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MAY 13, 1910
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as the removal of state capitals and county
seats; the issue of state, county, and municipal
bonds; the adoption of city charters, local op
tion, municipal ownership of public utilities,
etc., etc.
"Manifestly, the truth Is, if the people are fit
to delegate power, they are fit to exercise power
primarily.
"If such a change is made In our fundamental
law as will permit the people at the ballot box
to approve or reject certain legislation, those
having private interests to serve will not infest
these chambers or obstruct the public business.
Moreover, the legislature and executive will ex
ercise more care as to the nature of the measures
passed and approved If the voters have the power
to demand that their voices be heard at the bal
lot box directly upon these measures.
"I accordingly recommend the submission of
a constitutional amendment, providing for direct
legislation, in substance and form like the Ore
gon amendment.
"The professional lobbyist has, I regret to
say, become one of the features of legislative
assemblies. Do not understand me to suggest
that the halls of legislation should be inacces
sible to either the individual or the corpora
tion. The lobbyist, however,, who is for any
thing or against anything for hire, whose mis
sion is to promote one measure or defeat an
other, who haunts the chambers of legislation
and taints this atmosphere with his corrupt de
signs, who sends for members for interviews in
the cloak room, who carries a tally sheet and
watches for roll call, who shadows the mem
bers at their homes and hotels, injecting at all
hours and at all places his poison into the public
service, is a criminal, whose approach is an in
sult, and to whom the doors of the capital should
never swing inward..,.
"The initiative and referendum would abolish
both.
"It is urged against the initiative and referen
dum that if it were adopted, only a few of the
voters, comparatively, would vote on the ques
tions submitted. I believe this would not be
true if the measures so submitted were placed
on separate ballots as already suggested.
"One admirable feature of direct legislation
is that it would often accomplish good results
without being used.,
"Before concluding this subject"! wish to
disclaim in emphatic language any reflection or
knowledge which would justify reflection upon
the assembly or any member of it. I speak for
the future a future pregnant with hope and
fear. No man can tell what the unrestrained
modifications now going on in the world of
finance, commerce, and transportation may
bring forth, what riff-raff the ebb and flow of
politics may drift into places of honor and
public trust. Against these contingencies, it
seems prudent to prepare, while we may, for a
system which will put into the possession of the
people the constitutional machinery by which
eight per cent of the voters can resurrect a good
measure which has been summarily pigeon
holed, and by which five per cent of the voters
could stop the operation of a bad law until a
sovereign people can pass upon it at the ballot
box. This, in my opinion, would be an effective
check on the killing of good bills and the pas
sage of bad ones.
"Direct legislation has been " in operation in
South Dakota several years, yet it has never
been appealed to; a fact' urged against the meas-
. ure, but, In Reality a strong argument in its
favor.
"It remains, just the same, a 'flaming sword'
,,. In the hands of the people, constantly remind
ing the unscrupulous lobby and the designing
f 'boss' that there is a reserve power which, when
1 ; the occasion demands, can and will be brought ,
-J Into requisition."
Hon. Charles N. Herreid, while governor of
,) South Dakota:
"Since the referendum has been a part of our
r , .constitution, we have had no chartermongers or
Ju railroad speculators, no wildcat schemes sub--'
nnitted to our legislatures. Formerly our time.
v,"was occupied by- speculative schemes of one
kind and another, biit since the referendum has
. been a part of our constitution, these people do
t not press their schemes on the legislature, and
hence there is no necessity for having recourse
to the referendum."
'
Governor Coo I. Crawford, of South Dakota,
republican, and now a member of the United
- States senate:
"This provision works well In South Dakota
and meets with the approval of a great majority
of our people, Including the most thoughtful
The Commoner.
and Intelligent About one-third of our popu
lation is foreign-born, but, as a rule, our foreign
voters are intelligent and law-abiding citizens
and quickly learn tho English language and
adapt themselves to tho customs of tho country.
"While wo have had tho initiative and refer
endum for a number of years, it has been In
voked on a very few occasions. Notwithstand
ing, it is a tremendous check upon legislative
wrongs."
Governor William T. Cobb, of Maine, a re
publican, in his annual message of 1907:
"The belief in tho soundness and efllcacy of
the principle of the initiative and referendum
as a means to enable tho citizens to express
more directly and promptly their opinions of
proposed legislation has become very general
in Maine, and has been recognized in the plat
forms of both political parties. Wo may safely
assume, therefore, that these declarations were
made in good faith, and I heartily approve tho
adoption of a measure that shall give them a
practical and binding effect."
From message of Lucius F. C. Garvin, gov
ernor of Rhode Island, January, 1903:
"Not only should the people of tho state bo
proffered an opportunity to make a new consti
tution, but a reasonable minority of the people
should also be given the right to propose amend
ments to the organic law. In this way only
can a constitution keep pace with the needs of
a progressive civilization. Against tho confer
ring of this power, which is in complete accord
with the American doctrine of republican gov
ernment, no possible argument can bo made ex
cept that the qualified electors are Incapable of
governing themselves.
"I therefore recommend the passage, by this
general assembly, of a joint resolution propos
ing a constitutional amendment, which shall
provide that a number of electors, not in ex
cess of 5,000, shall be empowered to propose
future specific amendments to tho constitution
and to have them submitted directly to the peo
ple for their adoption or rejection by majority
vote."
