The forum. [volume] (Springfield, Ill.) 1904-192?, 1911-08-10
bud: the jackpot-bribery with money
is the full-bloom flower


patronage and spoils, must go. We
must not temporize. We must not
palliate
mo permanent good is to be ac-
complished by merely moving down
] the weeds of corruption. There will
soon be another crop. We must tear
every foul root from the soil.
I'VE say, The spoils system must
CO. And the men responsible for it.,
the men who defend or excuse it, the
men who have been afraid to fight it,
must step aside.
The Republican party in Illinois
faces a crisis today, and that crisis
has been brought about by the inter-
necine strife for spells. Self-seeking
leaders quarreling over patronage
have shattered the party into fac
lions. The chiefs of these factions
have developed irreconcilable feuds.
IL TWO of these factions unite, as In
the past, to nominate a ticket, a
third faction knifes the ticket at the
polls and the Democrats win.
These bosses as result of their
lifelong efforts have merely builded
tower of Babel, with patronage for
bricks and pelf for mortar. AS in
days of old, their tongues have been
confused and their labors have come
to naught. If the people are wise
they will brush aside all of these
quarreling minorities and create a
new majority in no manner based on
spoils or jobs or money contributed
by or wrung from the special inter
ests. There is room in popular
movement for the clean lieutenants of
all these factions. To attempt to
rally around any one of these boss
ridden factions is to court defeat at
the final election.
But these political jolly Rovers
are ingenious and resourceful. The
people must be on their guard They
must not be deceived by appearances,
by names and legends and catch
phrases.
'One group of these reactionaries
is trying to mislead the people into
the support of it's discredited faction
by Haunting a flag bearing the rev.
erend name of Lincoln. The desperate
straits of this discredited minority
are proven by their frantic efforts to
spread the banner of Lincoln across
their soiled and despatched uniforms.
The people. apprehend, will make
short shrift of this sham.
Nor must the people be deceived
by those who, pretending to be pro-
gressive, are at heart reactionary.
'Progressivism is not cloak to be
put on or taken off as the political
weather may seem to change. 1t Is
a matter of the heart and the head.
1t is a matter of faith and conviction
faith in the wisdom and justice OF
the American acknowledgements
that the essential powers of govern
ment should be restored to the people
at the ballot box.
1--WE should have little patience with
those opportunists who would adopt
q platform vague and elastic. to be
stretched this way and that, to catch
votes and hold fast to the spoils
"Nor should we have patience with
those who pretend to distrust the peo-
ple-who argue that 1t is dangerous to
place power in the hands of the peo-
pie. This is the peoples government.
The people own this nation
"The very essence of representa-
tive government is that the people
should exercise at the ballot box those
powers which experience has shown
to be necessary in order to maintain
the government pure and indebted.
And the American people have en-
larged or contracted the powers which
they have exercised at the ballot box
as changing conditions have shown to
be necessary.
when the delegates to nominating
conventions became misrepresenta-
tive, the people, by means of the d.
rect primary, took back into their own
hands at the ballot box the subject Of
party nominations.
ITO argue that the primary Is sub
versive of representative government
Is nonsense. 1t is progressive meas
ure essential to the maintenance Of
pure representative government.
Originally the people in the several
bldttS gave " bhCii icSinidtui Cd eao
exclusive right of enaoting laws. Long
ago In Illinois the people began to
take back into their own hands GER
tain of the powers Of legislation
"The referendum has long been an
institution in Illinois.
Our constitutional conventions can
merely make recommendation as to
constitutional provisions. They must
be submitted to vote of the people
by referendum. The power of consti-
tutional amendment formerly vested
by the states In their legislatures has
been taken back into the hands of the
people
Constitutional amendments sug-
gested by the legislature cannot go
into effect for many years-until the
! people by referendum have approved
them. The issuance of bonds, with
few exceptions. is impossible in nli-
nois except after referendum and an
approving vote of the people. There
are many laws which are optional In
counties or cities and which do not