Evening journal., 1906-11-05
Peoples Column
Initiative and Refersndum.

Initiative and Referendum.
editor The Evening Journal
A healthy public opinion always ac-
companies the intelligent use Of the
ballot. The vote is cast with a definite
meaning and with a well defined in
tention that gives TO it what we can
public opinion. 1t is sometimes impos-
s55le to collect evidence against those
Who buy the votes Of others and those
who sell their own. but they soon be-
come marked men, even II the law
which they defy does not lay its hand
upon them and brand them as culprits.
They reap their reward in the public
opinion they live under, and which has
a strange power to add to the happiness
or misery of a mans life. A man work.
ing for human liberty against an igno-
rant and degraded public opinion is
happy in spite Of it, because his pure
motives and higher knowledge lift him
into a world above those who igno-
rantly condemn him. Not so the we'll
educated but morally depraved man
who uses money TO buy votes. He is z
consciously a traitor. spreading around
him moral degradations and sopping
the very foundations Of Democratic in
stitutions. No man spends money in
this way unless he intends to misuse
the powers which an election corfers
upon a representative Of the people.
1t is because the Public Opinion in
the United States has become lowered
by the intense struggle for riches that
so much corruption OF the ballot has
been possible. It is a result Of the alb
normal advance along material and in
tellectual lines, and the neglect Of the
moral and spiritual growth which must
accompany all advance in order to hold
society together. But the change In the
tide has come at last, and the people
will now have their turn. Men who get
rich by graft and wholesale vote buy
ing VIII no longer be looked up To and
admired and made the pets OF society.
They will soon know what II is 10 feel
the universal condemnation of all good
men.
While some one gets immensely rich
in very short time, I'm nine cases out
Of ten the taxpayers are called on to
pay the bill Under the Initiative and
Referendum the taxpayers viii have a
chance to express their feelings in re-
gard to the matter, and they will speak
in such a way that they win be under
stood.
The future is full Of hope. even
though the changes needed in our laws
have hardly commenced. 1t is far bet
ter to move cautiously in making
changes i'm order that the social fabric
may adjust itself without shock, injury
or injustice. The aged are always to
H.. .f,f1 q, hn rltt
Gated, and this is done best when
every wheel is turning.
"The proudest now is but my peer
The highest not more high;
To-day Of all the weary year
king of men am T.
To-day alike are greataand small
The nameless and the known,
My palace is the peoples hall.
Theb allot-box my throne.
"Who serves to-day upon the lists
Beside the served shall stand
Alike the brown and wrinkled fist
The rloved and dainty handl
The rich is level with the poor,
Tho weak Is strong to-day,
And slfskest bTOadcloth counts no more
Than homespun frock Of gray.
To-day let pomp and vain pretense
Ny stubborn right abide;
I set a plain mans common sense
Against the pedants pride.
To-day shall simple manhood try
The strength Of gold and land;
The wide world has not wealth to buy
The power in my right hand.
"While there's a grief to seek redress
Or balance to adjust.
Where weighs our living manhood less
Than mammon's vilest dust
While there's a right to need my vote,
A wrong to sweep away,
Up! clouted knee and ragged coat,
A mans man to-dayl"
Very respectfully
william Candy Ferris.
Wilmington, November 3.