The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1912-02-22
esesuon OF oelegates to the mar.


nominating conventions
! ! believe In the election Of United
States senators By direct vote just
as actual experience convinced our
people that presidents should DC
elected las they now ase IN practice.
although not In theory by direct vote
OF the people instead OF BY direct vote
through an untrammeIed electoral col
lege. so actual experience has con-
Tinced US that senators should De
elected BY direct vote Of the people
Instead of Indirectly through the yar1-
/ Gus legislatures.
l believe in the initiative and the
referendum, which should be used not
70 destroy representative government.
but 70 correct 1t wheneve.' 1t becomes
misrepresentation. Here again | am
| concerned not with theories but with
actual facts. II in any state the PEG
pie are Themselves satisfied with their
present representative system, then
II Is OF course their right TO keep that
system unchanged; and 1t is nobody's
~So bUb tAezAos DAe - eASsssss>
practice 1t has been found In very
many states that legislative bodies
rnave not been responsive to the popu-
lar Will. Therefore believe that the
state should provide for the possibility.
OF direct Popular action in order to
make good such Legislative failure.
| Wisconsin Method Praised.
In recent speech Governor McGov-
eTn of Wisconsin has described the
plan which has been there adopted.
Under this plan the effort to obtain
| the law Ia first to be made through
the logsssature, the bin being pushed
as Tar as 1t will go; so that the details
or tho proposed measure may be
threshed over in actual legislative de-
bate. This gives opportunity to per-
| Eect 1t in form and invites public
scrutiny. Then, # the legislature fails
to enact it, it can be enacted by the
people on their own Initiative, taken
at least four months before election.
Moreover. where possible, the question
actually to be voted on by the people
should be made as simple as possible.
Ia short. believe that the initiative
| and referendum should be used not as
substitutes for representative govern
nent. bat as methods of making such
] government really representative.
Give the legislature an entirely free
hand; and then provide by the initia-
tive and referendum that the people
shall have power to reverse or sup
! piement the work Of the lesisla ture
should 1t ever become necessary.
| Az to tbs recall, do not believe
that there is any great necessity for
1T as regards short-term elective Of
acers. On abstract grounds / was
originally inclined to be hostile to 1t.
| i know OF one case where 1t was ac-
tuany used with miscellaneous results.
On the other hand, In three cases In
municipalities on the Pacific coast
which have come to my knowledge It
was used with excellent results.
believe 1t should be generally pro-
| !vided. but with such restrictions as
will make It available only when there
is widespread and genuine public
feeling among majority Of the
voters.
There remains the question Of the
recall Of judges. One of the abfest
jurtsts in the United States, veteran
IN service TO the people, recently wrote
me as follows on this subject:
There are two causes of the agi-
tation for the recall as applied to
| Judges. First, the administration Of
Justice has withdrawn from life and
| become artificial and technical. The
recall is not so much recall of Judges
from Office as 1t is recall Of the adj
ministTation OF justice back to life, SO
| that 1t shah become, rs It ought to
be. the most efficient OF all agencies
for making this earth better place to
| live in. Judges have set their rules
above life. Like the Pharisees of old.
1 they said, The people be accursed
| they know not the law THAT is our
| 'ruIe). Courts have repeatedly defeat
| ed the aroused moral sentiment Of a
! whole commonwealth. Take the ex-
ample Of the ST. Louis boodlers. Their
! guilt was plain, and In the main con-
fessed The whole state was aroused
and outraged. By an instinct that
goes to the very foundation Of all so
| cial order they demanded that the
guilty be punished The boodlers
were convicted, but the supreme court
of Missouri, never questioning their
gusft, set their conviction aside upon
purely technical grounds. The same
thing occurred in California. It Is to
recall the administration OF justice
back from such practices that the re
cent agitation has arisen,
Second, by the abuse Of the power
10 declare laws unconstitutional the
courts have become a lawmaking, in
stead Of a enforcing, agency.
Here again the settled will of go
ciety to correct confessed evils has
been set at naught by those who
place metaphysics above life. 1t IS
the courts, not the constitutions, that
are at fault. 1t is only by the process
which James Russell Lowell, when
answering the critics of Lincoln,
called 'pettifogging the constitution,
that constitutions which were de-
signed to protect society can thus be
made to defeat the common good.
Here again the recall is recall OF
the administration Of justice back
from academical refnements to social
service
There Is one kind of recall In
which very earnestly believe, and
the immediate adoption of which