Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1895-09-19

lhave only a representative govern
ment not a peoples government.
But neither the senate nor the plesi'
; dent, nor the supreme court are rep
resentatives of the people, so our law
making power is a very long wayi
from the people The people in this
country can neither originate gooG
law nor veto a bad law, and they ar
only allowed to choose representative
for one place in four.
We talk of turning the rascals out.
Yes, that is all that we can do, but we
generally find that the rascals we put
in are no better than those we turned
out. Suppose, for example that the
great majority of the people should
favor the free coinage of silver, and
suppose that some representative
in the lower house should introduce a
bill for that measure. That bill has
not only to be endorsed by amajority
OF the representatives of the people in
the lower house but it must be en-
dorsed by the non representative body
of the senate. Then it must receive the
appreciation of the president, who is
not representative of the people, and
lastly the supreme court must decide
its cOnstitutionality; and the supreme
court is not representative body.
But, suppose the senate and the
president and the supreme court were
all elected by the people, we would
then have only a representative gov
ernment not a peoples government.
The people can only have voice in
making their own laws by means OF
the initiative and referendum. With
the initiative any citizen can originate
law, and by getting the requisite
number of signatures to petition, can
get the Law before the people, and If
majority Of the people vote for it, it
becomes a law without the consent of
any other person or persons on earth
With the referendum the people may
demand the submission OF any bill
passed by the legislative body to them
for their approval and If majority
vote against it, it is vetoed In spite of
all the powers Of earth. This would
be government by the people. Rep
resentative government is not.
If we are to have but one issue in the
next campaign, letit be the question
of government of the people by
means of the initiative and referen
dunn and not the silver question.
There is no other question that the
American people can be so easily con-
verified to as that Of government by
the people. No one can make a speech
against it in the United States. The
people will vote for it almost unani-
mously, and when we have carried
that we can then try our hands at get
ting other reforms. There will then
be no trouble about getting them before
the people. Our representatives will
then try to pass better laws than they
do now In order to get the people to
vote for them. Corporations will then
cease to bride our lawmakers to pass
bad laws as they would expect them to
be vetoed by the people. 1t would not
then make much difference which poll
tical party was in power, as the real
power would then be in the hands Of
the people. The party spirit and cor
ruption in politics would die out and
the people would cease to hate one an
other as they do now for their politi-
cal views. Let us then unite all over
this land to secure a government of
and by and for the people. -.