•The Co THE MACMILLAN COMPANY MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. THE PEOPLE OR THE INITIATIVE, THE REFERENDUM AND DEMOCRACY BY DELOS F. WILCOX, PH.D. THE AMERICAN CITY," MUNICIPAL FRANCHISES" 66 GREAT CITIES IN AMERICA," ETC. New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1912 All rights reserved E WO. PREFACE An irrepressible conflict of political ideas is going on in the United States to-day. The Republicans cannot compose their differences. Neither can the Democrats theirs. The split between plutocratic Democrats and democratic Democrats and between standpat Republicans and progressive Republicans yawns deeper and more unbridgeable than the ancient fissure between mere Democrats and mere Republicans. The earth has been quaking of late and new cracks are appearing on its surface. A realignment of political parties is presently inevitable. The quarrel is about the nature of government. Is it a private industry, or a public enterprise? All agree that government is of the people. Indeed, most of the disputants assert that it is for the people, but a subtle difference in the uses of the word "for" is perceptible. Some use "for" in the sense in which a skillful advertiser of merchandise announces that he is in business to "please" his customers, to work for them. Others tsc "for" in the sense that government is, in good faith, designed primarily for the benefit of all the people, made to order and sold at cost. But in regard to the central member of Lincoln's triad, government by the people, there is a great crunching of mighty words. Of course, all parties agree with Lincoln, but they are unable to agree among themselves as to his meaning or as to the attitude he would assume toward the divisive issues of to-day if he were alive among us. What is government by the people? The author of this book lays no claim to impartiality in the great national conflict now going on. The argument will have to speak for itself. It is based upon the conception that government is a public coöperation, not a private industry; that it is not an institution where a few turn out goods which certain people want and others do not. All men produce government; all men consume it. There may be too many lawyers, too many doctors, too many priests, but not too many voters, for voters do not live off the services they perform for other people. There may be an overproduction of apples or of shoes, but under a democracy there can be no overproduction of government; for when the people have produced all they want, they stop. The people do not stand in front of government and receive and criticize its services as shoppers examine and criticize goods that are handed to them over the counter. Rather, they stand behind it and use it as a tool fashioned by their own hands. Their criticisms, if they make any, are directed at themselves and stimulate them to new creative efforts. Government represents not only the want, but the will of every man. Such is democracy. In the revised edition of his work on "The Referendum in America," Mr. Oberholtzer says that his book "has often been quoted as favorable to a system of direct government in America." He expresses a wish to correct any misappreས hension which may have existed on this point hitherto," and adds that he has probably made anself clear" in the supplementary chapters which appear in the new edition. He certainly has. Referring to "the people," he says: "What they would do on one day they will often repent of the next, for which reason a government of checks and balances, of reversal and veto was devised, recommended and adopted. It was not intended that the process should be simple. Instead virtue was found in its very complexity." And again, he says, speaking of the effect of the Initiative, the Referendum, and the Recall upon the character of public officials: "Only timid, shambling, ineffective men can come out of a system which strips public office of character and authority |