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The Commoner,,
VOLUME 9, NUMBER 2
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The Commoner.
ISSUED WEEKLY.
OREGON'S SENATORIAL CONTEST
WlM'TAM J. UnVAN CI1AIU.KB W. UllYAN
Kdltor nml Proprietor. rublisher.
IliciiAiii) I Mktcai.pk Kditorlnl ItoomB nnd Business
Aweclnto Killtor. Offlco S24-5JO South 12th Street
Kntcicil nt tho I'ostafllco nt Lincoln, Neb., nn Rccond-dnw nmltor
. 5
.'ito Yenr 91.00 Tlireo Mont hit -
tlx JMoiitlu SO Slnjflo Copy . . -
)i Chilw ol Five or more. Sample Coplm Free.
TcrYcur 71 ForelRii FostnBC 63 Ccpts Extra.
HUIISCKH'TIOIVS can bo acnt direct to The Com
moner. Thoy can alno bo nont through nowspapoiii
which havo advertised a clubbing rate, or through
local agents, whoro nub-agents havo bcon appoint
ed. All romlttancoB should bo sent by poBtoinco
monoy order, express order, or by bank dra.lt on
Now York or Chicago. Do not send individual
chcckH, stamps or monoy,
DISCONTINUANCES -It Is found that a large
majority of our subscribers prefer not to nava
their subscriptions Interrupted and their Hies
brokcnvln caso thoy fall to remit beforo oxplratlon.
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unless subscribers ordor discontinuance, either
when subscribing or at any time during tho year.
Presentation Copies: Many persons subscribo for
friends, Intending that tho paper shall stop at tho
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timo.
IM3NIBWALS Tho dato on your wrapper shows
tho tlmo to which your subscription Is paid. Thus
January 81, 08, means that payment has boon re
ceived to and including tho last lsnuo of January,
1900. Two weeks aro roquirod aftor monoy has
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address.
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tion. Address all communications to
THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Nob.
ifhat Turkish parliament seems. .to stand about
iittaj?bow with tho sultan an tho cnnRtlhitinn
as mucTTB!Jliu. vjln, bo88 in this country,
does with tmjj.
,.-... .t .. . 7 &Jkitie first hunting
, .auuui, uiu umu oi receipt QyfSKg-fi. -to nbj-
bullotln from South Africa the AnTtnfcw rU'llu
will bo ready to Initiate a now member.
Thq troops sent from Cuba to Fort Snolling,
Minn., havo a perfect right to object to the cool
recoption accorded them by their countrymen.
Tho speaker of tho Nebraska legislature is a
democrat named Pool, and tho republicans are
trying to framo up schomes for troubling tho
waters.
It cost tho secret service department $150,000
to Investigate tho Brownsville affair, yet after
all what was learned does not satisfy Senator
Foraker.
A Now York poetess mislaid $18,000 worth
of jewels and had to enlist tho aid of tho police
to recover them. Mind you, it was a poetess,
not a poet.
EARTHQUAKE FUND
Contributions to tho earthquake fund are as
follows: Gilbert Bros., York, Neb., $5; J. A.
Boudlo, Independence, Mo., $1; W. P. Ownly,
Whitowright, Tex., ?1; Daniel Mooney, Glad
brook, la., $1; E. J. Horton, Owatonna, Minn.,
J2; W. V. Jennings, Farmersburg, Ind., $1; M.
B. Wilson, Giltnor, Nob., $1; Victor Levy, Okla-
5?maTCLlt:Cir0kla 2; Jacob KinS. Logan, Kan.,
$5; Jeff Weather wax, Shellsburg, la., $1; Mr
and Mrs. S. Baringer, Beattlo, Kan., $1; J. a!
Smith, Canon City, Colo., $1; Samuel Miller,
bliay, O., $1; Jeremiah & Quincy Morris, Hljrh
Snd P"J1; W S' Burton, Seaford, Del., SI;
Mrs. A. W. Homelor, Harcourt, la'., $10: S. It.
