OCR Text |
Show 11 ! AMERICAN INSTITUTES ARE II j WORTH FIGHTING TO PRESERVE H j September 17th perhaps the most im- i portant anniversary in the 'calendar of Hfl4 American patriotism, passes by each year HI IT almost without notice. It is the date of H3 j j the adoption of the American Constitu- H I ! tion by the Philadelphia convention over Hi j , which George Washington presided, Hi i ; twelve years after the adoption of the HI Declaration of Independence. The adop- Hi 1 f - tion of the Declaration was a great ev- H 1 . ent; tne achievement of national inde- Hi , ' pendence in a struggle of eight years H '; ; against the mightiest nation of the time H j.v an" even greater one; but greatest of all H i achievements of our Revolutionary f ore- H 3 fathers was the adoption of a frame of H I j government, "the greatest work," as H r Gladstone said, "ever struck off at a giv- H 5 eritime by the hand and brain of man," H which has so well stood the" test of time HI ' ' that under it there has been developed, H I j upon this continent the freest and migh- H I - fi tiest people of all time. H "- So much is said in deprecation of our Hi v, . a oi' government by demagogues and K , -h. , doctrinaires, so little in its defense, that. B :$A ' the supreme merit of our national Consti- H ,'"., tution is hot generally understood evea H '' w r byjithe American people. The f ramers of f r V theXonstitution fcdicl. npt throw together H , '0 a plan.ofgovernirient.in haphazard fash- BbVj' ioru)r1rfpresented"the most conscien-. H , ' tioui reMarch.iiitq eyery, governmental i V ' ' Pieinlu8tory by the greatest B : group of ;pasif is ts, that ever appeared in I l f one group in the life of a nation. They ' aaiaugtjchenuMofvidoii- - : . "And moev devoutly, prize ' ' J '"than all perfection theorized H ri , The morejmperf ect, that had roots, Hi and grew." f v la tlMte;later days critics of the Amer-i Amer-i '-'- Cotutioo have appear , who B' ; " . idemwfff.-TKMramtrspf'ourJCpnsti- H? -.. tution knewr from7 the study' oi history, B; j v the tojmgere of piire democracy,' 6. form H !. , of government which even in little Greece t ; ,;;. banished wise men for. being called Just, ' and courageous men for speaking ;tttie K ; ; - truth. They knew that unrestrained rule B . by majority was just as much' of an au- H tocracy as unrestarined rule by a mon- E; ' rch- They devised the great plan of K checks and balances, of responsibilities M- ; and restraints, of divided prerogative m ' and supervision, which has given us that ml , ; liberty safeguarded by law that is the B ' glory of , all civilization. ' We are pointed ,too, in these days, to v r the virtue of the exaggerated slate un- M, der which the citizen is the creature, M. ', ' rather than the master, of government. m This form of state is not progressive but B reactionary. It had an early example in B ; . Sparta, and under it developed nothing B '. but slave spirits and stoic deeds; The mo- H . idem example is Frussianism, which the B 5 whole world has had to rise up and fight BL 'because it has substituted the soulless B"' . ..' state for the individual conscience. B ' . Of the perils of mere majority rule, B , ,"" without the restraint of law we have the B: 'P horrible example of Russia under the B ; j -Bolsheviki socialists, The word Bolshev- B j iki means the majority. Without consti- B J ;,. tutional restraints this majority has pro- B A ceeded upon the theory that only the class B ' in power has any rights that need be rc- B : ;, spected. Therefore we have had murder B ' and rapine on a scale unprecedented in B historyjnd the net result is a people rc- Bj ; fr duced.to sucH depths of misery as the ItiV' world hasnever before conceived. ' B'. : A r ' With somucli agitation against our H r 't form of government boir. C2i:rlcc! On by demagogues and doctrinaires pxxsccPl by European conceptionc cZ z--'"- and with no adequate ' appreciation , f what. Americanism means, it is the 'duty of the 'American people to study 'for themselves the merits of their own peculiar pe-culiar form of government. While there "is so much .talk of saving the world for democracy, there are many Americans who believe that the adoption by Europe of the federated republican form of government, gov-ernment, possibly by the division of. the continent into two or three governmental governmen-tal grpups," would be a bqtter solution of "tlio situation there than many of the scheme's which have been proposed. But we have a fight in our own country coun-try to preserve our representative republican repub-lican form of government.' The republic of Washington and Lincoln calls to its defense all, of those who, have an understanding under-standing and appreciation of real Americanism. Ameri-canism. Our Constitution should bo made the subject of study by every good American. Its interpretation should not be left to the revolutionaries of tho rostrum ros-trum and the barrel head. The tremendous tremen-dous progress of the American people, the achievement of such vast wealth' so much more widely diffused than in any other land beneath the sun, the opening of the door of opportunity to so many millions from alien skies as well as from the home land, the high level of popular intelligence ,the creation of the spirit of self reliance and personal initiative; these and other phases of American civilization civil-ization have not come by accident. They are in large part the fruitage of wisely conceived institutions. The burden of proof is upon those who would dispose of' them with mere phrases. It should take something more than blatant babble about love of the people, thrown off by politicians seeking power and professors wanting.notoriety, to undermine the people's peo-ple's faith in i those Institutions under whichthe republic has grown great" be-' yond the dreams of the .fathers and has become the wonder and envy of the world. National Republican. Ik Ik Ik |