The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-08

 pie over their own affairs that we must rest our ultimate hope of permanent po- litical reform. The forces of reform are too often short lived. while the evil influences they may overcome generally arise from defeat with renewed vigor
 An antidote to this indifference of the people and a safeguard almost suf- fcient in itself to overcome even the ex- istence of a venal or corrupt legislature can be found in the high sense of official obligation and the independent exercise by the great majority of American executives of the legislative functions vested in them by the constitutions of the states
 Ut seems to be assumed that under the system of the initiative only those laws would be proposed which q legislature under the control or domination of spe- cial or selfish interests would refuse to pass, and that all laws so rejected would be in the interest of the people. l cannot bring myself to the adoption of thls pleasing thought I fear that with the advent of this political millennium there would still remain, here and there, some unregenerate interests. some seeker for special privilge, whose desires, in imita- ton of the practices that prevailed in the older days, could still be concealed un- der the guise of some fair seeming bill. It would be everybody's business to act a committee to examine it, to expose it's fallacies or to warn the public against it's insidious purposes. The necessary re- suit would be that nobody would give it careful scrutiny or supervision. It would not be subject to such amendment as wis dom or experience might suggest. It must be accepted or rejected in the eX- act form and terms in which 1t is pro- posed. It would not even be read aloud once in the presence of all whose duty 1t would be to vote upon it, and it might a Ia Ix- fba rota nf dividual who had never read 1t until he cast his ballot. It is not improbable that there might be an astute or interruptions interest behind it, giving 1t secret aid and comfort; and, although with a greedy leg islature looking on from afar off, there would not be even any Adams county votes for sale; neither would there be anyone, as was the governor in former times. before his power had been over thrown by this modern political reform, charged with the duty of protecting the public against it's own indifference or checking the misguided career of pub lie opinion. There would be no magic, from the destruction or overthrow of the legislature, by which the ordinary citi- zen. to whom political duty is but an in cident, could be transformed into an alert, vlglant and well informed legs lator. To qualify a citizen to vote intel ligently upon any law involves a degree of investigation and attention to detail and quality of thought that will be voluntarily assumed only by the elector who appreciates to an extraordinary de- gree the duty which his citizenship im- poses, or an individual who has In the measure proposed personal interest not consistent with the public good.
 Too Much for One Man
 With the initiative in operation it would be the sheerest folly to suppose that the number of laws would come within the compass of the ordinary mans | serious and considerate examination, and | in the consideration of those matters which furnish opportunity for demogog ical appeals and class or racial preju- l dices, the very purpose for which gov | ernment exists would often be defeated, | and the rights of a helpless minority. no | longer protected by the safeguards now | secured by every American constitution, | would be ruthlessly sacrificed.
 'I assume that no one will controvert | the proposition that laws ought to be | made in a spirit as impersonal, with a | sense of duty as high, with a conscience as much bound by the solemnity of an oath, with a. mind as much informed by | and debate, and surrounded by | an atmosphere as much removed from bias and passion as that in which they | arc construed and enforced.
 ITO discard well established methods of | procedure by which truth Is ascertained | and justice administered In our criminal | courts and to submit the question of | the guilt or innocence of a person charged l with crime to the ballot of the electorate | would shock the public conscience. Yet | to say that men without any more re- sponsibility than is imposed by their own sense of duty, influenced possibly by l malice, prejudice or self interest, with out legal check or constitutional limita- tion, could by the mere brutal power of a numerical majority take away the most sacred rights or impose the most burdens upon a helpless mi- ncrty, would be equally as shocking to every man whose sense of justice was rot blunted by the poison of false and vicious political theories.
 If the claim that opposition to the in tiative dscoses a distrust of the people be true, then there is no constitutional limitation by which the people restrain themselves which cannot be regarded as a reproach, Not a criminal statute has ever been adopted which does not in effect affirm the possible existence of class of people who may prove unworthy of public trust, and who might by their ballots, after the commission of a crime but before conviction, fasten upon their fellow men an unjust and onerous law.
 Not Distrust of People
 Opposition 10 the initiative then is not a declaration of distrust of the peo- pie, but a recognition of that sound po- itcal truth that owing to the multidi- nous interests and varied activities that go to make up the sum of a great peo- ple's interests there must be to quail fled extent, delegations of public duties and well considered divisions of public power and public responsibility To com bat this political heresy is not to distrust the people. We would ignore the unmls- takable teachings of history if we failed to recognize that every nation which has political and orderly liberty has done so through the representative system ard that every government which has abandoned it for the despotism of mon archy or for the turbulence. tyranny or of an unlimited democracy, has fallen into decay and suffered the loss of it's animating and sustaining prin- ciple. Englands parliament has never yielded it's prerogatve nor have her peo- pie ever established a commune The appearance of the first gleam of polit- ical and civil liberty that ever frightened the darkness in which the Russian peas- ant moved, was cotemporaneous with the establishment of douma.
 Unless this political heresy is checked, the hosts of socialism, reinforined by sell fish and time serving politicians and re- cruited by all the elements of discon- tent, will soon direct their attacks against the federal government itself and grad ually sap and undermine the foundations of our free institutions.
 Ut is claimed by the advocates of the that that system is necessary because representatives in the legsa- ture cannot be elected who are possessed | of that capacity and fidelity to duty which |