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14
The Commoner.
VOLUME 12, NUMBER 34
GOVERNOR MARSHALL'S NOTIFI
CATION SPEECH
(Continued from Pago 3)
have been mistaken in somo of our
conclusions touching government in
America. Wo have yielded a quiet
assent to the proposition that a ma
jority is all-powerful and that a
minority is bound to respect. But
now wo know that the theory of tho
historic democratic party, that it Is
tho right of a majority to rule, but
only within constitutional limita
tions and witlfout tho usurpation of
a single inalienable right of a single
individual, is correct.
"It is only when majorities thus
rule that governmental machines
move without friction. The right of
a majority to thus rule must always
bo conceded. I wonder, however, if
it has dawned upon the sober second
thought of this people that it is pos
sible for a majority to bo a minority
and that it is equally possible for a
minority to be a majority. At first
blush, it would seem that the officials
elected by the plurality of votes be
come tho representatives of tho ma
jority and that as such, they rule.
But I am not in error when I declare
that it is not the mere number of
votes which determines a majority in
America, in the sense of having the
power to formulate the policy, enact
tho legislation and control the gov
ernment, and I point to the election
of 1908 for proof. Tho protest of
every man who voted for President
Taft and who is now dissatisfied with
tho president's management of pub
lic affairs proves that for four years
a minority has been tho majority in
America. At the risk of offending
the sensibilities of the republicans
who voted for President Taft only to
bo dissatisfied with his administra
tion, I am going to tell him that he
is one of tho men I counted in mak
ing 80 per cent of the voters of this
1 country members of the historic
democratic party. His present pro
test against the result of his ballot
fcoveals his belief that it is not the
DusineSa of government to grant,
under the guise of taxation, to any
class of citizens or to any member of
society special privileges which are
not granted to every other class and
to every other member of society.
INIQUITOU3 TARIFF
"The social condition which wo call
democracy and which finds its avenue
of expression at the noils through
our party, is unalterably opposed to
special privilege whether granted by
the law or seized by ruthless ambi
tion. It is true the mother cf all
special privilege is the high protec
tive tariff. All who voted the demo
cratic ticket at the last presidential
election were unalterably opposed to
this system of unjust taxation and a
sufficient number of those who voted
the republican ticket were likewise
convinced of its iniquity tc make an
overwhelming majority against it.
Save a favored few, all were agreed
that relief, to a greater or less ex
tent, should be afforded (o the people
from the unjust exactions of thla
syBtem. All knew that we could not
educate the people of America indis
criminately, enlarge their views of
life and happiness and then by the
high cost of living deprive them of
their pleasures without making of
American life a seethine caldron of
discontent. Theoretically speaking,
therefore, the majority of votes, hav
ing put a party in power upon a plat
form pledged to relieve the people
of these burdens, has been ruling
under constitutional limitations. But
this is not so. Immediately after
the election the minority became the
majority in the sense that it assumed
control of legislation with reference
to special privilege. All members
of the democratic party and all tho
protesting members of tho republi
can party have been in tho minority
when it came to counting votoa
whoro the count fixed the cost of liv
ing. It may be said that this Is a
more accident of politics, a single
Illustration, and that it will not occur
again. But it is no accident. It is
only ono of many illustrations. It
simply discloses tho utter folly of a
man remaining a member of a party
when tho party policy ceases to voice
his inner spirit. Tho republican
party does not recede now from its
protectivo theory. Its return to
power will mean again the rule of a
minority and tho theoretical idea of
democracy will continue to bo the
practical aristocracy of special privi
lege in this country.
PLATFORMS SUMMARIZED
"Tho voter who can not satisfy him
self this year is indeed censorious.
Eliminating the verbiage of plat
forms, taking their subsanco and
viewing the candidates placed on
them, the voter who believes that the
cost of production at home and
abroad should be equalized to the
manufacturer of this country and
who wants an oligarchy to rule, may
vote the straight republican ticket;
tho voter who believes in a similar
protective theory, but who prefers
to an oligarchy that the president
snail oe the state, may vote the pro
gressive ticket; the voter who be
lieves this government should be
turned into a socialism, may vote the
socialistic ticket; the voter who
thinks that church and state are not
separate in America and that the
people have a right to settle religious
questions and to determine by ballot
what is good and what is bad, may
vote the prohibition ticket; and all
those who insist that it is not the
business of the government to
equalize the cost of production
ai nome ana aoroaa to the manu
facturer until it equalizes the
difference in the purchase Drice to
the consumer at home and abroad,
who believe that the only equaliza
tion justifiable in our government is
the equalization of opportunity, who
think that public office is a public
trust, who do not believe that dis
gruntled and defeated politicians are
genuine reformers, and who think
that reforms are not born with sore
toes, may vote the democratic ticket.
"I respectfully urge all those who
are opposed to special privilege to
ally themselves this year with the
historic democracy, the cornerstone
or wnose ediiice is the Declaration of
Independence and the keystone of
which is the golden rule. At Balti
more it proved its right to bo, be
cause there it arose and by its pro
posed policy met the needs and wants
of a people. Am I to h mo -aruv,
the statement that results like those
of the past four years might just as
well have been nroducod nnrioi
democratic supremacy? This I deny.
The kingdom of democracy, like the
kingdom of heaven, is within us. It
comes not by observation. It if n liv
ing, growing, vital principle. It is
as essential to the life of the man
who is a democrat as pure air or pure
blood. Tho power to resist ivin
not in tho mouth, but in tho heart of
a man. His power to resist larceny
and murder is not in his fingers.
