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6
The Commoner.
"Shall the People Rule?" A Study
in Muckraking
Andrew L. Chezem in tho Mattoon (111.)
Commercial-Star: When good wives or thrifty
husbandmen have determined at certain seasons
of tho year to clean the back-lots, stablos,
chicken-houses and premises, thoy oithar do
the act themselves or send for a scavenger, and
the rake is employed mercilessly, things in
general are turned, for the time being, topsy
turvy, for then it is, that every rotten thing
about the premises is discovered, from tho dead
rat in tho cistern to the fly speck on tho win
dow pane, and ''muck-raking" is honorable, bo
cause, out of this confusion, it is well known,
that order, wholesome, clean and sweet, will
come; but the lazy, the niggard, tho indolent,
the aUngy, tho selfish, tho fearful; excuse, shirk,
condtry. abuse, but nevertheless, all tho offen
sive oglect, which has from contamination
spoiled the air, and threatened the life of tho
entire family, is now doomed.
When it is all over, who will not say: Thank
God for the muck-raker?
So, In our political premises, there are those
who dwell in tho atmosphere of favoritism, sup
ported by the common indulgence of dishonesty,
bribery and superinduced deception, who yield
to the blubber-eyed blindness of fear and neglect
and allow the filth and rubbish to collect, and
when anyone comes to disturb their torpid slum
bers, by clearing away the filth and rubbish, the
excrescence and rot, lest the community suffer,
they turn their villifying curses upon their dis
turbers, and cry "muck-raker!"
They are the ones, who, "serpent-like," pre
tend that all who make effort to clean up the
political premises, are trying to make them dis
gorge. On the 28th day of October (as published In
recent Sunday papers) our president, Mr. Taft,
i on his political tour of the west, at Chicago,
by a splendid pre-arranged plan, made a talk
to the republican lawyers and "judges about the
"recall of judges" and among other things,
said:
"But if you are going to tie him (the judge)
down in such a way, so to speak, the reins are
thrown on the jury altogether, untutored in the
law and not used to the analyzing of evidence,
then you may expect that the administration of
Justice does not have the respect that it ought
to have."
"But 4he reason for that is in the people
.themselves and in the legislatures that are
afraid to trust power to the men you place upon
the bench."
That ho has "occasion to know something
about attacks on public men," but that it com
forts him "tp look back and see that the 'muck
raker' was just as active in the past as he is
today," and "has ever been a burden on man
kind' He pointed to Thomas Jefferson's criticism
of the supreme .court of the United States, and
called him "the most eminent muckraker of
that or any other time."
It would be hard to conceive a system, which
gives the judges more power than they at
present have, unless we should adopt the
English system which Taft so proudly praises
when he says, "We, perhaps have not as high
a standard of judges as they have in England,
for instance whence we got our law and pro
cedure, on the whole the record of American
Judiciary is high, and the defects in the ad
ministration of justice are rather to bo traced
to the weakness of the people in the legislation
that they have enacted, lessoning the power of
the judges than they are to the lack of character
and knowledge of law in the judges themselves."
Now the truth is, in 1776, when the people of
the colonies threw off the yoke of the "king and
parliament" they did not throw off the yoke of
the laws and judges, which the "king and par
liament had without the consent of the people,
Imposed upon the colonies. It took a hard
struggle for the "muckrakers" to throw off tho
king, the lords and commons, because the tories
assisted the British in opposing them.
The "muckrakers" though they strove hard
to do so, were unable to throw off the atten
dant evils and evil doers, at once and turn the
people free to found a new democracy for thera-
solves, basod-on- the sole foundation of'' human
liberty. ' -
' I call those patriots -who did those 'things
"muckrakers" because Mr. Taft, our .politician
president, does so, when he says "Jefferson was
tho most eminent muckraker," and this, I think,
I have tho right to conclude, for do wo not find
the name of Thomas Jefferson signed to the
declaration of independence? Besides, do not
historians tells us, that Thomas Jefferson, penned t
that immortal declaration? So we, the young
men of Illinois, must conclude that Thomas
Jefferson and his associates wore "muckrakers"
and odius to our president, Mr. Taft, and for
one, I wonder had Mr. Taft been living in thoso ,
days, would his namo have been with theirs?
Ah! my dear young citizens of Illinois, I fear
not, for if we take him as an honest man, mean
ing what ho now says, ho would most certainly
have been with the tories, had he lived then.
Does the following passage from the speech of
our president please you, when you compare it
with the utterances and life of Thomas Jeffer
son, and the "muckrakers?" "I have every hope
that congress will pass a law to give the court
more power to amend the rules of the legal pro
cedure in tho federal court, as they have in
England and that then with that as a model,
everything can be improved the country over."
On March 15, 1789, Thomas Jefferson wrote
"The executive power in our government is not
the only, perhaps not even the principal object
of my solicitude. The tyranny of the legisla
ture is really tho danger most to be feared, and
will continue to be so for many years to come.
The tyranny of the executive power will come
in its turn, but at a more distant period." Is
not Mr. Taft's Chicago speech evidence of the
truth of this prophecy?
When we consider tho utterances of Presi
dent Taft, and his dealings with New Mexico
and Arizona, and when we consider the flagrant
statement, in connection with tho name of
Jefferson, that the "muckraker has ever been a
burden on mankind" wo aro driven to look to
the declaration of independence, to ascertain
whether the evils therein condemned do not
tread somewhat upon Mr. Taft's pet projects and
political theories, and as a result of our read
ing we find, that in that declaration of indepen
dence, Jefferson and his "co-muckrakers" com
plain of England's king.
