Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1899-01-27
DIRECT LEGISLATION.
South Dakota Has Become Especially
Interesting to the Reformers.

| eouth Dakota Has Become Especially
Interesting to the Reformers.
In adopting direct legislation South
Dakota has become specially interest
ing to the genuine reformers Of this
republic. Henceforth the state and its
people ere destined to be closely
watched by the intelligence Of Amer
lea and Europe, as presenting to hui
manity an example of the ability OF
sovereign people to trust themselves in
the management of their political at
fairs. 1t will be supreme test. BY
reason of its adoption Of that amend
ment to the constitution, providing for
the submission of given law to the
people, and that majority shall de-
termine whether such law shall be en-
acted or repealed, South Dagota stands
as the sole representative of popular
government, in its fullest and truest
sense, in the western world, says Fran
els H. Clarke, in Farm, Stock and
Home. 1t may now be said with truth
that the only genuine republics In
which the will of the people is law.
are Switzerland and South Dakota!
But this test of the capacity of the
people for self-government is one
which men will view with widely DIFF
ferent feelings. While the lovers OF
humanity, the men who look for prog
ress through the emancipation of the
people from ring rule, corrupt influ-
ences, grasping monopolies, trusts and
corporations, will watch the issue with
confidence and hope, others, who pre-
fer the ascendency Of the few over the
many will not only disapprove, decry
and denounce, but will exert every en-
deavor to make the new law farce.
They will not make an open assault
upon it, now that it has been adopted,
but they will cause its own powers to
be invoked to bring the law into dis
favor. This is the danger which the
people of the new democracy of South
Dakota have to meet, and not for the
sake of South Dakota alone, but of the
whole republic, must withstand and
vanquish. The vicious instruments Of
false capital will never permit the
South Dakota law to stand If its de-
struction can be effected. Therefor
the friends of direct legislation in that
state should organize thoroughly to
support the great reform which they
have inaugurated. They should or
ganize society, with permanent and
well-paid secretary, to act as bureau
of information and to collect funds to
be used to aid the operation of the law.
This is an exceedingly important sug-
gestion. 1t is comparatively easy for
men to achieve freedom, but it is not
so easy to remain free, as all expe-
rience proves
These observations are all the more
weighty when one considers what di-
rect legislation of the South Dakota
variety really means. The new law
practically abolishes the constitutional
amendments from their own midst, but
they can vote any provision out of, or
into, that document whenever and
however they please, and change its
entire purpose, form and character,
provided they preserve the Republican
form of government guaranteed by the
federal constitution.
The legislature, under this law, is
still convenient, but it is not all i'm
portant. 1t must henceforth keep the
people in mind when it enacts law.
a thing it is prone to overlook. Now
the people have the last say. They can
the work of their servants.
Woe betide the unhappy legislative
wight who sells out the trust reposed
in him by a confiding constituency.
But, who will buy him when his vote
ceases to be more than a mere form,
and is no longer final act of legis-
lation? The legislative lobby, too,
must co. 1t will have no employment
when the legislature becomes but an
wheel in the machinery
of the law. Lobbies cannot corrupt the
people, for the latter are many, and by
reason of their numbers, mainly hon
est. Let the majority but detect dis
honesty or corruption in their laws,
iHu tuey dcl S"llliy anu uore Seuerdl-
ly right than do the combined and in
terested few This law gives them the
veto power. 1t makes the popular will
The constitution of the state. Hence
forth if the people of South Dakota
arc true to themselves, and they
vigilantly guard their new freedom,
heir will is law which neither courts
nor corporations, nor trusts nor the
combined hosts of corruption can set
aside.