Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-02-22
hand in its preparation, and a thorough
knowledge of the author with the evil it
is intended to eradicate.
RIGHTS OF soyERE1GNs.

RIGHTS OF SOvEREIGNS.
The tendency of so.called modern
craftsmanship is to centralize power and
withdraw from the people certain
rights ana prerogatives upon which in
dividual independence ever has, and
must, hinge. Corporations, trusts and
%monopolles control capital, and trades
unions and other labor organizations
largely tend to control labor. The indi-
vidual as such has little to say relative
to the management OF his own time,
strength or money. Councils, companies
and boards of directors manage affairs
of corporations and of individuals, and
mass their force as an army is modified,
and individuality is destroyed. The peo-
pie surrender their rights and power as
sovereigns to their chosen representa-
tives, and the representatives should not
then assume to hedge themselves and
their legislation round about with such
safeguards that none Of the authority
with which they are temporarily clothed
shall ever again revert to the
people. In our W legislature forty
eight senators and representatives repre-
senting temporarily the rights of yer
forty thousand voters, assume that the
paramount issue of the state is safe in
their hands, than to allow it to be sub
mitted to a majority Of the forty thou
sand sovereign voters. This authority
they assumed four years ago, two years
ago and now the house has again as
sumed the same authority. Two years
hence a very large percentage OF this
legislative assembly will be again num-
bered with the forty thousand sovereigns,
and the places they now occupy will be
filled from the ranks. During the last
campaign the referendum was heralded
to the people as their safeguard by the
populist party, and by their orators, and
yet every advocate it had, who is
now a member of the house of
representatives, refutes his sincerity by
throttl1ng the first attempt to apply it to
a question upon which every voter in
the state is as legally qualified to ex-
press his views as the legislator who
withholds that privilege from him. Is
it ignorance on part Of the voter that
the legislator fears, or does he believe
in his own superior wisdom? Does he
believe that the fact that he last fall, &C.
cidentally, perhaps, by political schemes
or devices, possible, or by trades and
combinations, probably, fell upon the
lucky side of caucus, convention and
election, and that by reason thereof he
has now the right, morally, to relegate
to himself to say what the sovereign voter
who sent him here may OF may not do
IN relation to a question dealing with
the best interests Of the state. Shall he
presume to say that because his indi-
vidual opinion, or that of his associates,
or personal likes or dislikes shall be the
rule and guide by which he presumes to
say the sovereigns of his district, and of
the state in general, shall not be allowed
to pass upon questions that vitality affect
the future welfare of the state.
No representative can justly steal his
own freedom and complain of theft.
Such he practically does when he debars
himself and his constituents from pass
ing upon the questions of what shall be
the policy to be in future adopted by the
state.
"The voice of the people is the voice
of God" Let them be heard on what
the future action of the state shall be
and they will decide right.