MANÆUVRES OF MR. ROOSEVELT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1416, 17 April 1912, Page 8

MANÆUVRES OF MR. ROOSEVELT.

* : LETTER FROM AMERICA. (By Telegraph.—Special Correspondent.) Christchurch, April 15. In the course of a letter received by Dr. Neeley, of Christchurcli, from a irieml (Judge Lansdeu, of the Supreme Court of the State of Tennessee), latter says:— "The Democrats have very 'great hope (if electing the next President. "Sir. Roosevelt is a candidate against President Taft for'the Republican nomination, and in this morning's paper they have Uegun a personal warfare against each other which it seems will result in a permanent split in the Republican party. Mr. Eoosevelt has interjected a new issue into the campaign. He proposes an amend-ment-to the Constitution by which decisions of the Courts can be reversed in a popular election by a vote of the people. This is a most radical and novel departure from our forms of government, as always "understood in this country. It would make the United States less stable and its laws less permanent than those of the countries of South America. As you know, our cities, counties, and States, as well as the United States Government, carry on their internal improvements by bond issues, and the validity of these bonds is often carried to the Courts for determination. He proposes that, if the Courts should determine these questions (or any like question) contrary to the popular will, an appeal may bo taken from the decision of the Court to the people, and, if a majority of the peoplo voted against the decision, it is to bo set aside, and the will of the majority substituted for it. Under this plan the law might be one thing this year, and an entirely different thing another year. Capital would, of course, no longer be invested in public securities, industry would be paralysed, and it seems to me that the Government would be finally destroyed. Notwithstanding that, he is advocating this radical measure, and he has the united support of nil the- big public interests which have fattened upon the public taxes for nearly fifty years.