The daily sentinel., 1912-02-21
THEODORE ROOSEVELT TELLS
PEOPLE WHERE HE STANDS

tContinued from Page l.
foolish If he should attempt to arm
our troops with the flintlocks of
Washington continentals instead OF
with modern weapons OF precision.
Flintlock legislation, OF the kind that
seeks to prohibit all combinations,
good or bad. is bound to fail, and the
effort insofar as it accomplishes
anything at all, merely means that
some of the worst combinations are
not checked and that honest bust
ness is checked.
What is needed is, first, the rec
oEnition that modern business condi-
tions have come to stay. insofar at
least as these conditions mean that
business must be zone in larger un-
its. and then the cool-headed and res
olute determination to introduce an
effective method of regulating big
corporations so as to help legitimate
business as an incident to thorough
ly and completely safeguard the in
terests of the people as whole.
so much for the ends of govern
ment and | have, of course, merely
sketched in outline what the ends
should be. Now for the machinery
by which these ends are to be achiev-
ed; and here again remember | only
sketch in outline and don't for a
moment pretend to work out in de-
tail the methods of achieving your
purposes.
I'm the first place believe in the
short ballot. You cannot get good
service from the public servant II
you cannot see him, and there is nc
more effective way OF hiding him
than by mixing him up with null
titude of others SO that they are none
of them important enough to catch
the eye OF the average, workada )
citizen. The crook in public life Is
not ordinarily the man whom the
people themselves elect directly to a
highly important and responsible po-
sition. The professional politician
and the professional lobbyist thrive
most, rankly under system which
provides a multitude of elective offic-
ers, Of such divided responsibility ANA
of such obscurity that the pubic
knows. and can know, but little as
to their duties and the way they per-
form them,
THE people have nothing whatev-
er to fear from giving any public SER
want power so long as they retain
their own power to hold him accoun-
table for his use of the power they
have delegated to him. You will
get best service where you elect only
q few men, and where each man has
his definite duties and responsible
tiles. and is Obliged to work in the
open, so that the people know who
he is and what he is doing, and have
the information that will enable
them to hold him to account for his
stewardship.
Il believe in providing for direct
nominations by the people including
therein direct preferential primaries
for the election of delegates to the
national nominating conventions.
believe in the election of United
States senators by direct vote. / be-
lieve in the initiative and referen-
dun which should be used not to de-
stroy representative government, but
10 correct 1t whenever it becomes
misrepresentation.
81 believe that the initiative and
referendum should be used, not as
substitutes for representative govern
ment, but as methods OF making such
government really representative
Action by the initiative or referendum
ought not to be the normal way of
legislation; but the power to take
1t should be provided in the consti-
tuition, SO that II the representatives
fail truly to represent the people on
some matter of sufficient Importance
TO arouse popular interest then the
people shall have in their hands the
facilities to make good the failure.
And | urge you not to try to put