Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-04-30
INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM

an likes his new toy-new to him.
He is preaching to the Nutmegs the
gospel of the initiative and referen.
dunn. His language is characteristic
cally ardent:
Initiative and referendum are Qs?)
in line with popular government The
man who attacks the theory of it is
guilty Of treason
Mr.. Bryan has done with government
under the constitution, done with the
constitution as it stands. The whole
theory and practice of the federal
government will have to be changed
radically if his program is to prevail.
He regards the representative as "a
necessary evil" He wants immediate
direct popular government. How gov
eminent by petition and town is to ap-
ply to the whole United States he
doesn't explain. What works we'll in
Toad Hill may be a little unsuited
for the affairs of eighty millions. But
Mr.. Bryan will attend to that with
this abracadabra these words Of
power, with this elixir of life and phil
osopher's stone and grand secret. We
don't doubt that he is as wise as he
eyer was. We merely mention that
this imported Swiss notion of his
can't be used so far as federal matters
are concerned until the constitution
has been made thoroughly popYlistic.
For Mr.. Bryan is still middle-of-
the-road populist; and IT, he is any
kind of democrat he is a social demo
crat. In 1900, the national platform
of the social democrats anticipated
Mr.. Bryan not only in the demand"
for the public ownership of railroads,
telegraphs and telephones, but in the
demand" for the adoption Of the ini-
tiative and referendum. BY 1908, per-
haps Mr.. Bryan, with his genius for
assimilation, will be bowling with the
social democrats for "the cooperative
commonwealth.
Seven years ago next month the
middle-of-the-road populists who met
at Cincinnati and nominated Wharton
Barker for president and Ignatius
Donnelly for vice president. These
middle-of-the-roader demanded the
initiative and referendum. They howl
ed for the election of president, vice
president, federal judges and United
States senators by direct vote of the
people. Mr.. Bryan is with" these
irreconcilables as to the election Of
federal judges and senators. Presum-
ably his views of direct popular gov
eminent will make him favor the d.
rect election of president and vice
president
In 1904 the socialists who rallied
around our venerated friend Debs
cried for popular government, in
Guiding initiative and referendum, pro-
portional representation AID the re-
call of public officers" In the same
year was heard the voice of the popu-
lists, who nominated Tom Watson and
Tom Tibbles:
As a means of replacing all public
questions directly under the control
of the people we demand that legal
provision be made under which the
people may exercise the initiative ana
referendum and proportional repre-.
sentation and direct vote for all pub.
lie officers, with the right of recall
Our excellent friends the Drys, poll.
teal philosophers of the eclesrfc
school, enrich their platforms with
this boon. 1t will be seen that Mr..
Bryan is in picturesque, if not demo
cratic, company
Ten or fifteen years ago some west
ern poet, unknown. but bard with
bowels, paid this tribute to what was
then an obscure patent medicine
for the salvation Of the country:
Our evils it will end UNI
Our troubles it will mend UNI,
Our rishts it will defend 'um;
Initiative and referendum"
Who would have thought in those
days of it's derision that Mr. Bryan
would snatch this principal from
the hands of social democrats and his
fellow populists and try to make it.
next to government ownership of rail-
roadside cornerstone of the creed
which he seeks to impose upon the
democracy?