The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-06-03
:B|GEl0M WANTS TOWN
MEETING PLAN AGAIN
Holds Old Scheme Kept Govern
ment Closer to Wants of
j People.
Initiative and Referendum Brings
People Back to Good
old Days.

Cincinnati, Ohio, June lin his pull
pit, at the Vine Street Congregational
church, the pastor, Herbert S. Bige-
low, discussed a plan for the revival
of the Old New England town meeting.
Mr.. Bigelow said in part:
Before our ancestors conquered old
England they had their home in the
forests of Germany. Each clan dwelt
in community by itself, which was
called the mark or the town. Each
town had it's folk-mote. This was an
assembly of all tke people which met
once a year or o1eeher. All laws were
proposed, discussed and passed by this
assembly. Each citizen had voice
and vote and the folk-mote was a
pure democracy.
This system Of: popular government
was transplanted h1aEngland. The En-
gliCh township euegesponded to the
mark, and each township had it's pop
ular assembly, or f5lk-mote, through
which the people governed themselves
directly.
In the course Of time, the liberties
of the English townships were en-
croached upon; but when the Pilgrim
fathers arrived In the New; Yorld.( they
re-established townShip government in
it's purity under the name of the Town
Meeting.
In New England, the township was
the political unit. The people elected
no law makers. They came together
in their town meetings and made their
own laws. Each town was a little
republic. Popular sovereignty was not
merely a theory. It was a. fact. The.
power to make laws was not delegated,
az now, to few. In New England, the
town council included all the citizens
an deach man had vote on. the laws
he was expected to obey. "
John Fiske declared the New England
town meeting to be 'the most COM
plete democracy in the world" and "the'
best political training school in exist
ence." Thomas Jefferson said it was
''the wisest invention ever devised by
the wit of man for the perfect exercise
of self-government, and for it's preser-
vation."
In the course Of time, these towns
elected delegates to AEgeneral assem-
bly,, but, unlike our present state rep
:resentatives. these delsAtes sser under
The ',lE direct eoatrol of tituents:
instructed theirs. Speaking for the:
town meeting of Boston, in 1894, Sam
uel Adams delivered an address to the
newly elected delegates to the Massa-
ch1setts legislature, informing them
that the townsmen have delegated to
you the power Of acting in their public
concerns in general as your own pru-
dence shall direct you," "always re-
serving to themselves the Constitu-
tional Right Of expressing their mind
and giving you such instruction upon
particular matters as they at any time
shall Judge proper"
Obviously, however. the town meet
ulation Increased and voters became
too numerous to be assembled in leg
islative body. Thus direct legislation
by the people gave way to the present
representative system. Now the ques-
ton is how to revive and adapt to the
changed conditions the virtues Of the
old town meeting.
Unquestionably the initiative and ref
erendum does this. The state Of Ore
gon has solved the problem. A petit
ton of five per cent of the voters is
sufficient to force popular referen-.
dunn upon any act Of the Legislature,
A petition Of eight per cent is sufff-
cient to propose new measure and It
a majority Of the people vote for it. the
measure is Inv. Thus the people Of
Oregon have the power to veto the acts
Of their representatives and. also. to
pass laws independently of their rep
resentatives. They have as much con-