The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-02-21

under it tile people shall leave them selves free to do whatever is necessary in order to help the farmers of the state to get for themselves and their wives and children not only the bene- fits of better farming, but also those of better business methods and better conditions of life on the farm.
 Moreover, shape your constitutional action so that the people will be able through their legislative bodies or. fail ing that. by direct popular vote to pro- vide workmen's compensation acts, to regulate the hours of labor for chil- dren and for women, to provide for their safety while at work and to pre- vent overwork or work under unhy- gienic or unsafe conditions. See to it that no restrictions are placed upon legislative powers that will prevent the enactment of laws under which your people can promote the general well fare, the common good.
 So much for the ends of govern ment, and I have, of course, merely sketched in outline what the ends should be. Now for the machinery by which these ends are to be achieved, and here again remember only sketch in outline and do not for moment pretend to work out in detail the meth ods of achieving your purposes Let me at the outset urge upon you to re member that. while machinery is i'm portant, it Is easy to overestimate its importance and. moreover, that each community has the absolute right to determine for itself what that machin- cry shall be, subject only to the funda- mental law of the nation as expressed in the constitution of the United States. Massachusetts has the right to have appointive judges who serve during good behavior, subject to re- mova1. not by impeachment, but by simple ma ajority vote of the two houses of the legislature whenever the repre- sentatives of the people feel that the needs of the people require such re- moval. New York has the right to have a long term elective judiciary. Ohio has the right to have a short term elective judiciary without the recall. California, Oregon and Arizona have each and every one of them the right to have a short term elective Judiciary with the recall. Personally Of the four systems I prefer the Massachusetts one if addition be made to it as here matter indicate.
 Tn the first place, believe in the short ballot. You cannot get good Serv- ice from the public servant if you can not see him, and there is no more ef- fective way of hiding him than by mix ing him up with a multitude of others so that they are none of them impOr- tant enough to catch the eye of the average workaday citizen The crook in public life is not ordinarily the man whom the people themselves elect di- rectly to a highly important and re- sponsible position The type of boss who has made the name of politician odious rarely himself runs for high cleo tive office, and if he does and is elected the people have only themselves to blame. The professional politician and the professional lobbyist thrive most rankly under q system which provides a multitude of elective officers, of such divided responsibility and of such ob- scurity that the public knows and can know but little as to their duties and the way they perform them.
 Direct Nominations.
 believe in providing for direct nomi- nations by the people. including there in direct preferential primaries for the election of delegates to the national nominating conventions Not as a mat ter of theory, but as a matter of plain and proved experience. we find that the convention system. while 1t often re- cords the popular will, is also often used by adroit politicians as method of thwurtinR the popular will. In other words, the existing machinery for nom- nations Is cumbrous and is not de signed to secure the real expression of the popular desire.
 I believe in the election of United States senators by direct vote. Just as actual experience convinced our people that presidents should be elect ed tas they now are in practice. al Though not in theory) by direct vote of the people instead of by indirect vote through an untrammeled electoral college, so actual experience has con- vinced us that senators should be elect ed by direct vote of the people instead of indirectly through the various 1egis- latures.
 I believe in the initiative and the ref erendum, which should be used not to destroy representative government. but to correct it whenever it becomes mis- representative. Here again I am con- eerned not with theories, but with ac- tual facts. If in any state the people are themselves satisfied with their present representative system then it is, of course, their right to keep that system unchanged, and it is nobody's business but theirs But in actual practice it has been found in very many states that legislative bodies have not been responsive to the popular will; therefore I believe that the state should provide for the possibility of di- rect popular action in order to make good such legislative failure.
 Recall of Judges.
 As to the recall. do not believe that there is any great necessity for it as regards short term elective officers. On abstract grounds I was originally in- clined to be hostile to 1t. I know of one case where it was actually used with mischievous results. On the oth- CT hand, in three cases in municipali- fiaS O0 Sf which have