Democrats, like poets, are born, not
made. They are born with the fixed
and unalterable belief that God made
all men, not some men. thuf. nil m&n
are entitled to an honest chance in
life, unhampered and unharmed by
law or custom. We may separate in
language, church and state, but we
can never have that sonlni prmrim
which we call democracy until all
men living in the republic are full
not half, brothers; until all have
been baptized in the blood of tho
spirit of the revolution and conse
crated at every altar set up, north
and south, in the war between the
states -
THE CALL FOR JUSTICE
"Upon whom does this campaign
call for justice? Many a man devotes
himself sedulously to business not
because he wants money for himself
but because he believes that jewels
and luxuries will make his wife
happy. Sometimes, too late, he finds
that which she wanted was love, not
luxury. So, too, many a man in
America is devoting himself to the
making of money through legislatively-granted
privilege, not so much
that he wants the money himself as
that he wants to disclose the rich
ness, greatness and prosperity of the
American republic. Meanwhile, he
has not stopped to consider that
while the few through special privi
lege are adding millions to the bank
balances of this country, the edu
cated and impoverished niany are
looking down the years and seeing
at the end of them nothing but an
open grave in the potter's field. The
spirit of democracy and his innate
sense of justice call upon this man
right now to stop and look and lis
ten; to review what really makes for
greatness in a people, and to answer
in the silent watches of the nieht the
accusing voice of his own conscience
which tells him that it Is men, not
money, brains, not business, love, not
lucre, peace not prosperity, which
mark the greatness of a people. Let
him answer that he may not make
so many dollars in the future, he
will not forget that every other
man's wife and every other man's
child in America are equally dear to
to him, and that he desecrates the
graves of those who fell from Lex
ington to Appomattox and stamps
himself a coward when he demands
or receives the aid of the law in his
conflict for supremacy. Too long
have some been the recintantn nf
money made through the toil of
others and turned over by unequal
anu unjust taxing laws. It is good
to love wealth and all that wsaHh
can bring, but it is better to love the
republic more than all the trappings
of outside pomp and circumstance.
From this good hour, let these men
fight their battles of life without
handicapping their less fortunate
brothers. Let them hang pictures of
Nathan Hale in their bedrooms and
as each day's light reveals his fea
tures unto them, let them vow that
as this old hero thought more of
men than he did of British gold, so
they will dedicate their lives and rnn-
secrate their efforts to his splendid
ideals.
THE CALL FOR CHARITY
"Upon whom does the hour call for
charity? There are thousands of us
who have not reached the land over
flowing with milk and honey. Still,
we wander in the wilderness of in
dustrial despair. Still, are we able'
to gather manna only for a day and
still, we look with longing on the.
Heshpots of Egypt. Discontent and
mtLorueas nave entered into our
souls. So long have we been im
pressed with the iniquity of special
privilege, with the arrogance of
some rich men, with the power of
money to produce peace or war
plenty or famine, that we have come
to hate all those who have, and to
believe that the possession of money
is the mark of infamy and the badge
of dishonor. If you be one of thow
my brother, this hour calls upon you
for charity. Many have succeeded
honestly in this land; most havfc
succeeded as they, thought, honestly
There are but few who have not
cared how success has come to them.
Let ug not condemn until the sheep
have been separated from the goats
Let us understand that it is possible
for the man in broadcloth and the
man in hoddengray to be brethren in
America. Let us await the develop
ments of a brief time lest perchance
the judgment of misfortune upon
upon fortune may be injustice, not
justice. Let us condemn no man un
heard, and let ua give to every man
his advocate in the forum of Ameri
can brotherhood.
"It will be observed that the sum
of the justice and the charity for
which I am contending is the revival
of Jefferson's idea of equality before
the law, not equality in muscle or
brain or will or energy, but that
equality which guarantees to every
honest and industrious man his life,
his liberty, his happiness and hia
chance. Justice and charity are al
ways needed to enforce this guar
anty Get into the bread line If you
will not beware in so doing not to
drive out a weaker brother.
"I see a people, the most marvelous
which has ever sprung from the loins
of time and the womb of destiny.
Among them are all kindreds, tribes
and tongues. What are they to be
come in the melting pot? They are
like passions, men with hopes, fears,
ambitions, prejudices. Are they to
evolve into castes, not of birth and
lineage, but of success and failure?
Out of the crucible of these years,
heated with the fires of both seem
ing and real injustice is a newer
generation to be poured forth to tho
vassalage of the paternalistic system
of government born under republican
misrule, or to a socialism where suc
cess depends not upon merit and
honest endeavor, but upon the mere
drawing of the breath of life?
FOLLY O PLAY OSTRICH
"It is idle for a thoughtful man in
America, whether millionaire or
pauper, to longer play the ostrich.
Safety does not consist in hiding
one's head in the sands of either
sentiment or hope. It is foolish for
the vastly rich to keep on insisting
that more and more shall be added
to their riches through a spaclouo
system of special legislation osten
sibly enacted to run tho government,
in reality enacted to loot the people.
It is worse than ignorance for them
to smile at the large body of intelli
gent Americans who regard them
selves fortunate if the debit and
credit accounts of life balance at tho
end of each year; and to assume that
the mighty many, who are becoming
convinced that that social system
which we call democracy is but a
glittering generality, will long , en
dure the Industrial slavery being
produced. The hour has come when
patriotism must consist in something
more than eulogies upon the flag.
Whether voting the ticket or not,
men everywhere looking upon the
awful injustice of this economic sys
tem are becoming socialistic In
theory if not in conduct. And shall
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