In his message the following year, 1904,
Governor Garvin said:
"For several years an amendment to the con
stitution, so drawn as to confer upon 5,000
voters the power to propose future constitutional
amendments, has been before the general as
sembly. Two years ago the passage of that
amendment was petitioned for by twenty-eight
organizations in tho state, including labor, re
form, and religious bodies, representing many
thousands of citizens. Upon these petitions no
action whatever was taken.
"Experience elsewhere proves that the power
conferred upon the electorate in the popular
initiative is eminently safe.- It has resulted in
a gradual and careful progress, and could nof
possibly lead to such revolutionary follies as
irrepealable laws, or the transfer 'of the ap
pointing power from the executive to one branch
of the legislature.
"In view of the wide demand, and in view
of its intrinsic merits, I ask you, gentlemen, to
give to this wholly non-partisan measure due
consideration, and I feel that in so doing no
good reason will be found for Its rejection. Cer
tainly no one who has faith In a government by
the people can logically object to the constitu
tional initiative."
Message of Governor George W. Donaghey,
of Arkansas, January, 1909:
."I recommend that you submit to the people
a constitutional amendment providing, for the
initiative and referendum. I regard such a step
a most just protection for a democratic constit
uency. The sovereign people should have the
right to demand any law they want through
the initiative, and annul any act by use of the
referendum; and the servants offche people-'
should never be backward in granting thenr the -privilege
to exercise this prerogative."
ALASKA'S PLEA
Hereinafter will be found a plea Issued by
the Alaska Territorial club setting forth the
claims of Alaska to territorial government. The
democratic party declared for a territorial gov
ernment in its last platform and there is no
doubt that the democrats of the nation believe
that Alaska is entitled to territorial government.
The president, however, and those who are in
his confidence, seem to oppose it, and Alaska
may have to remain a dependency without a
voico In hor own affairs until tho democratic
party is returned to power:
"It Is always with a glow of prldo that an
American gazes upon tho 'stars and stripes.'
To this citizon tho flag is emblematical of a
government by and for tho people; to him It
signifies a guarantco of those rights and of that
liberty for which horoes fought and died in tho
dawn of our country's history, and to maintain
which thousands of men would willingly yield
their lives today. Against tho denial to them
of these fundamental American rights tho Alas
kans protest, regarding it as contrary to tho
spirit of our freo institutions.
"In tho early days, attracted by tho luro of
gold, many adventurous spirits ponotrated into
tho vast and, to them, practically unknown ter
ritory of Alaska. Since then, many other nat
ural resources havo been discovered, and va
rious industries sprung into existence. Tho
isolated miner's cabin is now replaced by towns
and villages, tho blazed trail by wagon roads
and railways. From every staljO in tho union,
tho wives, children, kin, and friends of tho
first settlors, havo come to join them, and
helped establish tho prosperous communities
now dotting every part of tho territory. Not
mere nomads, these, whoso only desire is to get
the -land of her treasures and then to leave
forever, but a permanent population, often fol
lowing the same vocations pursued In the homo
state, and living a life similar to that of tho
average American.
"They have made their homes In Alaska, aro
carrying on tho great work of civilization, bear
ing cheerfully tho discomforts that aro tho lot
of all pioneers; rendering fertile tho hitherto
unproductive soil; discovering and exploiting
the hidden wealth that will prove a blessing
to this and to tho coming generations; doing
their duty as men and women of a progressive
nation. Reared amidst freo institutions, taught
from childhood the value of their rights and
privileges as American citizens, they are de
prived of, and lose many of those rights when
they set foot on Alaskan soil.
"The greater n.umber of Alaskans are ad
verse to the appointment (as President Taft
recommends) of a council to govern tho terri
tory, and look upon the proposed election of a
minority of that council by tho residents of
Alaska, as a mere expression of the people's
wishes, conferring no power whatsoever to give
these wishes effect. No matter how well inten
tloned strangers may bo, they can not possibly
know tho needs and requirements of a country
as do its citizens; tho very idea of a legislature,
except through proper elective representation,
is abhorrent to our natural Instincts, and seems
contrary to tho tenets of our American creed.
"Alaska has a permanent population of over
sixty-five thousand white people; a population
greater than that of Oregon, Washington, or
Dakota, at tho time of their being granted terri
torial government, and greater than that of
Wyoming when admitted to statehood. This
population Is not composed of Indians and fel
ons, but of white Americans, who have done
nothing to Incur the forfeiture of their rights
as citizens. They do not want dictators ap
pointed to rule over them; they do want a local,
representative form of government. They
know, understand and lovo Alaska; Alaska with
her splendin scenery, her magnificent distances,
her towering snow-capped mountains, her ma
jestic rivers, her fertile fields, her great Indus
tries of fish, fur, and timber; Alaska with her
Immense wealth in gold, copper, iron and coal
mineral wealth beyond the dreams of the most
imaginative; Alaska with her loyal and God
fearing and patriotic American citizens; with
her churches and schools, her towns and villages;
her great harbors, her Innumerable lakes and
countless cascades.
"In the name of all these and more, In tho
name of justice and tho glory of our institutions,
Alaska demands the right of home rule, of local
self government, and the rights of the ter
ritories. "ALASKA TERRITORIAL CLUB,
' "By Charles G. Garrty, Secretary.
"I. D. FLYNN, President.
"Valdez, Alaska."
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