LAST DITCH OF DEMOCRACY - Majority Rights

I defend the particularly American, North American, United States
heritage. If anybody can find anything hostile to the Constitution of the
U.S.A. in these speeches, it would greatly interest me to know what.
It may be bizarre, eccentric, quaint, old-fashioned of me to refer to that
document, but I wish more Americans would at least read it. It is not
light and easy reading but it contains several points of interest, whereby
some of our present officials could, if they but would, profit greatly.
Or, considering the jack in office, of less importance than the whole
people and the whole nation, I should say the nation would greatly
benefit if the literate citizens would attend to the document, both it its
more important details and in its spirit. Even if Charles Beard does think
it a barrier against real democracy. I would remind Prof. Beard that
Adams studied republics. Even Beard now knows less of the
Constitution than did John Adams and Madison. The treasure of a state
is its equity. That is to say, its capacity to give every man a square deal.
Teddy used to say square deal. There is no sane economics, without a
sane ethic at its base.
And certain kinds of honesty have been known for 5000 years. Certain
kinds of dishonesty are equally well recorded in history; and the
capacity, anybody’s capacity, for fooling all men ALL the time is, as
Lincoln remarked, limited.
A considerable force, in some cases a force of inertia, has been espoused
to my views, to my perceptions, to my patient collecting of data, ever
since I had any views, or perceptions, or started collecting data. I have in
the main been confined to papers of very small circulation, but not
invariably. As I can not AT ALL count on the present hearers, if there are
any present hearers, [not] having read a line of [my] writing I have, for
the sake of clarity, to repeat things I have said before.