnd for professional ,h AnriAnt thenrv nf rhprks and hni- than efficient public service. It
- x . - - " 1 11- I il M M i,1 1 S 1.
politicians." ances. Congress would still be the BPira 1U VL mB "asic 1UW
x ...it i - InlArifni1nt arbiter nf noHrifs anil IKiionuK mo unequivocal uianaaies
iiupei uiisu. m jluwiwb fttmroDrlatlons But it would tend to fr record gvotes. It has set up a The dominance of end-in-ltself JPJlv. L.LT.1. contrivance6 called seniority throii eh
Tn enfX1 nf ?hToonSt7tfi- the sunlight of publicity to shine in which to bestow power upon those
. -uv . 1 3 V . U ...... 1.3 V.l 1 t 1 I fill IK I 1 1 1 M I I 1 1 " f- 1 1 III I I V r I M i 1 I 1 1 H 1 1 1 1 till
; V( Wa. tho hnaifl law baa PiauoB, u. wouiu uuiiujo ieSid- -J!'" " .7 'Clll.Zll
uiuu. j. ci., uoiauoo uoi.iv nrB n r,oi!P!q nffiHai fapt'u and fl e- struction. it is nappiest ana renLbf.e? ame?ed ade?uatty Mureu that time best spent which i3
W1LI1 LUIO ttUUlUUU, DCll.-DCCttlU6, mnT1 wBlfor
Tt ifoa natural mi tn mutual Bftl- WUICUICI, mo uianei a J1 mo -"ii
fishness. that'thev should form a stitution obviously intended such a
rtnor,hin rutty, nH a tnr in trojta mutually helpful and publicly bene
Likewise, having nerverted the Adal relationship. When he was
given to the pettiest of personal and local legislation. "With respect to
appropriations and revenue, it has more and more surrendered its constitutionally imposed duties, as that
part of the lawmaking branch clos-
principle of "the consent of the gov- r',VL Vh- tv est and most responsible to the peoerned" and prostituted "the common f?na"L ap"!di ! s!n,fl!' pie. It lends itself to coercion, al-
nrolfora" at homo It wia lnavltahla mo -ua.n ui mo yicoiuiu6 uu.iv.ci, auu I cliz-ltincr tbo nmintln
that the unholy alliance of spoils Pted a o( party
and privilege should reach out to "" ZumT ' tics through patronage and pork,
t,,.ii;L f .mar;. TTnon another occasion. Alexander The constitution must nOTT M
luiuciiaiioui to uut iu i-iio mvi - t ' i . , tQ , , A can Constitution, despite the fact Hamilton, then secretary of the amended to deal specifically with this " 1 x. tm. 3 - J.1 t. 1 I Mini wnKlin vt-MnhlnvH t O I rnet
that our recent history includes the treasury, mtormea congress uiai ue uuaui puuuv i mo res"'
piifHr.nfr.oa TTaltl onrl Santa Tin- Qesiroa io presem io uuubo huu teu-i iue mm-iuiier). iuer lias ueei'
mingo. ' ate and debate with them, a fiscal j oped such subtle secrecy, so much of
Had the founding fathers been matter concerning wnich legislation false precedent and practice, so many
alive when there appeared the first was neeaea. ....
signs of insular subjection, they very buuuiu u a would have shouted for the diplo- non-voting unofficial member of conmats and concessionists of the world gBS and the powers and privileges
to hear ' cousreaa wiiu icoyeci iu iiiieri:!"Stop! Liberty is as sacred to lation stould be extended also to the others as it should be to us. To te,adf oI 0X1 tederal bureaua and comviolate that principle always has and mlsslonBalways will mean disaster and prob- A National Balance Sheet ably death. The blessings of Justice There lg another pcrrerslon that are not long for any nation whose Bft8 grown ,,, aB Imperceptible bepower is employed for purposes of nto mmMlng proportions, conquest and control " s p
r uriuer iaejr WOttm y 40 ou- regular statement and account of tie
Mne couia not ioresee mat a nun- receipts ana expenditures 01 ail pun dred years hence the rulers of the u0 money shall 'be published from American republic would embark time to time."
upon perilous Imperialistic ventures. jhat related to the treasury. It
"The Constitution we created, while was meant to insure a full and com' never intending it did not snecifl- Dlete report to the people of all flnan
cally forbid such'" unwise, unjust op- clal transactions. Instead of that re
pressions. Therefore, let us now sun, tooay mere is noi a living hasten to correct that omission by American, In or out of official life,
unwritten laws, that through no other course can the chief evils be reached and remedied. ,The constitution should be constructively changed to provide:
First, that every election contest
shall be decided by state or local authorities, to prevent the present
snamerui aeiays in such matters, to guard against selfish partisan results, and to protect the fundamental principle, that the right tf choice Tests, not in congress, but in the people themselves. Let house and senate retain the power of punishment and eviction for just causes, but when a membership is disputed that issue should no more be a subject of legis- . latire manipulation, or barter and trade, than should an original eleotlon. Second, that Congress shall meet, not thirteen months hence, but with (Continued on Page 15)
