Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1898-03-02

Third. Select three hundred and
ffty-six good men to run for congress,
out of about fifteen hundred in the
new party who would like the nOmin-
alton. and then elect a majority.
Fourth. In the same conventions
select at least four thousand five
hundred candidates for the various
legislatures, forty-fve for governors,
and elect a majority in every state
where a United States senator is to
be elected. You will also have to Sc
lect not less than fifteen thousand
candidates for other state and county
salaried officers, and will find some
times that part of your legislative
ticket has been traded for a sheriff or
county clerk in the interest of greed.
Iitth DO it all over again two years
later, ana thus get control Of the Uni
tel States senate and this time be
sure you elect the President. If you
were fairly successful before, your
difficulties will be multiplied "a nun
dred fold now by the bountiful crop
OF otiice-seekers from which 10 select
your good men and true. II you fail
IN getting a majority either in the
Senate or the House, or do not elect
your president, your work is ia vain
Tor that campaign.
Sixth. Keep your party true to the
issue on which it started.
When you have done all this your
proposed law will be considered on its
merits by the President and Congress
if it is not talked to death by the mi
nority in the Senate. If it is enacted
your laDors may be nearly over.
All this and more was done in the
creation Of the republican party, with
the war in addition, TO settle the chat
tel slavery question.
Under the proposed system of di-
rect legislation the path is not so long,
Suppose a quarter of a million peti-
TONERS are required to propose a ma
tional law by the Initiative. One-half
the number of men you must now
nominate for Congress and the Legis
latures, using their leisure hours 1oI
Il year only, can get the required sign
ers, if your proposed reform has
reached the stage of growth where it
would be possible to organize pOliti-
cal party. The petition is then filed
with the President, and at the next
regular election the question is decid-
ed on its merits by the highest law
making power-all the voters at the
allot-boX-and their vote will be the
supreme law.
All this need not take two years, nor
cost so much as the various cOnyen-
tons to nominate officers in n single
under the present system.
Its possibilities were recognized by
the republican national committee in
its address in 1857, in which it de-
clared that if the questions of extend
lug and continuing chattel slavery in
the United States could be submitted
to vote Of the people, nineteen-tWen-
tieths of the voters of the free states
and large majority in the slave
states would vote No"
Under Direct Legislation that issue
might have been settled 10y the ballot
in one day, instead of by the bullet in
four years.
Objection Z. Our laws would be
made, especially in appropriations of
public money, by the ignorant and
class who own no property
and pay no taxes.
Answer. 1t is admitted that our
tenth of the voters. Laws could not
be made by them, because a proposed
law or constitutional amendment,
when submitted to the people, is al
most always elected or defeated by
majority much greater than One-tenth
of those voting.
The influence of this class today is
almost supreme, because the vast ma
jority of the voters who are not for
sale are divided by principle or party
prejudice into two large and almost
equal bodies at every election. There
fore the party that succeeds in buying
the greater part of these saleable vOt,
ers elects its ticket by a handsome
plurality.
Our laws are not made by the men
who own property and pay their hon.
est share of the direct taxes. 1t is
well known that the majority of tho
men who make the laws are elected
by the purchase of this corruptible
One-tenth of the voters, and the buy
ing is done with money furnished by
the class of men who make this obiec.
tiOn-by those who own much prop
erty and pay as little taxes as posi-
BILE.
The class of men who own no prop
erty or only their homes, or the farms
on which they work, are never accused
of buying votes, either at the ballot
box or i'm the legislative bodies.
Our city councils in the great cities
are notoriouSly for sale, and are
bought by the wealthy men and cor
poratiOns, while congress and the leg
islatureS have the same reputation 1t
is reported to have cost five hundred
thousand dollars last winter TO buy
the infamous Yerkes Chicago street
railway bill through the Illinois legis-
lature, but that body refused to sub
nit the question to the voters of Chi
cago as to whether the law should
take effect or not.
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