truth has given rise to the adage, "Bad govern ment is better than no government."

Government, being a

national association

founded on mutual interests and mutual dependencies-an organized system of procedure-and necessary to secure these interests and the benefits of co-operation in the pursuit of mutual advantages, requires legislative and executive powers.

When these powers are exercised in the interest of a few, who, by the force of custom and false education, hold the many in subjection, such government is Despotism; when they are exercised by the people through an organized system of representation, such government is a Republic.

These two modes of government constitute the base upon which all the various forms of government among mankind are founded. The one is based upon assumed, usurped, vested power; the other upon natural rights. The former demands submission to superiors, the latter obedience to well-regulated institutions; the one for the aggrandizement of the few, the other embraces the good of all.

(1) A republican government is founded upon the natural rights of the people, and has for its sole object the regulation of those rights and the protection of the people in their full and free exercise.

(2) Human rights are based upon the necessities and requirements of life, and consist in a natural claim to the means of obtaining them; the essential conditions of which are personal liberty, physical sustenance, and mental freedom.

(3) As life is of divine origin, so are the rights necessary to maintain it; and those means by which all its purposes are accomplished are equally divine. These rights are inalienable, and as sacred as life itself, because their full and free exercise is essential to the accomplishment of life's purposes.

(4) The right to live carries with it the right of personal liberty, the means of subsistence, and the development and culture of all the intellectual, moral, esthetic, and spiritual powers and capabilities of the individual; and as all have the right equally to live, so all have the right equally to its prerogatives, means, and possibilities.

(5) Since the capacity to enjoy liberty, to acquire the means of subsistence, and the natural capacity for mental development and spiritual culture are within certain limits, with the free exercise of these natural rights, the status of the individual in such conditions, physically, intellectually, morally, and spiritually, would correspond with

such capacity; and equality of conditions within these limits would be established in a government founded on natural rights. In other words, the status of equality would be commensurate with the natural capacity of the people in the full and free enjoyment of such rights. As the limits in physical stature, strength, and endurance are comparatively narrow, with like development and culture, all the mental attributes would be within the same narrow limits, and NATURAL EQUALITY would be the result.

The struggles and miseries of life have arisen chiefly from the denial of these natural rights; and the usurpation of powers founded on the idea of a divine right to rule still prevails in all civilized countries, under the name of VESTED RIGHTS. Whenever natural rights have asserted their claims, "vested rights," holding the supremacy, have overpowered them, and thus kept mankind in submission.

Contending usurpers have involved nations in war, either to support dynasties or for conquest; and the wealth produced by the toiling millions has been squandered to satisfy the demands of ambitions pomp, luxury, and avarice. These are the fruits of despotism.

On the other hand, under a government that secures the exercise and enjoyment of natural

rights, each one would hold and enjoy the wealth he produces. The result would be the prosperity, advancement, and happiness of the people; whereas, the result of "vested rights," exercised by the few, is war, with all its attendant evils, the burdens of which are borne by the people, but the glory, wealth, and power go to the few; incessant toil, poverty, and slavery of the many, and idleness, luxury, and dominion to the few.

Thus it is seen that usurped powers vested in governments, formulated in constitutions, commanding obedience by the authority of law, and exercised for the benefit of the usurpers, must antagonize natural rights, and the results are inordinate wealth, tyranny, and oppression on the one hand; and poverty, debt, ignorance, crime, degradation, and misery on the other.

In our country, all vested powers, derived from the idea of a divine right to rule, have been proscribed in the Federal Constitution, but have been more than supplied by powers vested in corporations for private enterprise, under the authority granted by law, which have usurped and now exercise the sovereign functions of government for their sole use and benefit, and by their power dictate all the affairs of government and control all its sources of wealth. A govern ment thus based upon assumed vested rights can

never be "6 a government of the people, for the people, by the people." Power emanating from the people, and delegated to their representatives for exercise, must remain under the people's control and subject to their will.

"Government is nothing more than a national association, and the object of this association is protection, as well individually as collectively. Every man wishes to pursue his occupation and to enjoy the fruits of his labors and the produce of his property in peace and safety, and with the least possible expense. When these things are accomplished, all the objects for which government ought to be established are answered."-Paine's Rights of Man.

There is but one general principle that distinguishes freedom from slavery, which is, that all vested power is to the people a species of slavery, the degree of which corresponds with that of the power vested and exercised; and delegated pow. er truly and faithfully exercised in a government is freedom within the scope of popular government. The power is in the people, not in their public servants; in those who pay, and not in those who are paid.

The prevalent idea is that the government is the power and the people are subject to it; whereas, the true idea is that the people are sov. ereign, and that the government is the prescribed