The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-03-29

lionaires than any other nation on
earth-and Switzerland has the ref
erendum.
! We are often reminded that our
psuedo representative government is
only misrepresentation, and that our
representatives succumb to the insid-
uous influences and Vaccinations
which railroad and other corporations
are able to throw around the legisla-
tor, and they do this with uniform
| ity that is somewhat startling. Then
came that political heresy that the
voter was to forget party lines, and
vote only for the best man. All of
which was piously done, and, presto!
the best man sold us out as regularly
as the other. Railroads are not in
politics for their health, and an ex-
pert can tell within a few hundred
dollars how much it will cost to buy
measure through.
| | sat at table in hotel in Lansing,
Mich, last November and remarked
| to a man opposite that the town
seemed rather quiet. He said Eyes,
but you ought to be here when the
| legislature is in session; there are
plenty of people here them" I said:
who are they?" 20, railroad men,
and anyone who has some. bill to get
passed. You see," he said, these
lawmakers don't get enough pay to
| even cover their expenses, and they
have to get something on the side!"
All of which was said in a perfectly
serious manner, with nothing to indi-
cate any sense of incongruity in the
situation
1t is a melancholy truth that legis-
lators have peddled out public inter-
ests so uniformly in some states that
the common voter is no longer even
mildly surprised at the wide diversity
between ante-election promises and
post-election performances.
He used to paw up the dust and bel
low, and next time vote for the other
fellow, but the interests" have so
many ways of getting strings tied to
lawmakers that few can go up
against the system and come off vic
torious.
The only way l see is for the voter
to tie on the strings himself in the
shape of the recall, and if the string
is there and well tied on, the voter
won't have to yank it very often. But
the recall is not an everlasting pana-
cea for our political ills. 1t may be a
step in the right direction, but the
same forces that have debauched leg
islation, that have stolen our public
lands, that have piled up great bloat-
ed aggregations of wealth on one
hand and left poverty, misery and
class hatred on the other, and have
made the cost of living so high that
living is of doubtful propriety, are
still here, and will, in time, if un-
checked, bring our republic to the
common fate of all republics. His
| tory records no exceptions; we are
| yet too young to write our autobiog-
| raphy Everlasting vigilance is the
price Of potatoes.
The only safe guard against practi-
cal slavery is an average intelligence
of so high an order that it's very pres
ence will secure immunity from the
snare of the destroyer. Law, accord
ing to Blackstone, is reason. In it's
application it often becomes the very
quintescence of unreason because of
| it's inflexibility. Here in Ocala, the
other day, a score of good citizens
were arrested and fined for doing on
one day what everybody had been do
| ing for years with absolute impunity.
This was not reasonable, nor was it
justice Plundering corporations can
be controlled, the prediction on
the part of society to wreak summary
mob vengeance on offenders will die
out when judges show themselves
more. anxious to secure justice be-
tween man and man than to follow
| the letter of the law, which killeth
The Banner says that the clamor
! for the referendum is demagogueism.
Well, Jesus Christ was a turbulent
fellow, and demagogue to the Phar-
isees. George Washington was DEM
agogue to the British parliament.
Martin Luther was a demagogue ac-
cording to the Pope of Rome, and if
every man who has been howled down
as a demagogue, disturber and unbe-
lever, had passively accepted his de-
feat, then humanity would be dwell
ing in caves and eating raw bear-meat
| for breakfast.