The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1909-07-24
HOW We ARE
GOVERNED,

The following letter, addressed tc
The Bastrop Enterprise, deserves more
than passing notice:
THE reign Of J. Y. Sanders will III
all probability he pointed out by fl
ture historians of Louisiana as the c,a
of government by commission. There
are officials great and smali all over
this great democratic state whose duty
it is to look after not only the poll
teal appointments and such like, but
after every man, woman and child,
with cattle and other animals, wild
and tame, and birds, fishes, bugs and
creeping things.
with many optimistic democrats
the fond hope has been cherished that
that the masses, the rural voters, the
! Independent citizen of this fair state,
| chose their own public servants. from
governor down; that by the primary
system, the people have come into
their own and are now running things
nearing the goal Of the referendum
and recall as expounded by W. J.
Bryan. But what do we find instead
of tkis happy ideal of pure democracy?
We have the referendum, indeed, but
in reverse order. Everything must be
referred to headquarters-to the one
man power or to the commission or
two, three or Gve-appointees of the
governor. Capitalization seems ram
pant.
1.-THE tax commission, game com.
mission, school commission, road com
mission, everything except perhaps
the railroad commission, (Which is
now seldom heard from and even fails
to interest the railroads) begins with
the whip handle in the administers
tons hands and ends with the lash
among the "dear people,"
When an assessor, assisted by the
whole police jury Of a parish, sends IN
a statement to the state board of the
and value of property in
that parish. the central board claims
the referendum power and can send 1t
back with orders to raise Smith so
much and Jones so much, etc. Let an
alderman or mayor of village drop
out or resign, is the matter referred to
The sovereign voters of that town. to
select new men? Not on your life!
The autocrat who sits in the govern
er's chair calls up his chief Dictator
from that parish. an6 he may name
The appointee regardless of any peti
Ion or choice of the most concerned
md whose right ii should be to select
I successor for the office vacated.
And this stalwart henchman of the
governor needs to look after one, and
'nlv one qualification in the man he
to name, and that is. will he swear
III allegiance to j. Y. Sanders?
"Yet this is Rome and we are
Well, the people are not all
sleep and many Of them read the pa
'ers and quite number are aware
hat legislation cannot be delegated to
'oards and commissions. nor even to .
liz Highness, the Governor, so IT is I
'ossible that they will get tired of be.
nR handled like Filipinos.
1T would be beth interesting and
nlightening to take 4 list of our new
aud the salaries they draw,
nd compare it with a list of some
light or ten years ago. 1t would fur
ish a splendid illustration of how
auch it costs very democratic lot OF .
eople\ to govern their fool selves :,
early to death. Our democracy has
one to seed and needs to he gathered
nd thrased out. Our politics, like >
ur cotton, seems to be swarming with
oil weevils. =
But what you goin' to do about :
?,n G