Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1911-08-03

elections to make laws for them; cleo
tons to select judges to construe laws
and elections to determine whether
we like the way they construe them;
elections for men to execute the laws
and elections to execute the executors
II they do not execute to suit us. Mr..
President, we can not have too much
Of good thing. The composite ciu-
Gen." bearing upon his shield the in
spring device
Count that day lost whose low descend
Views at thy hands no uplift voting
done
into perpetual action. With nothing
to do but feed and clothe family OF
six or eight or ten hearty, growing
have no difficulty in snatching a few
months Of time here and there during
the year. to devote to these duties OF
progressive citizenship, and his spare
moments can be utilized in reading,
studying, digesting. and perhaps I'M
derstanding a few volumes of pro-
posed initiative and referendum legis-
lation
GOVERNOR WILSON THEN AND
NOW.
A government of the people in a ter
ritory of vast extent, of large popu-
lation, and of great and increasing
diversity of pursuits and interests, can
be administered only by a system OF
representation. 1t is almost as i'm
possible for the people en- masse I'M
der such circumstances to directly
perform the various functions of gov
eminent as it is for the human body
in It's entirety to perform the func-
tons of the heart or the brain or the
lungs. In primitive state of society
the one may be done, as In the most
primitive forms of life the other may
be done, but as society becomes COM
pick and as the forms of animal life
become complex organs to discharge
special functions are necessary.
Mr.. Woodrow Wilson, in his very
valuable book, Constitutional Gov
eminent in the United States has ex-
pressed the thought clearly and force
fully. He says:
A government must have organs; it
must have a law-making body; it can no
more make law through it's voters than it
can make law through it's newspapers.
Thus spoke the president Of Prince
ton university, in the days of his tran
quillity, before the microbe OF polit-
ical ambition invaded his system.
Mr.. Chamberlain-Mr. President
The ce-President-Does the sena-
tor from Utah yield to the senator
from Oregon?
Mr.. Sutherland do.
Mr.. Chamberlain suppose the sen
ator has noticed that Mr.. Woodrow
| Wilson has been candid enough to
say that he has changed his mind?
Mr.. sutherland had observed that
! Mr.. President.
Mr. Chamberlain-Bu the senator
seems to be standing pat
Mr. Sutherland-Tha this view does
not seem to be shared by the governor
of New Jersey is one of the peculiari
ties of human psychology which | dc
not attempt to explain. l can only say
that prefer the calm, reflective judg
ment of the college president to the
fevered hallucinations of the hopeful
presidential candidate. Those who in
dorse his later utterances, reversing
the ancient epigram, are simply ap
pealing from Philip sober to Phil1I
drunk
Those who favor the Initiative anC
referendum are in the habit of refer
ring to the Swiss experiment witt
those methods. If it should be con
ceded-as it by no means can be-
i that the initiative and referendum are
successful in Switzerland, the condi
lions in that country differ so radical
!. ly from conditions here tat it does
not follow that they would be sue
cessful in the United States.
The cantons in Switzerland are
small in area and in population. Thu
people are essentially homogeneou:
and conservative Their Legislative
needs are few and simple. None O
the legislative checks which exist I'm
der our system of government exis
there There is no executive veto, NJ
judicial power of setting aside consti
tutional law, and there is only single
legislative chamber In each of thu
cantons. But even under these condi
lions thoughtful men who have investi
gated the matter agree that NOR,
harm than good has resulted from
their employment.
1 Mr.. Wilson, already quoted, has Civ
! en- the SuDJeCJ very thorough anu Care
full investigation. Speaking Of the rel
erendum, he says:
Where it has been employed it has no
promised either progress or enlighten
ment, leading rather to doubtful expert
ments and to reactonary displays O
4 prejudice than to really useful legisla
ton.
He refers to the fact that in tn
cantons of Zurich and Berne it led t
the adjustment of wise health reguls
tons; that in federal legislation
was used only to aim blow at tn
Jews under the guise of law fol
bidding the slaughter of animals b
bleeding He says:
The vote upon most measures sui
mitted to the ballot is usually very light
there is not much popular discussion, an
the referendum by no means creates the
quick interest in affairs which it's orig
inators had hoped to see 1t excite.
has dulled the sense Of responsibilit
among legislators without in fact quick
ening the people to the exercise of an
real control in affairs.
If it has thus failed in the compars
: lively simple affairs of small Switze
\ o1 I,