The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-04-12
As Applied by Hodges to Leg
iSIative Government.
QUOTES MANY AUTHORITIES
jefferson, Hamilton, Randolph
and Others.
Republics of France and Venice
Not Good Examples.
Editor State Journal:

scholarly and patriotic paper prepared
by Senator Mcmillan and published
in the State Journal of Tuesday last
discussing the socalled Hodges plan
of government. The senator very apt
1y suggests that the plan is not new
In addition to the instances suggested
by him, many others could be men
toned where the executive and legls-
1ative powers of government were
combined in the very way proposed by
Mr.. Hodges. Such an arrangement
always has resulted in tyranny and
corruption, together with waste, inef-
ficiency and bad government general
ly. However, the more recent history
of the fad as presented in this country
shows that it is not original with
Hodges About eight years ago cult
with headquarters at New York COM
menced the propaganda 1t mas even
been urged in the name of reform ana
progress. and a large number of per-
sons have become advocates OF the
plan because they thought 1t was pro-
Eressive. The real instigators know
that it means a destruction of demo-
cratic government In 1910 it was
submitted to the people of Oregon at
the general election, and defeated by
a majority of 1885. 1t was submit
ted again in 1912, and then defeated
bv a majority of over 10000. Com
menting upon this Mr.. Haynes, in the
Political Science Quarterly for March,
1913, says: "Oregon voters are not
to be Stampeded into revolutionary
change of government" The Hodges
message contains many phrases and
expressions, and is almost word for
word. with many of the printed argu-
1nents sent out from New York and
circulated in Oregon. All who know
Governor Hodges must concede that
he has espoused this cause in Kansas
in good faith and with the best of mo-
tives; and that he has come to the
honest conclusion that an oligarchy,
or, more strictly speaking, limited
autocracy. would furnish better gov
Il e. -. i 4
cratic form. In my judgment, there
are two insurmountable objections to
his plan. First, it combines the execu-
tive and legislative powers; and, sec
ond his cabinet or commission is not
sufficiently large to be representative
of the entire people. L have observed
that men who become converts to this
plan have but little respect, and often
who had to do with the forming OF
our government. 1 am sure that this
is not true of our governor.
Opinion of Famous Authorities.
jefferson, Hamilton, Madison,
Franklin, Randolph, and in fact all
of those splendid men who gave so
much thought to the establishment of
our form of government, were unani |
nous in the opinion that a combina-
ton of legislative and executive pow
ers in the same officers was destruc-
tive of liberty and productive of bad |
government. In that part of the Fed |
MaQlSOn,
ating with Hamilton, published Feb |
ruary 1, 1888, the following language
is used:
NO political truth is certainly of
greater intrinsic value, or is stamped
with the authority of more enlightened |
patrons of liberty, than that on which |
the objection is founded. The accumu- |
lation of all powers. legislative, execu- |
tive, and Judiciary, in the same hands t
whether of one, few or many, and !
r1srfI rV- Irv-1 80 liz
elective, may justly be pronounced the |
very definition of tyranny"
In the same article the following is /
quoted with approval from Mont /
esquieu:
There can be no liberty where the
legislative and executive powers are
united in the same person or body of |
magistrates"
jefferson said:
The concentrating of these in the !
same hands, is precisely the definition |
of despotic government 1t will BE-
no alienation, that these powers will /
be exercised by plurality of hands.
and not by a single one. One hundred /
and seventy three despots would sure
~ be as oppressive one. Let those
who doubt it. turn their eyes on the
republic of Venice. AS little will it
avail US, that they are chosen by our
selves. An elective despotism was not
the government We fought for; but one
which should not only be founded on |
free principles. but in which the powers |
of government should be so divided and
balanced among several bodies of mag |
istracy, as that no one could transcend |
their legal limits, without being ef- |
fectually checked and restrained by the |
others. For this reason, that conven- |
ton which passed the ordinance of |
government, laid it's foundation on this /
basis, that the legislative executive |
and judiciary departments should be |
separate and distinct, so that no per-
son shoul- exercise the powers of |
more than one of them at the same
time.
Neither in Depths of History or Spaces
of Time.
These men had searched the history
of every government known to civili-
cation They had full appreciation
of the revolution that had taken place
in England at the accession of William
and Mary; and had. thoroughly an
sorbed and digested all of the discus
sion brought about by the pending
revolution in France That their final
judgment was correct is attested nv |
the fact that every government among
enlightened people that has been es-
tablished since their time has been
founded upon the eternal rock of the
separation of the executive, legislative
and judicial powers. A great law can
not be created by men, neither can it
be destroyed. When discovered and ap-
piled this law of "the separation of
powers" has always been blessing to
the race and when men have tired of
its good effects and have '1onged for
power in the executive, then they have
paid the penalty which always comes
to the violators of the right rule of
action.
City Commission Plan Not Argument.
The governor points to the commits
zsAs