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Show ; SEN. SUTHERLAND'S H j GREAT SPEECH ff! Receives Favorable Comment . From Reputable Newspapers Ii FULL OF LOGIC AND FORCE H H 1I ' LEARNED SENATOR SH0W8 FAM- H gfjl , ILIARITY WITH IMPORTANT H HR SUBJECT. B ' Complaints have been made respec !S& j. lln.' both tlio proposed conntitutlons Br cf New Mexico and Arizona. 1 ho prln- VJifffv j -'pal objection to the N"w Mexico B K constitution Is that th" power of BJi l' amendment is not suf'hlertly elastic; 1 1 ' that amendments will be too difficult IS M to obtain. With tlio criticism I urn Wfti i f unable to agree It seems to mo that Be IK'! L th0 l13'0''0801' constitution of Now BajBv j,1 ' Mexico, llko tliat of Arizona, mny be KjTj y Justly criticized for Ignoring tlio Bff j j ' principle that constitutions are made Bffjj '7 ' to declare and establish fundamental BflW i law as distinguished from ordinary Hi I legislation. Doth constitutions exhibit BJj' j an unfortunto tendency to deal over- Bf 1 i much with mere details which BhouM BS j have been left to legislation. That, Bf ' however, is an Incident with whicn Bj ri we Bbould not, 1 think, undertake to BS deal. Legislative acts should be en- HM'j ,-i Iable of being readily changed to BJ, jr suit the sometimes rapidly changing Bl k; needs of tho community, but constl- Bjf, i . tutions are, or should be, declarations Bj i, l of the permanent, settled, broadly BJ; fundamental policies of the state, BBS ' not to be lightly altered upon tho Be mere caprice of tho moment, but on- Bjt . l.v after tho most serious and dellb- B ., ' eratc consideration. Li Prof .Stlmson admirably states the Bl'lf distinction, as follows: Bl 1 1"4-" Brfr "The Constitution is the permanent Bl.' will of the people; the law Is but the Bjj'l ' temporary act of their representatives Bjt; , ' 'ho have only such power as the V'! people choose to give them." HM: h, If the Constitution of the United Vffl States had provided for its own Bfjt umendment as easily as some few of B the State constitutions provide, that I,. great Instrument would long since 1 hove becomo a medley of incongru. J ous provisions and a patchwork of the shifting foibles of every generation. " A written constitution means nothing unless It means stability and perma- K f nency. It is tlio fundanienta' law, tho K foundation upon which rests the i ' whole superstructure of tho statoi K ' UU(1' '"-' "10 foundation of a great Bt ' , buildluk, tho continual tearing out of BJi '" a stono here and the Insertion n( an- BJ other there will threaten the Integrity BJ " the wholo structure. To call a BJ .'onstitutlon which may change with BJ every shirting breath of , popular BJ emotion "fundamental law" is u per erslon of language. Such a constltu- BJ tlon Is not to bo likened to the fmin- BJ datlon of an edifice, but rnthor to BJ the weathercock upon the itceplo, BJ Mint simply registers the dlro.-tlon ol BJ (.'acli passing breeze. BJ Tho ohJoctloiiH to the New Mexico BJ constitution, compared with tliVs Arl BM y 5ona constitution, am not, to my HL mind, of ii serious character, and I BBj t ,, "ball not spend further time In their B f .discussion, hut confine myself to the Bt Arizona constitution; and Inasmuch as Bft tho features of that instrument which Bjf 'V, worn to mo objectloimblo are illustr.i Bjt i',v Iho of wluit 1 conceive to bo un un- BJ ' wise, dangerous, and growing ten- K dency toward the gradual breaking BJ down of tho American system of gov- BJ r ornineut throughout tho country I (shall discuss tho subject in n sow. K f t what general way. I am nw.uo ot the BJ . fact" that it is not fashionable to Unit BJ fault with any of tho new-fangled ro HK J'tical fads which aro being rather ft: ' liik-mperutely advocated under th.i M claim of restoring a government by BB' tho people. Anyono who douMs tlo Hfl wisdom ot the Initiative and roferen Bft ''. jbBbsW dum' tho vcca"' nr the '"'ect primary HBj ' jBcBcBBm al Bot llown by certain self- BBBBBJBBV. constituted guardians the BBBBBbBjBBIL. ' " -ni,i epilogue are considered worthy' to-be called progressive. Somebody hns defined a standpatter standpat-ter as a man who Iiob stopped and con. not start and us progressive