The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-17

I
 laws under which we have grown and
 prospered and held a higher measure of | freedom than has ever come to the lot
 of any people? The statute books of the American states are filled with wise and beneficent laws, through the operation or which they have grown into great and | powerful eommonwealths. It was great l statesman, from whose lips words of idle | or extravagant praise never fell, who said:
 " The statute books of these commons wealths can be read by the patriot with out a blush. am not afraid to compare them with the 200 parliaments through which for 800 years the freedom of Eng land has broadened down from prece- dent to precedent.
 Direct Representatives of People
 Members of the legislatures of the diff
 ferent states are the agents and direct
 representative of the people, and II 1t
 be true that as a whole they are incom-
 petent, unworthy and corrupt 1t would
 follow necessarily that the masses of the
 people from whom they spring and from
 whom they are selected were also either
 corrupt criminally indifferent to their
 interests or liberties They possess the
 same characteristics as the people from
 whom they have come, and if. after re-
 peated trials and selections, the conmun-
 II est man to represent it, I would not like to live under laws initiated or adopted
 by the sovereignty of that people.
 "It is a sound governmental principle that political power should always be accompanied with responsibility located and identified. Where responsibility can not be placed it does not exist, and an ir
 responsible power in government cannot but lead to oppression or the loss of lib- erty. That this responsibility shall not be evaded under our representative sys tenn of government the constitution Of every state requires that the legislative record shall disclose the presence or the absence of each legislator, his vote and his position on every bill. Where, in the system of the initiative would this so- bering knowledge of responsibility rest? What right would one citizen have to call another to account? Each would repre- sent only himself, and with the utter lack of responsibility on the part of the lawmakng body arbitrary and irresponsi- ble power would be enthroned and the reign of anarchy complete.
 We should not overlook the fact that under the initiative, wherever introduced, the state constitutions can be altered or amended with greater ease and facility than even an ordinary statute under the pesent representative system. No sub mission of the proposed amendment by a two-thirds vote of the legislature is re- quired. A small per cent of the voters can at any time propose the most radi- cal or far reaching constitutional changes and the fundamental law which our peo- pie have ever been taught to regard as a shield of defense against the attacks | of arbitrary and irresponsible power, which has ever been hedged around with | those difficulties of approach so essential | to stable government, would become
 As variable as the shade
 By the light quivering aspen made
 Too Much Legislation
 we all recognize the truth of NIadi- sons declaration that too much legis- ation is one of the evils of republican government, and hence every recent con- stitution has wisely adopted numerous restrictions and Limitations on legisla tive power. Yet, we Rnow that notwith- standing all these limitations, every state has been burdened with too much legis- lation, an ever increasing flood of local | and private and general law, destroying | all uniformity and harmony in the law itself, till in the multiplicity of statutes the citizen is vexed, harrassed and con fused. Yet, his wise tendency so mani l tested in all moderh constitutions to check the ever increasing volume of | laws on every conceivable subject is | now to be denounced as political blund- | CT, and pernicous legislative activity is 1 to be supplemented by laws enacted by | the direct vote of the people. If hasty, | i'll advised and ill considered legislation still remains as one of the vices of our system, notwithstanding all the checks and limitations on legisa- tive action found ill our state constitu- tions is it not the madness of folly to undertake to supplement the present leg islative activity by authorizing the mak- ing of additional laws by direct vote of the people and without any of the | secured by dellberation, inves- tigation, debate or constitutional re- strictions? We may be impatient with | our state legislature, but the remedy is not to sap or weaken their powers, | but to elevate their tone and standard, | to re-organize them along simpler lines and to make them the real organs of pub | lie opinion, checking the evil effects or | sudden and strong excitement, and pre- | cipitate measures, and giving expression l to the cool, deliberate and mature judg- | ment of the people.
 Much has been heard in late years of big business. The biggest business con- dicted in this country is that involved in the government of the various states. Is 1t not wise to apply sound business prin- | ciples in administering the affairs of these great public corporations? What | would be the fate of any of the great Irivate corporations or their directors, l elected by the stockholders, represented | an1 legislatng for them and responsible | to them, were discharged and the whole mass of stockholders. as a body, some wise. some foolish, some mere children, | many entirely ignorant of business prin- l ciples, few moved by the common good. | most animated by the desire to secure personal gain, should undertake to direct their policies? In the management of the corporation good government with the highest returns and the best results, | is the object sought to be achieved. There can be no difference in kind in .he principles applicable to each. and exper mental policies, dangerous in their ten dencies, ought to be as carefully avoided in the one as in the other.
 Only in Extreme Cases
 That doubtful political policies ought not to be pursued except in the most extreme cases, is sound rule of conduct that l would be happy to bring home to every thoughtful and patriotic Ameri- can citizen, for there Is abroad in the land a dangerous tendency which would seek to convert every governmental agen- cy into q political experimental station. Unfortunately, there is evident among our pee pie love of novelty and passion for changing customs and destroying old in- stitutions, which would exchange our proved and tried system for one. which, howe alluring to the political theorist, haa always preceded the fall of state gov ernment and the loss of political liberty. Were we without any other remedy. and our condition was as deplorable as the propagandists of this new specific for all our political ills declare, for my own part I would still hold fast to the faith of