Knsl?,Enld' 0kla" B Downs, Floyd, la.,
$1; William O'Keefe, Plym8uth, Ind., SI; E W
Ferguson, Long Pino, Nob., $1.19; J. C. Jack.
son, Howard, Kan., $5; A. G. Harshbarger, An
dorson, W. Va $2; August Pease, Canon City,
Colo., $1; Elizabeth Sheets, Alcony, 0 S2
Jork City, $5; Mrs. James Gaynor, Grand
Rapids, wis $5; John Grabst, Blue Creek!
Wash., $1; Mr. McDougal, Blue Creek, Wash
$l; A D Kerr, Clayville, Va., $5; I. a Stod
dard, Jacksonville, Mo., $1; J. w. Tolle, Ever-
bviU, uuiu,, sii oj. j. narsn, fonca Gitv Olrln
&3i,Wil2tt? Euge1' Sr" friend? Neb.$T'
William Roberts. Tallnhnsson T?in r. nV
iSr Sh?Talt?8' Sarfentville, Me., 65 cents; I.' P
., - , ..,..,,, ,,, tw., VA. j.uuu, oij.a-i.
The senatorial election in Oregon illustrates
tho difficulty often confronting the effort to haYO
the will of tho majority reflected by the ma
jority's representatives. Writing for Senator
LaFolletto's new paper United States Senator
Jonathan Bourno, Jr., gives an instructive de
scription of tho Oregon situation and the pe
culiar law which brought it about. Senator
Bourno describes the Oregon law in this way:
"In an amendment to the state constitution v
tho people of Oregon recently supplemented their
representative system of government in its legis
lative branch by taking back to themselves in
their electoral capacity the power to initiate
and enact laws by their direct votes, and by the
same method repeal or veto laws enacted by
their legislatures.
"It is called the initiative and referendum, or
direct legislation, amendment.
"Under this system the people of Oregon have
succeeded In doing for themselves some thinga
in a legislative way that they could, never have
hoped to get done for them by their legislature,
and the most Important of these things was the
enactment of a primary election law doing away
with conventions.
"This law provides for the popular nomination,
of all candidates for office, including that of
United States senators, by a regular election,
under tho Australian ballot system within those
parties that in tho preceding general election
cast twenty-five per cent of tho state's vote.
"Our primary election law provides that an
elector seeking office may get his name on the
party's ballot by petition, in which, among other
things, ho agrees to "accept the nomination and
will not withdraw," and if elected "will qualify
as such officer;" Implying, of course, that he
"will also serve.
. ""15$Sr the law' he legislative candidate may,
In; addition to stating on his petition, in not to
exceed a hundred words what measures and prin
ciples he advocates, also subscribe i' ?
BtatementsiJMjJiw S lo one of two
w 'T7rK"?""JLi he does not so subscribe he
snail not on that account be debarred from the
ballot."
Tho first Is designated in the law aa State
ment No. 1, and is as follows:
"I further state to the people of Oregon, as
well as to the people of my legislative district,
that during my term of office I will always vote
for that candidate for United States senator in
congress who has received the highest number
of the people's votes for that position at the
general election next preceding the election of
a senator in congress, without regard to my
individual preference."
It will be perceived that it is the people's
choice and not a party's choice that the legisla
tor is pledged to, in which respect our law recog
nizes the people the electorate and not a party
as the source of sovereign power In the state.
Statement No. 2 is as follows:
"During my term of office I shall consider
the. vote of the people for United States senator
In congress as nothing more than .a recommenda
tion, which I shall be at liberty to wholly dis
regard if the reason for doing so seems to me
to bo sufficient."
Pointing out that the latter statement
breathes the spirit of the political boss instead
of the public servant, Senator Bourne says:
The petitioner may omit making any state
ment If he so desires, and let his constituents
guess as to what course he may take in the
senatorial contest.
In Oregon, as in some other states, for years
public sentiment has been a crystallised one in
favor of tho popular election of United States
senators.
Recognizing this popular conviction the aver
ago legislative candidate in Oregon is now in
clined to take the Statement No. 1 pledge
But it was found on the very first trial nf
our law that the political boss was out of a job
and particularly injured because his influence
and value were entirely eliminated wheri Trty
?!. ,r V? 0f liie nInoty members composing
J081??!0?,14 be pledgGd nderPState
Sta"es senator? PeDlG'S ChiCQ to United
It is often 'the case that the people are
lethargic, trustful and slow to awakS to the
iS6 12?? fi tmJy' And so on Second
n?i Vh0 l$S th0 0resoir electorate slept
?ni1tI1,.m0ropJ?.wlcan party boss had veil niih
rehabilitated his machine. At the last hour pre
coding the April primaries of 1908 some patri
otic republicans hurried into the field in some
of the legislative districts, Statement No. 1 re
publican tickets, which being generally elected,
together with some Statement No 1 democrats
put up against the boss and anti-Statement No.
