United labor bulletin., 1910-10-06
DIRECT LEGISLATION; WHAT II
STANDS FOR.
Continued from page 1.)

81
plan the people would be voting all
the time and ON all manner of questions.
In fact, the referendum. where adopted,
is seldom resorted to- Legislators are
careful when they know the people can
reverse their doings; and, very much
more important lobbyists are not in
clfned to use. their peculiar powers of
persuasion on members of legislative
bodies when they know there are watch
full citizens intent upon the defeat of
their nefarious schemes. and with full
power to defeat them if the people so
will.
Legislators are usually elected for two
years, and the people, who are the prin-l
cipals, have no control of their agents
save by criminal or impeachment pro-
ceedings-and constitutional guarantees,
which are subject to court interpreta-
ton. Would any rational business man
give to an agent or agents complete con-
| trol-equal to an irrevocable power of
attorney-of his establishment for two
years? If he continued this practice,
with no power save to change his attor-
ney every two years, how long would his
establishment continue to be his prop
erty?
The referendum will not cure legisla-
tive rascality, but in even greater degree
will operate as preventive. Would a
railroad corporation bribe a legislative
body to enact injurious monopoly laws
if it knew the people would in all prob
ability rescind such act within a few
weeks or months? 1t would not pay.
The corporation would merely lose the
money spent to secure legislative privi-
leges.
Legislative Obstruction.
With the initiative and referendum the
will of the people cannot be thwarted
by indirect methods In the Legislature,
"pigeonholing" and obscure amendments
frequently divert or even reverse the eff
feet OF law as first introduced. A bill
on being presented to the legislature, is
referred to committee. Unless those
interested in its adoption are sufficiently
powerful to overcome any opposition
that may appear, the bill is never heard
of again-it is 'pigeonholed.'
If forced from the committee, and its
enemies cannot outvote its friends, il
may be placed SO far down on the list
of bills that the day of adjournment ar
rives before 1t is acted upon. Failing
to stop the bill by these methods, amend
are pTOpOStu, anu IL Oitcu nap
pens that few members are Cor pro-
fess to be- convinced the amendments
are desirable, when in fact they render
the whole bill useless.
II the bill finally gets through one
house, it must travel the same course in
the other. Failure of the two houses to
| agree often leads to a conference COM
mittee from both-with, of course, an
g.. xt..l-
| After all this the bill may still be
vetoed. Later still it must run the gaunt-
let of the courts.
| All of these indirect methods of OBJ
struction are avoided by the initiative
and referendum. A bill properly signed
and filed goes to the people without OBJ
struction. The people either adopt or
reject. All opportunity to deceive or
poison is eliminated.
Direct legislation is merely the appli-
cation TO our public affairs of those meth
DDS that experience has shown best
suited to attain the end desired. That
is self-government Do we want self
government? 1t sometimes seems prob
lematical. Capable men who oppose d.
rect legislation can explain their atu-
tude only on the ground that the people,
/ III Iuelr Judgment dFe HOl ttpiuit bA
managing their own affairs. Such men
are tories. They have no proper place
in the American scheme of government.
If 1t be held that we have in fact con-
Quoted this government far above CEN
tury without direct legislation and that
we may safely continue "in the path our
fathers trod,' we would call attention
to the fact that In nothing else are we
satisfied with the ways OF our fathers.
They used the OK cart-we don't Just
as we have improved on our fathers me-
chanical appliances, without violence to
the principles OF mechanics, SO 1t may
be possible to improve on governmental
machinery without in any way altering
the correct principles OF government
which we inherit
The principle of the first locomotive
lis identical with that Of the last. The
changes have all been in the elimination
of defective methods in detail. to the
end that the essential principle involved
might be more fully REALIZED. Why is 1t
not the part OF wisdom to eliminate like
defective details in the machinery OF our
government?
Again, when we remember that for the
first time in history self-government on
a large scale is attempted in America Is
it at all surprising that the machinery
first installed Is defective in detail?
Would it not be profoundly astonishing
If that machinery were not defective!