ns one who has started nnd can tiot stop. If these definitions nre to be accepted ns accurate, sensible people peo-ple will avoid both schools. It would seem to be tho part of wisdom to delay de-lay starting nt least long' enough to ascertain where wo nre going nnd why, nnd then to keep going as long ns we are headed in the right direction, direc-tion, and to stop whenever' wo discover discov-er that we have lost our bearings. Movement nnd Improvement nre not always synonymous terms. Just now there Is u good deal of political nnd soclnl unrest, not only among our own people, but throughout tho world. That there is Justification for much of the dissatisfaction which exists can probably not be truthfully denied. de-nied. Tho conditions, however, which have given rlso to this feeling call for sane, wise, lovcl-headed counsel nnd consideration. Hut Instead of these the agitator is abroad and confusion of thought results. Evils exist as they have always existed. Many remedies reme-dies are being suggested, some of them good, some of them foolish, many of them utterly vicious and Impracticable. Im-practicable. There are qnncks In politics po-litics as there nre quackB In medicine, medi-cine, nnd In the ono case ns In the other, the quack Is usually Identified by the superabundance of the laudation lauda-tion with which ho advertises himself and his remedies. Tho value of a remedy la politics, us in medicine, Is to be determined by Its efficiency as a curative, and not by tho nnme which Its compounders compound-ers hnve caused to be blown into the bottle or tho promises which they havo ninde In their advertising circulars. circu-lars. Between the political quack, who thinks only of himself, and the political poli-tical zealot, who does not think nt nil, wo are In grnvo danger of having nil tho stability and sanity ground out of our Institutions. What wo need. In my Judgment, is not so much the adoption of new, experimental experimen-tal not to say dangerous panncens for the ills of tho body politic, as the conscientious nnd vigorous enforcement enforce-ment of the old nnd proven remedies. Sir, we nre living In strenuous days. Everybody seems to bo afflicted In one form or nnother with tho speed mania. We are not content to Jog along In tho old family carriage after the pomfortnble mnnner of our fathers; fa-thers; wo must hurl ourselves through tho land In high-power nuto-mobiles, nuto-mobiles, dividing tho population into the "quick and the dead" ns wo pass. Tho stage-coach has been relegated to the scrap heap, and the Twentieth Century Limited hns tnken its place. Tho post office has fallen Into more cr less disuse, and wo are carrying on our correspondence over the telegraph tel-egraph wires by night lettergrams and day lettergrams. Tho housewife no longer shops with market basket upon up-on her urmj uhe telephones tho grocer gro-cer anil udds tho bill for both telephones tele-phones to tho cost of living. To do everything more quickly, to trnvel fnster and faster is tho growing nb-seslon nb-seslon of the times, nnd wo aro eag erly looking forward to the day when we shall fly through tho air without the encumbrance of n gasoline tnnk, drawing propulsive power as wo. go from the electric waves which fill the universe with the mysterious energy of their riho and fnll. Tho microbe of restlessness has Invaded not only our social but our business nnd political life as well. Wo nro no longer satisfied satis-fied to lay by a modest competency for our old ago by years of thrift nnd economy. Wo must get rich over night by betting on the price of wheat. Houses are no longer built from tho foundation up, brick upon brick nnd stono upon stono. Tremendous stool frames, 10, 20 40 stoilos in height, are elevntod by the aid of steam and crnne, nnd bricks are laid and windows put In upon every floor at tho sume time. Tho roof Is fnstened on bofore tho cellar is finished. It Is not strnuge that in tho unuorsnl finer of haste government Itself should ho sv ,pt J this mad 8plilt of Impatience. a-IiicIi has given rise to tho new npostlo of rfntni wlinsa demand is that wo novel and untried things. The speed limit hns been taken off, the "stop, look, nnd listen" sign