1 republicans, and the hold over Statement No. 1'
state senators, gfves a majority of seven on joint
ballot in favor of our law which contemplates, the
formal ratification or perfunctory election oZ
the people's choice for United States senator. -
The net results of the Oregon, primary election
of April last and of the general election on the
first Monday of June following, was the defeat
of Senator Fulton for renominatlon in the pri
mary election by his republican competitor, (in
my opinion because of his supposed opposition,
to Statement No. 1) Hon. H. M. Cake, vho was,
an avowed Statement No. 1 advocate; the defeat
of Mr. Cake in the general election jm June by
Governor George E. Chamberlain, the demo
cratic candidate, who was also a Statement No. 1
advocate and who received' the support of a
large number of the republican opponents of
our primary law; and the election of a large
republican majority in the legislature, thirty
seven of whom are pledged to elect the people's
choice for United States senator, and fourteen
democrats so also pledged, making a majority
of seven on joint ballot
This situation is the result of political perfidy
on the part of the so-called republicans amount
ing to probably 10,000 who being bitterly op
posed to the primary law, voted in the general"
election for Governor Chamberlain, the demo
cratic nominee, rather than for Mr. Cake, thS
republican nominee, believing if Chamberlain re-;
ceived the popular vote for senatorship'that the
legislature, which would unquestionably be re
publican, would fail to elect him, th'tlHii'th'eyl
hoped to make the primary law and Statement
No. 1 odious and sought to create whaT ffl
thought would be an impossibleoritfftionAs
ey.ner lAu't number 6f State-
m,ej15r"rlSgislative subscribers would' "be ..
elected -..to constitute, d 'majority of "the ..
legislature. . ' y - . . . . :-.ii
'This situation places the ' greatest possible
Btrain upon the law; so great, indeed Wat' '.its
vitality is to be tested in the struggle Vetween
fealty to party and fealty to the basic principle'
of the American government.. In conclusion it
remains to point out that this principle is a
fundamental and that fundamentals are usually
established along the lines of greatest resistance.
Hence it is that a legislature which is over
whelmingly of one political faith, and recog
nizes itself to be but the agent of the sovereign,
power of the state, will formally and perfuiic-,
torily elect to the United States senate a man. of .
an opposite political faith in obedience to the
sovereign will of the state, as that.-will has been
largely ascertained, thus redeeming. the -charac-s
ter of Oregon legislators and establishing under,
greatest stress the principle of true self gow
eminent.
The people's selection of Governor Chambers. '
lain for their s senator will inevitably be ratified
by the Oregon legislature, and thus Oregon will
present a demonstration that our electorate have'
evolved a plan which in effect permits the people
to select their own senatoro nnH nafoitii
public opinion forces the legislature to elect the
individual thus selected by the people. ''
While a number of other states have primary
laws, none have the Statement No. 1 provision
wblclj, in my opinion, is the essence of our. pri
mary law as far a the selection by the people -of
their United States senators and their en
forced election of same by the legislators.
All of those fifty-one' members in the OregonC
legislature who subscribed to Statement No '
pledge did so voluntarily. It was so subscribed
to by them from a personal belief in the desir
ability, pf the popular election of United States
senators and for the purpose of securing for
themselves- from the electorate preferment in
the election to the office sought; the considera
tion, in exchange for sush preferment was-to'
be by them, as the legally constituted repre
sentative of the electorate in that behalf; tha
perfunctory confirmation of the people's selec
tion for United States senator, ' as that choic
might be ascertained under the provisions of th
same law by which tho legislators themselves
secured nomination to office. ,,
No 'oath could be more sacred in honor; no',
contract more binding; ho mutual consideration;
more definite than Is contained In the Statement
No. 1 pledge; and no parties to a contract could!
be of more consequence to government and o-
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