< Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 77.djvu
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THE FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT

what they say—and who can doubt their sincerity?—no more significant utterance has been made on American soil since the declaration of July 4, 1776. The final paragraph of the declaration reads:

Believing in our hearts that the needs of the country and the fundamental principles of our government set forth herein involve moral no less than material issues, and agreeing that the time has come for us and the other citizens we represent to exercise our constitutional powers by the means provided when the constitution of the United States was framed, we, the delegates in this convention assembled, representing more than half the people and three fourths the productive energy of the United States, do hereby deliberately and firmly, and in the full realization of our duties and responsibilities, demand and direct that a definite and vigorous policy of waterway improvement, beginning with the Lakes-to-Gulf Deep Waterway, be adopted and put into operation by the national government without delay. To the enforcement of this demand we pledge our individual effort and our united support; and we hereby publicly pledge our personal honor, each for himself and to each other, to support no candidate for public office who will not unqualifiedly indorse and maintain that policy.

Academically, such an utterance is in so full accord with the constitution and with the principles of popular government as to be commonplace; yet actually it is so far out of accord with current governmental methods that the third of the representatives and senators in attendance at the convention generally (except perhaps a dozen progressives) repudiated and condemned the utterance more or less openly as "socialistic" or "anarchistic." Still the voice of the people has echoed and reechoed; and at last it has reached print in a public document.

The spirit of the Lakes-to-the-Gulf Deep Waterway Association expressed in their declaration has cropped out in various conventions other than those noted in the senate report. During the past two years the question has been growing more and more incisive, Is this nation competent to protect the interests of its people? The question has been pressed in non-partisan assemblies held in every section, including citizens of every state, and with constantly increasing directness and pointedness; and it is a sign of the times that it is put with a sense of power and a realization of responsibility unprecedented in the century and a quarter since Washington moved toward the constitution. America—the collective mass of ninety million souls—is a long-suffering if not lethargic giant, slow to wrath and show of strength; yet as to its power when aroused—who can doubt? Its full strength lies in the spirit of the ninety millions; the force of a first effort lodges in some eighteen million voters, a half temporarily tied by one special interest or another—but nine millions are full freemen, and five millions more are ready to follow their lead. Now that the giant is aroused, in conscience no less than in sentiment, the demand of the people is attracting attention. Already the waterway advocates can point to a partial re-

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