The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-29
ST|MSON DISCUSSES {. O. P. INSURGENTS Republican Leader Is Speaker
 at Cleveland WEAKNESS OF STATES MT. SfimsOn Declares That States Must Perfect Their Governments in Or
 der to Strengthen Federal
 Government
WEAKNESS OF STATES

Cleveland, Ohio, January 2S.-The chief speaker at the annual Mckinley Day banquet of the Tippecanoe club tonight was Henry L. Stimson, defeat ed republican candidate for governor of New York. who spoke on Some Phases of the Progressive Movement in the Republican Party" Ills address, somewhat analytical in nature, dwelt on the causes that led to the demand for direct government. He discussed the phases of the progress sive movement. which have to do with state governments as they relate to the initiative, the referendum. the recall and direct election of United States senators.
 Mir Stimson declared that the true line of progress is to aim to perfect and strengthen our representative sys- tenn of government through the state executive rather than to weaken it or abandon 1t for another MT. Stimson said in part in discuss ing the progressive movement in the republican party:
 For more than a decade the repub- lican party has been in power in the nation and in most of the states Its control Is now being challenged by its
 
 believe that in this crisis its future success and usefulness depends upon its becoming more and more closely identified with this progressive move ment.
 Thoughtful, disinterested and pa- trfotic men are taking widely different views of the movement On the one side it is regarded by many as the decline and failure of our representa- tive system. On the other hand the advocates of the change see in it a progress toward a more effective safe government-a step forward by the people in the control of existing evils
 T think 1t clear that the underly- ing cause of this movement is the pres ent inefficiency of our state govern ment.
 50 long as our nation remainded young and hopeful, so long as our problems were simple we could scrape along even with happy go lucky inef- ficiency
 But this condition of national sim plicity remains no longer. Side by side with our helpless officialdom has grown up the tremendous structure of modern incorporated business. There is nothing efficient in this development.
 One result of this growth of the power and wealth of business has been a com plete change in the attitude of the pri- Nate cltlzen toward the executive. h. stead of regarding it as a possible tyrant, as Jefferson did. we now look to decisive action to protect the individual citizen against the oppression of this unofficial power of business.
 Tt is not the people who are in danger from a strong state government. It is the government itself that is in danger from private influences.
 Our governors have failed because they are weak and our system complex; be- cause powers are separated and responsi- bility diffused. Let us make the system simple and the office strong I believe | that the causes of our trouble are, in the main, three fold-first our state execu- tives are not strong enough or responsive enough to dead with modern conditions; second our local legislatures, largely ow- ing to the modern conditions have tended to become less representative of public opinion and more representative of the private interest; and, third, that the theory of separating the governor from the legislature is a tremendous block to efficiency.
 "The task of the hour is to remove old shacxles and to fashion machinery through which the purpose and will of the people never more intelligent or keen than now shall find adequate express son.'