The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-01-22
THE REFERENDUM.


Continued from First PageJ
posals in party leaders; we guess at can
didates' characters, which we can never
really know: we prostraF e ourselves before
party idols and party sav.ors, only to
find them all common clay at last. And
party we place before measures. 1T will
hurt the party" shuts out many a true
reform idea. 1T will kill any party at
tempting it," is from one direction a
threat and from another cry of alarm
In Switzerland, the way is open for the
general discussion of any reform which
small body of the people may propose
through the Initiative, and the line to
which the majority has advanced toward
refined justice has been accurately mark
ed off by the Referendum. In the United
States we do not know where the people
actually stand on any question, and until
the managers of one Of the two great,
unwieldy. parties. close corporations, ad-
NIT new principle to Their platform, it
cannot command the public attention
given proposal for law. Here is mon
opOly in lawmaking; one that stands as
guard over all other monopolies
In Switzerland, the lawmaking power is
localized. not centralized. The commune
asserts It's right to local self-government
,
on similar principles, withholds its rights
from the Confederation. Hence a few
laws above the commune's In the TWEEN
ty years from 1869 to 1889, inclusive,
Zurich passed but IS laws all going to the
Referendum, so being accepted and 10 re-
jected. Berne, with $40 900 inhabitants
and 100000 voters, averages only three
laws year. The Federal Congress passed
from 1875 to 1891 but 149 laws--n:ne a
year. In the United States Capitalization
goes on steadily. the encroachment Of
State legislatures and Congress on pOlit-
ical subdivisions which ought to be rela-
lively autonomous, being more marked
decade by decade.
In Switzerland, majority is behind
every law; who knows what is the case
in this country? There small majority,
twelfth to a sixteenth in State and ma
tion, may protest through the Referen-
dunn; here minorities are powerless. There
the community utilities all its public tai
ent and virtue, statesmen out Of office
having, through the Initiative and Refer
endum, as much power as in office: here
unless one is first politician he can
rarely be a statesman, and out of office
he is out of sight and stranded There
no danger exists from violent social agi-
tators, they knowing their exact strength
in the public vote on their measures; here,
in the din and uproar. it at times seems
as if from this source peace were in jeop-
ardy. There the trades unions ask for no
favors from any political party or from
office-hOlders, their own machinery oper-
ating through the Referendum and Inia-
tive, sufficient; here professional working
men politicians, often mere agents of par
ties, can carry dissension into the unions
and cast disgrace on them in the eyes
of the other classes. There partisansh:p
always signifies principle; here frequent
ly prejudice, tradition, spoils or the choice
between evils. There pure democracy
rules, justly, wisely, progressively; nere
the people, asserting their sovere:gnty
only at long intervals, are tricked, cajol-
ed, betrayed by false representatives, until
popular government has become jest and
the idea of a true democracy provokes a
sneer
It is time to reconstruct the legislative
mechanism now in use in our towns cities
and states. Unrestricted representative
government is an antiquated machine.
Reform it, improve it, simplify it, by
Direct Legislation.