Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1894 — CONCERNING COXEY. [ARTICLE]

CONCERNING COXEY.

The erratic and spectacular proceedings inaugurated by Coxey the Great have aroused considerable interest and called the attention ol the people everywhere to the legal aspects of the propositions made by that visionary character and his numerous proselytes and imitators. Whatever the people may think of the grievances that have resulted in the crusade, few will be found who

will maintain that it should be encouraged in defiance of law. The case has not, and is not likely to be presented to any court having jurisdiction in the constitutional questions involved, yet eminent counsel have given opinions that are in the nature of decisions, and foreshadow the result if a case involving the questions is ever submitted to the court of last resort. Judge Cooley, of Michigan, who is regarded as an authority on constitutional law, in a recent address before the senioi law class at Ann Arbor, referred tc the Coxey movement. He stated that, in fact, we have not a democratic form of government. Powei is delegated to representatives, and the citizen's power ends with the selection of these representatives. Representatives can not be coerced by the citizen. The idea that petitions can be presented to Congress in person is preposterous and not ir keeping with our form of government. If such a right were ever granted to the people all legislation could be brought to a standstill by a preconcerted movement to present petitions for that purpose only. The demands now being made. Judge Cooley holds, do not fall within federal jurisdiction at all. They are all as illegal and on the same line of popular attempts to enforce justice through lynchings. The de mands are outside of the regular authority of the Government, and are therefore anarchistic and revolutionary.

Jason Brown, son of John Brown, of Ossawatqmie, is now living, at the age of seyenty-one, on a spur ol the Sierra Madre mountains, not far from Pasadena, Cal. He makes hit living by exhibiting a little museum of animals, most of which he captured himself, and by acting as a guide to tourists who ascend Mount Lowe and other peaks of the Sierra Madre in that locality.