The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1914-05-13

the seasons come and go, the sap will
flow upward and blossom into LEAKAGE
again. We may gather the broken
branches and fallen trunks, if we will,
and pile them upon the common hearth
stone around whose genial fire we may
| gather to concert our future welfare.
| In sober and considered council our diff
ferences may be composed. In many
an instance we shall find that our imag-
ination has transformed shadows into
substances, that our fears have created
obstacles that will disappear when APP
preached and touched, and that passion
has ruled our Judgment when reason
should have controlled it.
There is no greater cause of division
than mutual Misunderstanding. Our
| faith is often shaken or destroyed by
a misconception. A little enlightenment
or explanation will reduce a mountain
to mole hill, over which we may pass
with ease. A Methodist bishop in the
| Northwest tells of conversation he
once had with Wyoming man touching
certain difficulties of the latter's relig-
ious tenets. Bishop said the naive
westerner, do not refuse to believe
the story of the ark; / can accept the
ark's great size, its odd shape and the
vast number of animals it contained:
i but when | am asked to believe that the
children of Israel carried this unwieldy
thing for forty years in the wilderness,
| must confess that my faith breaks
down. The westerner's confusion of
the ark of Noah that outrode the food
that drowned a world with the ark OF
the covenant that contained the testi-
mony of God illustrates what often
takes place in human affairs.
During the late campaign we often
heard of the initiative and referendum.
These were tenets of the ew'national-
ism. They were heralded as doctrines
that would enable the people to dethrone
the boss, to govern themselves and to
transfer their will readily, almost auto
matically, to the statute books.--'a
contamination devoutly to be wished
On the other hand they were denounced
as destructive of our republican form of
government and as promotive of mob
rule.
"But what are the initiative and refer
endum so Zealously supported and so
bitterly assailedg Briefly the initiative,
as it now exists, is the power by which
a proposed law to the vote of the people.
The referendum is the power by which
a stated number of voters may compel
the submission of a law to the people
for their acceptance or rejection. II
would be easy to show that these powers
are old and have been frequently exer-
cised for the establishment of gov
eminent, if not for their operation. In
do
to-day we are not then dealing with
new principles but with forms of their
application to which we are little ac.
employ both the initiative and referen-
dunn in making our laws and changing
our constitution.
The proposition is a limited one. II
is not proposed to abolish our legislative
assemblies but to reserve to the people
concurrent right in making laws and
changing constitutions by means of a |
petition and the ballot That this can
be done within certain limits is true but |
it is equally true that it cannot be done !
when certain limits are passed. 1t is |
practicable to bridge stream but inn |
practicable to bridge an ocean. If the |
matter to be done affects but few people, |
all the people affected may be brought |
together to decide whether it shall be |
done or not. But if the matter concerns /
many people scattered over the terri I,
tory of an ordinary state, you cannot |
resort to an assembly of all the people |
at a certain place for the purpose of |
ascertsining their will. Much less can
you do it if your territory extends to
distant ATTITUDES, spans a continent and /
contains a hundred millions of people.