The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1915-05-27
The Referendum As 1t Worked Out In
switzerland.

SWitZefldnO.
To the Editor of The Republican.
In this final article with regard to the
Referendum, concluding the series you
have so kindly published, l desire to re-
fer briefly to some opinions which have
been expressed at various times with
regard to its workings. l take few
words from a summary relative to its
workings in Switzerland:
Fifty years ago Switzerland was
more under the heels of class govern
ment than we are today political
turmoil, rioting, civil war, monopoly,
aristocracy and oppression-that was
the history of large portion of the
Swiss, until within few decades. To-
day the country is the freest and most
peaceful in the world. What has
wrought the change? Simply union and
the referendum for justice"
In the Outlook of August &c, 1911,
President Wilson, then Governor, said:
For fifteen years, taught my classes
that the Initiative and Referendum
would not work. | can prove it now;
but the trouble is they do. The i'm
mediate thing we have got to do is to
resume popular government. We are
cleaning house and in order to clean
house the one thing we need is a good
broom. The Initiative and Referendum
are good brooms.
President Roosevelt said in a recent
speech:
Il believe in the Initiative and
Referendum which should be used not
to destroy representative government
but to correct it when ever it becomes
misrepresentation"
Governor Shafroth, of Colorado, a
state possessing a good Initiative and
Referendum system, said:
The Initiative and Referendum places
the government nearer to the people.
That has always been the aim of the
trainers of all republican forms of
government.
In a recent article entitled 1.-The
Oregon System at Work, by a member
of the Portland, Oregon, bar, contrast
between our present method of electing
officers, with the Referendum method
of considering measures, is well placed
in the following words:
What a man really represents is
known only to him and his maker, and
his future conduct in detail under new
and untried conditions is past finding
out. The educative effect of the dis
cussion of matter of public interest,
generally participated in, with audience
for everybody who has anything to say
and with everybody who cares to think
about it having a voice in the result,
followed by second decision, simply
cannot be exaggerated. -
He adds that the composite voter
whose mind and purpose are portrayed
by these votes, appears to be ''desirous
of improvement of his institution; open
to thoughtful advice but adverse to
visionary innovations.
have recited these few authorities
which might be infinitely multiplied as
tending to prove that in operation the
Referendum has indicated the views
expressed in my prior letters.
NY hope is not simply that direct
popular government shall be applied
to state affairs, and that the people of
MARYLAND shall so vote so far as the
Referendum is concerned this fall, but
that we may so develop the idea that
war and danger of war shall be checked
and restrained by the necessity of ref
erence to vote of the entire people, be-
fore we enter upon hostilities. This de-
velopment of popular government may
be far in the future, but it is develop
ment which we conscientiously and de-
terminedly should labor to obtain.
l thank you for the courtesy you
have extended to one who feels deep
interest as citizen of Maryland in the
progressive extension and development
of true popular government.
JACKSON H. RALSToN.
Hyattsyille.