"He has refused to pass other laws for the
accommodation of large districts of people,
unless those people would relinquish the right
of representation In the legislature, a right in
. estimable to them and formidable to .tyrants
only."
"He has obstructed the administration of
justice by refusing his assent to laws for estab
lishing Judiciary powers."
Now if to "establish" includes the creation
of primary rules of regulation as to office,
duties, term, etc., we are convinced that the
people of New Mexico and Arizona have a right
to look upon our president, William Howard
Taft, as the "muckraker" patriots of the days
of the revolution did upon King George.
Were Thomas .Jefferson alive, he would come
to their rescue, and would fearlessly so brand
him, and though death has stilled his tongue,
his words preserved in that immortal document
and in his other writings, come eloquently forth,
to oppose the tyranny and refute the vile slan
der of the one whose most pleasant duty should
bo to enlarge the liberties of humanity, rather
than to circumscribe them, and who would fos
ter rather than destroy the prompting of every
commonwealth, toward absolute independence.
"He has made judges dependent upon his will
alone for the tenure of their offices and the
amount and payment of their salaries."
Tho spirit of this condition is not wholly dif
ferent from that which clouds the office of -all
our federal judiciary today, when we consider
the manner of their appointment, and the ap
parent manner in which their actions are con
trolled by administrations, and when we observe
their encroachments upon the legislative depart
ment, and how obediently they have followed
the supreme dictation of the interests of wealth.
They mimic the English bench as much as they
dare, and Mr. Taft longs to have them given
oven more power, in order that, as he says, "to
. amendthe 'rule of, legal procedure in, the federal
. ..YcoiirVias -theyhavain England, and with.that
asl a smodel, -everything can b' improved -the
VOLUME 11, NUMBER IX
country over," if this bo patriotism, may God
protect our flag.
Is it strange that the people should distrust
our judiciary; in the light of information which
has becomo so common as to be public or
common knowledge, concerning the infamy of
some of tho federal judiciary right here in our
own states, to say nothing of the wrongs which
have been charged against the judges of our
supremo court of the United States by men
whoso characters are known to be equally as
pure as that of any member thereof?
Hamilton and his aristocratic tory associates
wanted to adopt the English system for the
federal courts and they did it, over the objec
tions of Jefferson, so the federal court was the
result of those who advocated a strong centra
lized government, and the English court system
was adopted as their model, because 'those pro
moters of this strong centralized government
knew how admirably the court had, for the king,
served as impeding and oppressive instruments,
against the advocates of free government. But
at the time of its adoption into the constitution
of 1787, the tories had acknowledged them
selves whipped, on the field of battle, they had
ceased to murder the patriots in cold blood, as
they were wont to do in 1776, at the time Jeffer
son wrote the declaration of- independence and
there not being the warm smell of freshly spilled
blood on the fields of Lexington and Concord,
to arouse the people anew to their rights, the
tories then accomplished by the strategy of in
famy what thoy had failed to do, by force on
the field of battle.
Article 3 of our constitution, which estab
lished the federal court, is not in the ordinances
of confederation of 1778 and was only made
possible by the influence of organized wealth;
of aristocracy, and was opposed by Jefferson
-the most eminent "muckraker" and champion
of human liberty.
By the above article this relic of English
tyranny, known as the federal court and the
United States supreme court, was fastened upon
the American people bringing with it all its
horde of blood sucking vassals who do the bid
ding and who yield to the wishes and .interest
of corporate wealth and resist and thwart tho
rights of the people. And this is the yoke
which it is the inclination of the people as you
move from the Alleghanies westward to arise
against in proportion as you advance westward,
to repudiate and throw off, if we are to believe
the words of Mr. Taft's speech and we hope in
this particular it is true.
They arise to throw this yoke off by making
the offices of all judges elective, instead of ap
pointive and to make all such offices subject to
the law of recall.
The people realize in the words of Jefferson
the "muckraker," that "all meri are - created
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienable rights, that among these
are life, liberty and. the pursuit of happiness.
That to secure these, rights governments are
instituted among men' deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed; that when
ever any form of government becomes destruc
tive of these ends, it is the right of the people
to alter or abolish it and to institute a new
government, laying its foundations on such
principles and organizing its powers in such
form as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their safety and happiness."
Let every man who has his honor left; who
bares his head beneath the folds of our flag
thank God that Jefferson the "muckrafcer,"
the "friend of human liberty," lived and pro
nounced for us this right, for without it Mr.
Taft and his cohorts would charge us with sedi
tion and treason, under his loved "English
laws."
. Illinois came into the union through Virginia.
Jefferson signed the deed of cessation releasing
Illinois from Virginia. It was to him we owe.
the free qualification of voters in Illinois. To
him we owe that the qualification to vote is not
measured by 'the ownership of property. The
only qualification being: Are you a citizen, un
poluted by any act of infamy? If so you are
equal, and this is what he meant by the term
in the declaration of Independence, "all men
are created equal."
But how does this equality serve us When w
are brought before the federal courts, which, In
tho hands of some appointed judges serve as
willing vassals of the aristocracy?
Tho yearning of President Taft "to havo our
judiciary modeled after tho English system"
gives every true American such a thrill of hate
for they can-hear. again-the creaking of the crusty
hingea.,ofthe prison agates of -'Old .Bailey" or
.-the "tower" where many an American patriot
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war.-
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