Rather than state our own theories too profusely, we extract a few concepts from eminent writers and oracles on government, which are as follows: 1. A free state establishes no religion, abolishes all benefits and privileges to the clergy, and governs all citizens by authority of general and equal laws. 2. Equality of rights and privileges is the purpose and aim of the law. 3. The constitutional state requires that all government and law shall proceed from a uniform representation of the people. The people by ballot confer the right to govern by one law for the whole country and people. 4. Every one should submit equally to the state's authority; there is but one common citizenship, one common freedom. 5. The state should act rationally, justly and from high moral principles, and not from passion or impulse. Its law comes through legislation and must bind all equally without regard to condition, station or power. Try toll exemption by these salutary principles, and what foundation has it to stand upon? How could any national funds be used to construct a public utility, and then its services be dedicated to a selected class of the people? "Taxes are laid upon all for the benefit of all;" and constitutional America is a government of the people, by the people, for the people. National property, as distinguished from private property, belongs to the people, and its use is for all the people. Then how can any American ship be denied the use of the canal? And how can there be distinction and favoritism in the use and benefit from "common property?" Most appropriate is the great constitutional maxim -the foundation stone of liberty and equality: "That those who make the laws are to govern by promulgated, established laws not to be varied in particular cases, but to have one rule for rich and poor, for the favorite at court and the countryman at plough." And equally pertinent is the poetical epigram: "Remember, man, the Universal Cause Acts not by partial, but by general laws." Men under government may be physically, mentally and morally unequal. The state has performed its duty when it gives equality of opportunity and privileges; it has not the power to re-create the units of society and thereby establish a personal equilibrium. Governmental equality, equality of legal rights should be granted by the state; but the conferring of social equality and equality of faculty and ability depends on a higher power and is entirely beyond the sphere and functions of the commonwealth. Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made POPE. Note: In Magoun vs. Savings Bank (the Inheritance Tax), decided by the U. S. Sup. Court in April, 1898, the court admitted that the statute in controversy was a class law, yet upheld it as being a reasonable classification. This case is the base upon which such class laws as the Income Tax, the labor amendment to the Sherman law, wages and hours of labor laws, etc., find support. In Cooley's Const. Lim. (pages 487 to 498) a vast number of cases are discussed which were brought into court through class legislation. CHAPTER XXVII. THE PEACE SOCIETIES. There are three very strong societies working for peace, arbitration and the observance of our treaty compacts: the American Peace Society, Washington, D. C., the Carnegie Peace Endowment, New York City, and the World Peace Foundation, Boston, Mass. The peace organizations were critisized by Congressmen on the opposite side for their course in the tolls controversy, and their actions taken for world peace and disarmament. These associations are composed of men of mental and financial strength and are a power in any cause by them espoused. The finances are in a powerful way aided by the Carnegie endowment of $10,000,000 for the advancement of peace. This produces the annual revenue of $500,000. The American Peace Society gets the yearly sum of $31,000 to distribute among the auxiliary societies. But the World Peace Foundation depends on its own resources. The trustees of the Carnegie Endowment, given in the Senate Interoceanic Committee's report, 1914, are: Trustees: President, Elihu Root; vice president, Joseph H. Choate; secretary, James Brown Scott; treasurer, Charlemange Tower. Robert S. Brookings, Thomas Burke, Nicholas Murray Butler, John L. Cadwalader, since deceased; Cleveland H. Dodge, Charles W. Eliot, Arthur William Foster, John W. Foster, Austen G. Fox, Robert A. Franks, William M. Howard, Samuel Mather, Andrew J. Montague, Henry S. Pritchett, George W. Perkins, Jacob G. Schmidlapp, James L. Slayden, Oscar S. Straus, Charles L. Taylor, Andrew D. White, John Sharp Williams, Robert S. Woodward, Luke E. Wright. The following are the trustees and directors of the World Peace Foundation as given in the Report of the Trustees issued in 1914: Trustees: George A. Plimpton, president; A. Lawrence Lowell, William H. P. Faunce, Joseph Swain, Samuel T. Dutton, Sarah Louise Arnold, Edward Cummings, Samuel W. McCall, Samuel J. Elder, George W. Anderson, George H. Blakeslee, Albert E. Pillsbury. Directors: Edwin D. Mead, chief director; David Starr Jordan, James A. Macdonald, Hamilton Holt, Charles R. Brown, William I. Hull, George W. Nasmyth, Charles H. Levermore, secretary; Albert G. Bryant, Denys P. Myers. Treasurer: Arthur W. Allen, 40 Mt. Vernon Street, Boston. From the aforesaid Senate Committee's Report we are able to give the following officers of the American Peace Society: Senator Theodore Burton of Ohio, president; Dr. Benjamin F. Trueblood, secretary; Mr. Arthur D. Call, executive director and joint secretary. Since peace and harmony among nations depend largely on the observance of treaties the peace societies very obviously were brought into the controversy over the Panama tolls. Their position was: that the English treaty should be observed by us without any favor or distinction if its import was clear that there should be no discrimination; and that if the treaty was at all doubtful the question should be arbitrated. They believed that the violation of a treaty would cause serious complications and lead to disturbance in international harmony. Peaceful men could not think of national action, which might induce or encourage hostility or war. War is barbarism and should be relegated to the dark past; and disputes between nations should be settled, not by wager of battle, but like private controversies by civil proceeding or by arbitration. Some very prominent members of the peace societies favored the repeal bill. Without the aid of these able men it is doubtful if the bill would have been enacted. More than 700,000 copies of Senator Root's speech delivered in the Senate in 1913 were circulated. Such work could not be consummated without the expenditure of money. This was liberally donated and was the cause of violent censure by those opposing. If the cause were just, the money was morally spent in this crusade of education for the world's uplift. Having faith in their propaganda, why should these associates not go forward with force and energy? It would be difficult for an advocate of peace to be over-zealous in the work. So far as is known, these associations are doing a noble work and should not be subjected to condemnation. What more noble and altruistic than the promulgation of the doctrine of peace and harmony? These societies are largely voluntary associations. The great financial institution is the Carnegie Endowment. The work of these heroes is not so much political as educational. They operate through the schools, colleges and churches. They teach the young idea how not to shoot at their brothers of the human family. Peace is a matter of education, of culture, of morality, of religion, of civilization, and is the foundation of Christianity. Then why should not money be expended copiously and the best of man's ability be given in aid of this most righteous cause? War is diabolical and in no way justifiable except in case of attack and in self defense. So long as the evil of war infests the world nations must protect themselves against violence and destruction. There is yet |