Palmer Alaska. ____ Carl Rasmus senr Editor.
Published every Friday at Palmer, Alaska, by the Matanuska Valley
Fanners Cooperating Association, for the purpose of giving news of thf
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CONSISTENT PEOPLE MAKE LAWS a!tD THEN BREAK THEM
A well known and respected author recently wrote an article for a
well Irno./n weekly magazine in which he expressed the opinion that
when the Constution of the United States .was being formed, that the
authors of many of its provisions fully expected that it would be
amended or if that were to much trouble, that the questloable parts
of' the document would.be ignored and such action taken, that would
remedy nnessary restrictions by evadoing its provisions, so that the
policys that were desired could be put into force, without waiting
to secure the legal action necessary from a legal standpoint.
To hear out the truth of the statement, it is only necessary to say
th*t before the people of the United States would accept the Constu
tion as prepared by its authors, it was necessary to add ten amendments
that many people thought, should have been included in the original
document, and all were voted onfaccepted at the same time. Investigators
contend that the Constutional Delegates as a whole, were so cnr.erva.tive
in their thoughts and .actions, that they wore doubtful about the
value o^ the so call^Bill of Rights, included in the Ten umendmends.
Then th*'* terriable Civil War came on as c result.^of the lack of a
definate law defineing the powers of individual states and their right
to sec dp,if they so desired, no special law was passed to-force the
Southern states.to remain in the Union or no decision of the Supreme
Cc'Tt sttled the issue, no it was only settled by the bloodshed of
thousands of our respected citizens.
Kistor;r shows that when people w^nt a change that old laws and
customs arc thrown aside and something that seems' to be more do sir cable
is substituted, 'the conservatives fight p.gr Inst, change, and the radical,
promote r' volutions in oppisltion, such is the law of life;, When the.
’’umbrella, packing Chamberlains” try to aopease the Hitlers, but their
efforts avail nothing, then the mass of the people get tired of the. .
weak-spinod leaders and replace them with more fore ;ful and dot- rmlned
men, th n the pattern for war is made and the conflict, because the
would-b Dictators never quit without a fight for all-out control,
becomes the graveyard of many people who never even understood the
causes af the war or what they'are fighting for.
Ho doubt many of our readers .will bo shocked by the thought that’the
Constution of the United States is not infallifble, or that it can be
change^ or entirely done away with. The American Dc-ople as c whole
feel, no doubt, that our Constution is probably better than any other
written, so far, because it has been a guideing force for the develop- ,
ment of one of the greatest and most progressive Nations in History.
But the fact is that our forefathers who wrote this document were not
very positive that it would sevveits purpose, so in the concluding
clause it was provided that the Constution could be Amended In part
or as a whole, which could v mean that the whole meaning could be
changed if it were desired.
That our founders were longsighted on this point,can best be compared
by the progress made by countrys that have adheared to the law3 laid
down by their forefathers without any changes, and the progress made by
our country during the same time. To our mind one of the most dan^e.rous
things that can happen to any country or orginizntion, it to let senile
old men dictate its policies or follow the wishes of men long since;
buried, who had no conception of the- difficulties that might hinder the
people in the future, if no changes were made in the laws that guidr
the actions of the people of that country. Our Founders may have been
a little bit conservative but they were not appeasers in'‘the sense
that we understand it. And when we become to lazy or neglectful to
stand up and fight for the thing that we believe to be right, then wo
are reaching a stage, of fast decay.