Los Angeles herald., 1892-12-25
HONEST ELECTION METHODS,
District Attorney-Elect Dillon's
Views on Reform.
How He Thinks Seme Evils Should
Be Corrected.
Municipal Safeguards The Evolution
OF Government by the Peo-
pie = The Way to Pre-
vent Fraud.

An Honest Election was the title of g
paper read by District Attorney-e elect
Henry @. Dillon on Friday before the
Unity club. 1t was striking produc
ton in many respects and in substance
is given below. 1t of course represents
Mr.. Dillon's personal views:
We are considering municipal safe
guards. The safeguard of city is its
government. If the government is
wise. honest, economical and patriotic
our lives and property are safely guarded
and we move forward safely in the pur-
suit of happiness-the great end and
aim of life. We disagree only as to the
best means of getting good govern.
ment.
AS citizens of Los Angeles we all want
good government-the best and wisest
safeguards thrown around our munich
pality, but do we yet know how to get
them? For 116 years the people of the
United States have been trying the ex-
pertinent of self-governmept. / an not
one of those who believe the experiment
has been failure.
The executive arm of government
no matter whether it is welded by a
president, by governors, mayors, the DO
lice power or courts of justice-is power
less to enforce a law which is
not supported By public opinion.
Good laws are those which are
sanctioned by public opinion. They
register on the dial of history the point
which the people have reached in the
onward and upward march of their ciy-
ilization. Public opinion, under our
form OF government, can only be ex-
pressed in two ways-peaceably at an
election, or forcibly by revolution.
have tried as it were to bottle up public
opinion-to suppress it by force-but
the bottle has always burst asunder,
and great and destructive has been the
force of the explosion. In our own day
statesmen, so-called, have tried to ac-
complish by fraud what their proto-
types failed to accomplish by force.
At the birth of this republic there
was class of powerful and influential
men who sometimes openly and avow-
edly but always in their hearts despised
the idea OF popular sovereignty. 70
them, the revolutionary war was fought
to put an end to British tyranny, not to
establish the principle of popular sov-
ereignty. All were agreed that English
supremacy must end, but their antipa-
thy did not extend alike to British in
stitutions. 10 Hamilton and his fol.
lowers, who represented the money
power OF the Insurgents, the language
OF the Declaration of Independence
about inalienable rights was but stilted
English-mere sound and fury signify
ing nothing.
But to Jefferson, who penned the doc
ument, and his supporters it was a
pledge to the world that this republic
was to be government of, for and by
the people. These were the great polit.
ical principles of good and evil working
for and against this nation at it's birth.
Hamilton despised democracy. To him
it was the incarnation of anarchy. At
New York dinner, so fatal to many
political ambition, he said in answer to
a toast: "Your people, sir, your peo-
pie is great beast" On the other
hand Jefferson believed in and trusted
the people and they, responding to his
confidence, believed in ian dtrusted him.
The sentiments of Hamilton were
shared by all Federalists and grew into
fatal treason against the rights of the
people. From a Federal newspaper of
those days l CLEAN the following: ga
democracy is scarcely tolerable at any
period of national history. 1t is ON
trial here, and the issue will be civil
war, desolation and anarchy. No wise
man but discerns its imperfections ;
no good man but shudders at it's
miseries, no honest man but procla,ms
its frauds, and no brave man but
draws his sword against its force" An
other (Fisher Ames) wrote, "Our coun.
try is too big for union, too sordid for
patriotism. too democratic for liberty !"
In 1904 George Cabot wrote, "We are
democratic altogether; and l hold
democracy in it's natural operation to be
government of the worst" .
Those who despair of the republic,
those who despise the idea of popular
sovereignty, those who aped the man
ners and followed the vices of the old
world are not dead yet. The reign of
the common people has not yet begun.
The government is plutocratic in fact.
though republican in form. Take, for
example, our own great state, an en-
pire in itself, with sea coast equal to
that of all the Atlantic states from
Maine to Florida. For generation it
has been notoriously governed by one
gigantic railroad corporation, which has
dictated nominations. debauched our
legislation, corrupted the ballot box and
polluted even our courts of justice. The
same is true in other states. These cor
porations have been built up by slices
Of sovereign power granted to them by
the people; by gifts of land and
special privileges denied to the
people themselves. until they have
become 30 powerful and so insolent in
their strength as to virtually take the
reins of government into their own
hands. If you would know who wields
the power behind the throne-the
rulers in fact of this republic-get the
names of those stockholders and bond.
holders who furnish the campaign
funds.
There can be no honest election so
| long as the expenses of it are borne by
| the men who WELD such corporate pow
er. There can be no honest election
until the expenses of it are paid in the
first instance by the people out of the
public treasury. There can be no hon
est election where candidates are as
sessed for campaign expenses. An hon
est election can never follow dlshones
convention, nor can an honest conven