Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1912-03-21

ry and which we have long persuaded
ourselves that we possessed in fact,
but with the actual state of affairs,
with legislative processes which are
carried on in secret, responding to the
impulse of subsidized machines and
carried through by men whose unhap-
! piness it is to realize that they are not
their own masters, but puppets in a
game.
Legislatures Must Represent People.
sIf we felt that we had genuine rep
resentatiye government in our state
legislatures no one would propose the
initiative or referendum in America.
They are being proposed now as a
means of bringing our representatives
back to the consciousness that what
they are bound in duty and in mere
policy to do is to represent the soyer-
eign people whom they profess to serve
and not the private interests which
sreep into their counsels by way of
machine orders and committee confer
ences. The most ardent and successful
advocates of the initiative and referen-
dunn regard them as a SOLDERING means
of obtaining genuine representative ac-
ton on the part of legislative bodies.
They do not mean to set anything
aside. They mean to restore and rein
vigorate rather.
1.-THE recall is means of administra-
tive control. If properly regulated and
IL 10, ssr 70
administrative officials what the initia-
tive and referendum restore to legisla.
tors-namely, a sense of direct respon-
sibility to the people who chose them.
1.-THE recall of judges is another mat
ter. Judges are not lawmakers They
are not administrators. Their duty is
not to determine what the law shall
be, but to determine what the law is.
Their independence, their sense of dig
nifty and of freedom. is of the first
consequence to the stability of the
state. TO apply to them the principle
of the recall is to set up the idea that
determinations of what the law is must
respond to popular impulse and to pop
ular judgment 1t is sufficient that
the people should have the power to
change the law when they will. 1t is
not necessary that they should direct
~ influence by threat OF recall those
who merely interpret the law already
established The importance and de-
STABILITY of the recall as a means of
administrative control ought not to be
obscured by drawing it into this other
and very different field
1.-The second power we fear is the
control of our life through the vast
privileges of corporations which use
the wealth of masses of men to sus-
tain their enterprise. 1t is in cOnnec-
ton with this danger that it is neces-
sary to do some of our clearest and
frankest thinking. 1t is fundamental
mistake to speak of the privileges of
these great corporations as if they fell
within the class of private right and
of private property. Those who adj
minister the affairs of great joint stock
companies are really administering the
property of communities, the property
of the whole mass and miscellany of
men who have bought the stock or the
bonds that sustain the enterprise. The
stocks and the bonds are constantly
changing hands. There is no fixed
partnership Moreover, managers of
such corporations are the trustees OF
moneys which they themselves never
accumulated, but which have been
drawn together out of private savings
here. there and everywhere
Captains of Industry Are Trustees.
what is necessary in order to recti-
fly the whole mass of business of this
kind is that those who control it should
entirely change their point of view.
They are trustees. not masters. of pri-
vate property, not only because their
power is derived from a multitude of
men, but also because in its invest
ments it affects a multitude of men.
1t determines the development or de-
cay Of communities. 1t is the means
of lifting or depressing the life of the
whole country. They must regard
themselves as representatives of a pub
lie power There can be no reasona-
BILE jealousy of public regulation in
such matters, because the opportuni-
ties of all men are affected. Their
property is everywhere touched, their
savings are everywhere absorbed, their
employment is everywhere determined
by these great agencies. What we
need, therefore, is to come to a com
mon view which will not bring antag-
. onisms, but accommodations. The
programs of parties must now be pro-
grams of enlightenment and readjust-
ment. not revolutionary, but restora-
tive. The processes of change are
largely processes of thought, but IN
happily they cannot be effected with.
out becoming political processes also,
and that is the deep responsibility of
public men. What we need. therefore.
in our politics is an instant alignment
of all men free and willing to think