The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1899-01-27
DIRECT LEGISLATION.
South Dakota Has Become Especially
Interesting to the Reformers.


Interesting to the ReformerA.
In adopting direct legislation South
Dakota has become specially interest
Ing to the genuine reformers OF this
republic. Henceforth the state and Its
people are destined to be closely
watched by the intelligence OF Amer
lea and Europe, as presenting to hu-
manity an example of the ability OF a
sovereign people to trust themselves IN
the management of their political al
fairs. 1t will be a supreme test. BY
reason Of it's adoption of that amend
ment to the constitution. providing LOT
the submission of a given Ia" 10 the
people, and that a majority snail de-
termine whether such law shall pc en-
acted or repealed, South Dagota stanos
as the sole representative OF popular
government, in it's fullest n truest
sense, in the western world, says Fran
els H. Clarke, in Farm, Stock n
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-governnent Is n
which men will view with widely dit-
ferent feelings. While the lovers OF
humanity, the men who o 1or prog
ress through the emancipation OF the
people from ring rule, corrupt lnnu-
ences, grasping monopolies, trusts n
corporations, will watch the issue with
confidence and hope, others, who pre-
fer the ~ascendency of the lew over the
many, will not only dlsapprove, decry
and %denounce, but will exert every en-
deavor to make the new law a farce.
They will not make an open assault
upon it, now that it has been adopted,
but they will cause its W 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 Tor the
SAX. of South Dakota alone, OF the
whole republic, must Withstand ana
%vanquish. The vicious instruments OF
false capital will never permit the
South Dakota law to stand IT Its de-
struction can be effected. Therefore
the friends of direct legislation In that
state should organize thoroughly to
support the great reform which they
have inaugurated. They should or
ganize a society, with a permanent and
well-paid secretary, to act as a bureaus
80 to- Po,o>o{l1~ -1l - 10l1ont fy1r1o tn
be used to aid the operation Of the law.
This is an exceedingly important sug-
g%estion. 1t is comparatively easy for
men to achieve freedom, but it Is not
so easy to remain free, as all >expe-
rience proves.
weighty when one considers what d.
rect legislation of the South Dakota
variety really means. The new law
practically abolishes the constitutional
amendments from their W 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 a law,
a thing it is prone to overlook. Now
the people have the last say. They can
supervise the work of their servants.
Woe betide the unhappy legislative
wight who sells out the trust reposed
in him by a con1ding constituency,
But, who will buy him when his vote
ceases to be more than a mere form.
and is no longer a final act of legis-
lation? The legislative lobby, too.
must go. 1t will have no employment
when the legislature becomes but an
intermediate 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.
and they act swiftly and more general
~ 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
are true to themselves, and they
vigilantly guard their new freedom,
their will is law which neither courts
nor corporations, nor trusts O the
combined hosts Of corruption can set
aside