Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1900-07-06

LIE
lose control Of their actions. They
cannot direct it. Society today,
the speaker asserted, is very much
like the man and very much like
the pigeon whose brains have been
injured. Itcannot coordinate u
direct itsspowers. Gladstone said
that more wealth had been pro-
duced in the first fifty years Of the
present century than during the
Christian era, and the speaker
added that more had been pro-
duced during the past 20 years
than during the previous 1850
years. But how gathered? Into
whose, hands had it conferred?
The people are now called
sovereign, but the. soyereigns some
timesastarye. IN New York and
other large. cities in the eastpeople
have been known to die of actual
hunger. In the boundless west
they sometimes suffer mental
starvation, Why is this? Be-
cause. MI. Pomeroy affirmed,
society does not exercise the power
of co-ordination. It does not
properly direct it's energies and and
the great problem is how to SO
guide and direct'as to avoid this
physical and mental starvation.
The speakers idea was that the
remedy is to be found in direct
legislation. It would prevent the
robbing Of the people by railway
corporations which increase the
freights and by trusts like the
Standard Oil company which take
Of the peoples substance at will.
Direct Legislation was explained
to be in operation in rural New
England where small communities
get together two yor three times a
year and vote on all the laws. It
works we'll, In the large
cities the petition is emp
Logged and is highly useless,
but under the initiative and refer
endum it would be different. The
petition would count Them.
The referendum, Mr.. Pomeroy
explained, is the negative or OPP
position side Of direct legislation.
Theinitiativei is the affirmative side,
and the two are calculated to make
the people supreme in government.
Under direct legislation legisla-
tors would,not be abolished, the
speaker said, but they would be
raised to a higher plane BY being
deprived Of irresponsible power.
Now we concentrate corruption by
delegating irresponsible power to
individual hands. This makes
bribery easy. It is not a difficult
thing to buy a legislator who is in
the market for a thousand dollars,
but it would be quite another
matter to buy a thousand men,
even though they were willing to
sell themselves for a dollar each.
We have NO right, it was urged, to
put men to the test Of the tempta.
ton to which they are exposed in
city councils, legislatures and con-
gress under the present system.
In Switzerland, where direct legis-
|lation has been in force, Mr..
Pomeroy said there had not been
a case Of Legislative bribery in 25
years. There they re-elect. the
same men year after year, but
here it is expected that two years
in the Legislature will spoil a man
and it does.
The speaker then referred to the
great number Of laws passed in
this country and to the foolish.
ness Of some Of them, citing, as
illustrative examples, certain silly
enactments that have been placed
on the statute books Of Missouri
Nebraska, Kentucky and New
York. The latter state had de.
creed that not less than IS soystert
/ shon]d ha nntsin An oyster stew