Imperial Valley press., 1912-08-06

not be a platform of the ordinary
and insincere kind, but shall be a
contract with the people; and, if the
people accept this contract by putting
us in power, We shall hold ourselves
under honorable obligation to fulfill
every promise it contains as loyalty
as If it were actually enforceable un-
der the penalties of the law.
THE prime need today is to face the
fact that We are now in the midst of a
great economic evolution. There is
urgent necessity of applying both
common sense and the highest ethical
standard to this movement for better
economic conditions among the mass
of our people if we are to make it
one healthy evolution and not one Of
revolution. 1t is, from the standpoint
of our country. wicked as well as fool
ish longer to refuse to face the real
issues of the day Only by so facing
them can we go forward; and to dc
this we must break up the old party
organizations and obliterate the old
cleavage lines on the dead issues in
herited from fifty years ago. Oul
fight is a fundamental fight against
both of the old corrupt party ma
chimes, for both are under the domin
ion of the plumber league of the pro
fessional politicians who are con
trolled and sustained by the great
beneficiaries of privilege and reaction
Neither the Republican nor the
Democratic platform contains the
slightest promise of approaching the
great problems of today either Will
understanding or good faith; and yet
never was there greater need in this
: nation than now of understanding
and of action taken in good faith, on
the part of the men and the organiza
tions shaping our governmental
policy.
Right of People to Rule
1T seems to me, therefore, that the
time is ripe, and overripe, for a genu
inc Progressive movement, nation
wide and iustice-loving. sprung from
and responsible to the people them
selves. and sundered by a great guilt
from both the old party organiza
tions. while representing all that il
best in the hopes, beliefs and aspira-
tiers of the plain people who make
and file of both the old parties.
The first essential in the Progress
sive program is the right of the peo-
pie to rule. But few months ago
our opponents were assuring us with
insincere clamor that it was absurd
for us to talk about desiring that the
people should rule, because, as a mat
ter of fact, the people actually do
rule. Since that time the actions of
the Chicago convention, and to an
only less degree of the Baltimore con-
vention, have shown in striking fash
ion how little the people do rule I'M
der our present conditions. We
should provide by national law for
presidential primaries. We should
provide for the election of United
States senators by popular vote. We
should provide for a short ballot !:
nothing makes it harder for the peO-
pie to control their public servants
than to force them to vote for -n
many officials that they cannot really
keep track of any one of them, so
that each becomes indistinguishable
IL the crowd around him. There must
be stringent and efficient corrupt prao-
tices acts, applying TO the primaries
as well as the elections; and there
should be publicity OF campaign CON
tributions during the campaign.
Il do not mean that We shall aban-
don representative government; on
the contrary, | mean that we shall
devise methods by which our govern
ment shall become really representa-