The News & Observer

OUR DEPENDENCE IS IN THE PEOPLE.

"I am not amongst those who fear the people, they, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom. And to preserve their independence we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debts."

These words of Thomas Jefferson have a peculiar application at this time. It has become fashionable to cry out that all men are demagogues who believe in the capacity and the right of the people to rule. Every man who is protected in some special privilege, or who desires some legislative advantage over his fellows, is engaged in a crusade against the policies advocated by such men as Jefferson and Calhoun and Vance, and in advocating that the solution of great questions ought to be left to men who have made a special study of them. This might turn out well if those who have given most thought to great questions were unselfish men, anxious to promote the welfare of all the people rather than to advance their individual fortunes. But we have tried the plan of letting the bankers do the financiering for a quarter of a century and the manufacturers do the taxing until we have been brought to the present hard times. The remedy is for the people to do the legislating for awhile. "I am not amongst those who fear the people," said Mr. Jefferson "they, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom." And, as with prophetic vision he saw the issue of gold bonds at the dictation of gold speculators and bond-grabbers, the sage of Monticello added, "And to preserve their independence we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debts."