The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-06-23
Work Before US IN North Car.
DINA
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law making ample provision for rural
cooperative societies.
s. Progressive health, temperance
and public morals legislation. includ-
ing a law to make cohabitation Of the
races a crime.
The Initiative and Referendum-Let
the People Decide.
I have purposely reserved for tho
last the discussion of the initiative
and referendum-I mean giving he
people a chance to say whether they
want these measures or not. That is
all that is asked for. and I leave it
with the reader to decide as to whethA
| er any legislator should arrogate the
| right to say that the people shalt
not pass upon these matters. AS to
| whether there is a demand for a vote,
it is answer enough to say that h
State Farmers Union representing 49,.
900 white farmers has asked that the
people be given the privilege Of vot-
ing upon this matter, and it is beg
ging the question to say they are not
in earnest.
AS has been we'll said, eff the peo-
pie want these measures, they ought
to have them, and if they don want
them, there's no harm done"
When a Legislature submits one
dmenOnont on SO SIIldlt d i1dttcT DIS
hat of changing the day of inaugu-
rating the governor, and another
changing the phraseology Of two sens
| fences in the Constitution, it at least
cannot be pretended that the initiative
and referendum matter is too unim-
portant for public consideration.
The writer must confess that until
recently he has thought there was but
little need for direct legislation in
North Carolina, but a closer investi-
cation of it's workings in other States
and a little better knowledge of the
this State has convinced him that our
people need and should have this
method of compelling action when
they fail to get it by other methods.
North Carolina was $3.50 per cent
rural in 1910, yet in the recent con-
vention of the dominant political par
ty not a single farmer got o n the
Platform committeeman a single man
whose chief business is tilling the soil.
And in committees Of all parties, it is
) frequently abou as it is with Texas
State Executive committee-S3 law
yers to one farmer! No wonder the
farmers and plain people Wan the
> government brought a little nearer
! them; and haven't they a right to de-
> mand it, if we are to claim that we
have a real democracy?
I do not believe the initiative and
TclcTcUUU11, IL dOOpteU WOuIO Dc muCH
= used in North Carolina-we have had
: them two years in Raleigh, for exam
| pie, and they have never yet been
!, invoked-but the fact that the people
y = had these powers would doubtless
: quicken the legislators willingness to
; serve as surely as serviceable branches
! Of hickory have been known to
u quicken responsiveness to parental
u authority. AS President Wilson says
: of these measures:
1.-THE very possibilities which they
imply, are half,-indeed, much more
: than half,-the battle. They rarely
: need to be actually exercised. Tn
: fact that the people may initiate keep:
- the members Of the Legislature awak,
to the necessity Of initiating them
> selves; the act that the people hav,
the right to demand the submission
: u Of a legislative measure to populai
$ vote renders the members of the Leg
u islature wary Of bills that would no
pass the people,"
! Does Mr.. Morrison believe for ex
ample, that If we had had the initia
tive and referendum in North Caro-
. lima he would nave to make the hu
initiating confession that though tn
- party has been committed to the ide
Of a Statewide legalized primar
IS since 1900. we haven't got it yet?
CLARENCE POE.
10 Raleigh, N. c..