The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-03-15

hOhioo itSNSo III Dun IASSOi3
Hawk-Eye: The concise, clear and
convincing exposure by Mr.. Poor and
Mr. Blake of the uselessness and false
pretense of the initiative and refer
endum and of the dangerous nature OF
the recall may he probably read BY
every man who is willing to reflect
upon his duty as citizen.
So susceptivs is the human imagi-
nation that anyone of us, whenever
betrayed into reading the advertise
ment of a patent medicine, no matter
how comfortable his bodily condition,
when he begins, is quite likely to
find one or more of the symptoms
which in the advertisement prove that
grave and possibly fatal disorders are
lurking in his system.
Aware of this common weakness
certain political medicine men, adver-
tising their own special exclusive and
tiisinterested zeal for the public
health, proffer remedies for political
1 distresses whose existence the patient
| has SO far not noticed or suspected.
| Just now it is the abridgment of our
liberties; popular sovereignty is tot
tering to its fall. Government is with
drawn from the people. Only by the
| initiative, referendum and recall can
the people recover their political self
control.
/ Now let us moderate our transports
and consider There is not law
! lacking on our statute books which
/ majority of the people have thought
needful to the public welfare. There is
no law standing on our statute books
which majority of the people have
/ thought hurtful to the public welfare.
BY this | do not mean that our
statutes are perfect or universally sat
isfactory; / think they are capable OF
great improvement, many might be re-
tpealed. many might we'll be amended
4 But do mean that whenever the mass
of the people have felt the enactment
iof their collective will into written
law, that writing has been made by
the representative legislature, and
added to the code. On the other hand,
any obnoxious law, or law which
changed conditions of business have
made obnoxious, which has sufficiently
excited the interest OF the mass OF
the people to lead them to examine it
and to condemn it has been presently
. stricken from the written law by
THE representative legislature The
will of the people has had it way and
must have its way under our repre-
sentative government.
To deny this is to assume that we
; are not qualified for representative
government or competent to maintain
i, it; that we cannot agree as to what
rules of civil conduct we shall live I'M
.. der; that we have among us no men
: sufficiently intelligent 10 learn oul
! will or sufficiently trustworthy to
/. execute it in the enactment or repeal
Q of law, or that if We have such intel
il llgent and trustworthy men among us
e we are not careful enough or sagac
ious enough to select them as our
0 representative. And this in truth Is
a the assumption Of these healers. We
are not fit for representative govern
, ment, but are fit for direct self-gov
eminent. We cannot trust our law
making to legislature, but only to q
!, mass meeting.
= OF course, there are kinks in the
). line OF argument for their schemes
and some embarrassment in their con
crete application: for example, the
4 people of Des Moines county are moi
). capable to select from among them
selves some well known person to rep
v resent them in the legislature in ths
! election of a United States senator
: Int they are entirely capable by direc
!, ,ote to select from among stranger.
: that United States senator; as il theil
! ability 10 choose the right man fol
!. hat high place We're in exact proper
- ton to their want Of knowledge of hi:
;, calibre or character.
i. The people might submit themselve,
h. TO the agitations and tumults sure t
q. follow the adoption by them of thu
l.