The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1918-05-31

An able law eulIoT TREATS VI IHe
progress made in recognizing So
ciety to meet the advance of dem
ocracy in our own land. The move
ment has been and is through evolu-
ton. not revolution, and it is graft
flying to know that almost all if
not every step forward has been
led by organized labor.
The article treats of the initia-
tive, referendum and recall as in
corporated in the laws of the sew
eral states of the American Union
and was written by Edwin S.
Potter, associate editor of Equity"
for Cease and Comment" and re-
printed in the American Fedora
zionist. The article follows:
"There can be no dissent, in view
of our governments present great
adventure in world reorganization,
from the statement that democracy
is the goal toward which our social
and political effort as nation is
directed. Conservative or liberal,
lawyer or laymen, all alike stand
committed to this ideal for which
the whole material resource of the
nation is now enlisted in war to
make the world safe for democ-
racy."
1t is when we come, however, to
the problem of putting democracy
into practice that we find a diver
gence of interests and opinions. And
under these circumstances, all
thoughtful and conscientious citizens
are more than ever concerned that
our own governmental practice should
be truly democratic. Governor Nc
Call of Massachusetts said to the
constitutional convention at Boston
last June:
Democracy will come into it's own
not when the world is made safe
for it, but when it has made itself
safe for the world. 1t can be made
safe by endowing it with the nee
essary organs. Without
appropriate organs it would be, as
it has so often been, the easy prey
of organized privilege; it would
tumble about itself and be helpless
with all it's strength as the blind
Polyphemus."
Doubtless it will come somewhat
as a shock to many of the cOnser-
vative but worthy members of the
legal profession, preoccupied as they
may have been in the problems of
their professional careers, when the
fact is here brought to their at
, tention that the old and conservative
state over which Governor Mccall
presides is pretty certain to adopt
the statewide initiative and refer
endum within the next year or two;
as such measure has been virtual
~ agreed upon by the present war;
time constitutional convention.
Possibly some busy citizens will
be equally surprised to learn that
when Massachusetts takes this i'm
nortant step she will be the twenty
third state to have supplemented
its system of representative govern
ment with one or more of these in
'struments of direct popular control
! for statewide use; namely the in
itiative or referendum as applied
to statutory or constitutional law
and the recall as applied to public
officials.
Besides this very large area of
the statewide initiative, referen-
DUN and recall, it is a fact that
one or more of these instruments
as applied to municipalities, has beer
authorized or required by general OIL
special laws or by constitutions
amendments in forty-four states Of
the Union. The four states which
have so far no recognition of these
instruments in any shape or form
are Vermont, Delaware, Rhode Is
land and Indiana.
Of these four safes, three were
among the original thirteen ane
have very old Constitutions, and on,
(lndiana) was admitted to the I'm
ion in 1916. 1ndiana's first Con
stitution had no provision for sep
arate amendments, and it's man