The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1910-05-06

can participate, but 'tiH participate
The importance Of the elH ;.on lnua,
reach the consciousness 81 every voter
The way to bring this q out Is not hy
exhortation and prayer. but 10y giving
real Importance to the pos ti''n that Is
to be filled so as to MAZE ii naturally
conspicuous For instance. the office
Of state assemilyman in New York is
among the neglected pnSi:x,hS In ac-
tual practit-,. this is now an appeln
live position -:,prointivr by some self
established al.G irresponsible coterie OF
local politicians. Even in the of years.
when the assembIyman Is sometimes
the only place on the ballot. experience
shows that Tie people do not take con-
troll. The place cannot. of course, be
made appo;ntive by any other elective
officer. The proper alternative is to
Increase The Importance Of the office.
At present the assemblyman is a mere
one one hundred nd -fiftieth of one
half of legislature whose actions are
closely ,.irc :u.scribed by the constitu-
ton and III, ,iec, to the veto OF the gov
ernor Suppose that, following the ex-
perience OF the cities. we substitute
one chamber for the present bicameral
system and trialr he size of tie dis
tricts. Each :: embl. i,ian would then
be six times as important and, with
his increased capacity for coed or ILL,
would attract ,""i" criticism. more
popular examination. Ii the people
still fail to get excited over that Office
cut the size Of the assembly in half
again. thrusting upon twenty-five men
the responsibility Of all legislation for
a great state. And surely then, IL not
before, the Office will reach pinnacle
Of light where the whole electorate
will see it and feel concerned about it
and where it will be beyond the. grasp
Of the politicians.
The Limitations of Democracy.
And so we have two practical limita-
tons to our ideal Of an election:
First.-The number Of officials to be
elected at any one time must be limit
ed to five or less; and,
Second-The elective offices must be
limited to those that are of such i'm
portance and character that the people
will consent to exert themselves to
make the selection themselves.
In building democracy everything
else must be warped to fit these funda.
mental limitations, for these are the
limitations of the people themselves,
We cannot wait for human nature to
change; we must order our institutions
to tit human nature. There is no hope
in putting square collar on our horse
and then condemning the horse for
failure to grow a square neck. Ac-
cordingly, while 1t may seem desirable
to have state treasurer elected so as
to secure independent audit of &C.
counts, we must secure protection in
some different way If it is found In
practice that the people do not select
the state treasurer for themselves.
1t may seem desirable in city for
various reasons to have large council
elected at large, but that plan with all
its advantages must be rejected on
account Of the supreme and unalter-
able disadvantage that In practice the
real selecting under those conditions
is not done by the voters.
No matter how many reasons may
be advocated for having all county Off
Gals independently elected, those rea
sons cannot stand against the over,
whelmingly and unalterable disadyan
tage that those offices make so little
appeal to the popular Imagination that
the public in practice ignores them
and leaves the selection Of those Off
Gals to be settled without supervision
by anybody who volunteers. Deplore
such wanton carelessness If you will.
but the public is too big to be spanked
The Success Of "ths Short Ballot"
The fact that Great Britain. most of
Canada and other forlagn democracies
recognize the inert ciumSiness Of the
electorate and call for only the sim
plest popular participation is a big
enough difference to account for theil
relative success. 1t IL the acceptance
Of the same principle that explains the
success of the new notion of govern
ing American cities by small boards
or commissions" And until our pol
itics Is lsimplified In Difference to the
human limitations of the electorate IL
our states. counties and cities the
American people can never really con
troll their government.
Many a reformer will disagree with
this and cite the effective rush to arms
that has been made by the people IN
der present conditions on this or thai
happy occasion as showing the people
can control now If they want to. but
there is always the relapse. as the re-
former himself will confess On such
occasions an abnormal condition Of
public activity has been created. usual
~ through the means Of great and
costly stimulation. Being abnormal.
1t cannot persist indefinitely. and.
either through the ceasing of the stim
illus or the failure of the old stimulus
to stimulate any longer. we have the
Inevitable reversion to normal condi
lions
The need Of sitnpiiflcation in our
methods of popular control Of govern
ment. Is based on nothing less than the
necessity for getting something that
IN actual operation will prove practical
When we have by sufficient study
aid experiment along these lines ar
rived at a point where the electorate
votes only for men 1t knows. we shall
have real popular control. real democ-
racy and government that more ac-
curately responds to public opinion.