removed, and tho Importunate cry is, "full speed ahead! Get somewhere eHc than where you are It matters npt where only, In God's name, let It be quickly!" Changes In governmental forms are advocated apparently for the mere sake of change, So many strange and doubtful experiments are being undertaken un-dertaken that wo sholl end by finding find-ing ourselves overwhelmed by their very multiplicity nnd Impracticability. The minds of the people nre being filled with all sorts of Idealistic theories, the-ories, beautiful In promise but Ineffective Inef-fective In performance. Every self-constituted self-constituted reformer brings to the quilting bee his fnvorlto patch, and when the work shnll be completed our scheme of government will be ns bizarre bi-zarre as the old-fashioned crazy quilt of our grandmothers. It Is high time for a reaction to that ancient but discredited dis-credited common sense which thinks beforo It acts instead of repenting afterwards. af-terwards. It Is one of the penalties of advancing ad-vancing civilization 'that the feet of progress must sometimes go through the mire before they can plant themselves them-selves on the firm upland. That man I j the truest pilot whose keen vision soonest makes out tho direction In which the upland lies and, in safety rather than In haste, lends us to It, and he but n false pilot or an arrant knave, whatsoever he may .call himself him-self or howsoever loudly he may an-nthematlze an-nthematlze the mlre, if he but lead us, however swiftly, round and round tho vicious circle within the swamp. The problems with which wo have to icol are full of perplexity and complexity. com-plexity. They can not be solved by a simple wave of the hand In a moment of time, by hysterical denunciation, by tho undigested theories of the vision-nry vision-nry and tho dreamer, by the self-serving self-serving mouthtngs of the demagogue, or by the mere counting of ..heads at tho ballot box. They call for-thoroughgoing investigation, dispassionate consideration, con-sideration, wise statesmanship, nnd sometimes for that courageous patience pati-ence which moves deliberately In the face of clamorous demands to make haste. There Is overmuch waving of flags und heating of drums and blowing blow-ing of liorns. The voice of tho professional profes-sional reformer Is heard In tho lnnd Insistently calling upon us to forsake the ancient and well-beaten paths along which wo havo proceeded, at least In security, for a century and n quarter and go headlong In new and unexplored directions, luckily to find ourselves In pleasant fields and firm footing or unluckily plunged over tho precipice or engulfed In tlio dismal swamp. Tho so-called popular-government propaganda has for Its ostensible object ob-ject the broadening und strengthening of power in tho hands of the people, but Its tendency Is to emasculate and ultimately destroy representative government. gov-ernment. Its adherents In their enthusiasm en-thusiasm hnvo advocated what seems to ma some very wild and visionary schemes ,udmlrably calculated to Inflame In-flame thd popular , Imagination, but which, however much they may increase in-crease the direct participation of tho multitude In tho affairs of govern ment, will, 1 am persuaded, give them not a better but a far less efficient! and desirable government than they now have. I do not menu to say that I am opposed to every suggested alteration al-teration In the existing governmental framework. To oppose n new thing simply becnuM) It Is now Is quite ns bad us to Insist upon change merely because It Is change. I am, for ex-nniple. ex-nniple. in favor of tlio commission form ot government for municipality municipali-ty i. because 1 believe that plan will glvo us better and abler city officials. In such a scheuio there Is no surrender surren-der of the pilnclples of representative government. On the contrary thcro is a centralizing power and rcsponsibll-' Uy n, rower hands, the effect of which will bo to make the officials more directly Jesponslblo to the peoplo nnd ti. enable Ultra to locate with greater certainly tho official who Is nt fault when things go wrong, I am In favor of the election of tho IaIllilSliUa SmMgrg . by a direct |
