Direct Legislation

One of the probable reforms of the 20th century, which is at present formlng for the aTgtnnentative stage through wbich all great questions must necessarily pass before they advanee to the politica! arena, is thit of "Direct Legislation." Direct legislation comprises the referendum and the initiative. Tbe referendum is defined as a demand by a stated percentage of the voters that a particular bilí or proposed law before a legislative body shall be taken out of the hands of the leglslators and settle by a vote of the people, which demand must be respected by the le;jis lature. This, it will be readily seen would place any measnre in which the requisito number of voters were 'n terested upon the sanae footing as a proposed amendtnent to the oonstitu tion is at present, and would give to laws ttius passed ly the people all o the foree of constitutional law, founder our constitution all iower no delegated by the people rests in the people. There conld be no reto o ruodification of a law so pa&sed fo the exeeutive, legislative and jtidlda branches of the statA canaot uodo the act of the sovereign authority by which they are created and from whitfh they receive ttieir respective grants of power. The initiative is the complement of Wie referendnni. Byits use f lie saine percentage of voters can frame a law and direct the legislature to exib-.nit the same to a popular vote. Mr. David Inglis, in the Mict.igaa Law Journal, thus tersely sums up the whole subject: "Direct legi-ilation ! a modification of representative government by wihich the people do not delégate absolute power to either of the thr.ie co-ordinate branohes of governmen bul reserve to themselves the rigiht to use the powera which are inherent in the people trot which we now delégate entlrely. It proposes that the people stall take back powers which exptience has shown to have been nnwisaly given away. It does not propose to do away wiíh representative government, but to assert the constant coatrol of the people 'over their agents.' As before stated this proposed reform is only in a formative state. When the details 'have been elabo rated and the system pnt in practi;e it will undoubtedly reuaedy :nany'"f the evils and dissipate the dangei's which surround representa tive legislation. The crying evil of state legislation is that it is not eren representative in oharacter. Legislatures ave usually elected u{xn the lines of national politics. State issues cut but a suiall figure 1n the slection of the legislator. As a result, the proceedings of the legi slature upon a question of grave importanee and general public moment, to say nothing of the great mass of private grab-bag legislation which cumbers the workiug hours of every legislative body, are not in any sense representativo of the will cf the majority of the people for there has been no direct test by whic.'i the legislator can determine the will of his constituents. Petitions and "cornmittees of representative citizens" rarely aocurately reflect the popular will, and it is safe to assume that. had the people of Michigan, at the time of t'he adoption of the present constïtution in 1851, reserved to the nseives the powers of legislation and veto whioh direct legislation proposes to regain for them, the great mass of ill-considered legislation, during t'he lialf-eentury which has sínce elapsed, and which has been both repressiv? and oppressive of the people, wonl-l never have been enaeted. We are not governec! wisely but too ruuch. Experience has demonstrated wilh respect to the present constitu tion of Michigan tihat the people have not only delegated too mtich power to the several branches of govwnnnMU bat they have also failsd to properly and suffieientjy pro-tect the rights and the personal liberties of the ininority. There should be under a wise and benefleent govennneut, under a emment cakJulated to promoto tlio best intereses of all of the governed, a reservation, of personal rights and privileges wfttabi neitner legislatura, eourts or a majority of the peopK' ean ïl.i'ojïate. But, unfortunately, our mms of last resort have s co;istrued constituiioiH wnich purport tg secure civil and political liberty and freedom f ccnscience that those instltattons have at times seenied but a ïollow mockery of what promisrd to b'c a fair substanee. And our frlends who are agitatlng this questinn of direct legislatura should, in casting their propaganda, if they would serve the ihigheSt purpose of govermuent, hold those personal and domestie con-' ïcras, whieh are best regrulated by the i.fl vidual hiniself. (nvlolate, elso the ■ule of the majority cmder ihe new irder of tbin.srs may becorne as arbiïnry and gralüng as the nrlo of the inost absolute despotism upon earth. Nor should lt be made too easy for She people to make use of the inltiatlve or of the referendum. At best oi-ly que3tions of first importan; could be handled in this marnier. In the great mass of business attendant npon the administratlve affairs of po populotw a state as Michigan, the people directly could take but llitle part Nor is it desirable Chat they should. Only in those maters whiei) itvolve orgairic ohanges and farreac'hing policies is it desirable or even feasible that the people should, as a w-hole, take part And those are the matters v:hich requ're the mrat careful doliberation and cautious dtermination. To that end the percentage of Toters necessary to 'ouipel action, and the vote which in any way changes the existing order, sliooild bo more than a mere majoritj- it should be suffldently Iarge to det?rmine that the great bulk of the people are behind the movemiiit. The propoeition made at the last sesslon of the Michigan legislatore, that all votes not cast against a proposed constitution8.1 amendmem should be counted for such amendtment was n most dangerotis one. Had it been suc ces8ful t would be posoible to bind and gag the people wihile thy sleep. The scope of the reforms involved in direct legisl-itien is wide atid var!ed The temptation to brlbery and eorrup tion would be removed. Tlie grant ing of fraachises wwiid rest with the people. The ever-increasinK danger of governmen-t by injunction would be cheeked. The scope of local seif governtnent would be enlarged. All o wh'i?h are in fche line of true progrese in social science. These chauges tovolv radica changes in the state constitution. And ttiere are few tliinkers who have the real interesas of the people at fceart who will dispute the proposition thj a constitution framed a half centurj ago couid be so ohanged as to better meet the requirements of the presen day. The "holiday edition of the Chelsea ■Standard was a very creditable nu n ter. It provetl beyond question bhat Editor Hoover is a live man in & live town. The most surprislng cireumstnnce ccmnectocl witb the decease of the silver question is the trouble whieh the gold trust experienees in biirying the coïpse. When tho would-be Hon. John O. Zabel and John MeBride emfeark in the gorerninir business it will toe neoessary to replace turnstiles with eattlo chutes. Until James O'Donnell secures Billy Judson's "O. K." on his guibernatorial boom we shall persist in viewing it as one of Julius Caesar Btjttows ' strategetic" moves. The state dairy and food comnissioner has an unlimited field in wiiich to constitute himself au unmltlgatea nuisance without aceomplisliing any ntaterial good for the neople. Tt may seecn like a waste of good material to make a $1,500 postmaster out of a $5,000 congTessman, trat tlrat is iust what the people of the Fourtih district hare done with their exstatesman, the Hon. Alfred Milnes. Fenhaps if Senator Campfoell would start a few of those oíd familiar hym-ns with which he and Bill Thompson ased to while awiy the tinie in Laoslng last winter, It wauld aborten Mie hours while the latter Is waitlng for that collectorship. If the conscienceless prevancator of tihe Adrián Press does not soon becunu! more considérate of the feellng oí Aun Arbor's culturcd codtisb tocracy there will be au elegant oppoïtunlty for a Kloml.vkc amiístice between the Pi-ess and this purveyor oí ii'ws, sentiment, flctaon, etc. After readftng the manifestó of Cari Sohurz's civil service reform ]■ he aumeroua candidates for the Aim ri;or postoflice wül proceed to revise fheir literary accomplishments. The icw postmaster will not be expecied o write spring poetry, part iiis hair n the middle or swear in more than htee languages at one and the same me. Judge Morse, of Ionia, says that ho does not need to come Tjack to the Democratie party for the reason that 10 'has not as yet experienced the ains af parturitloo. The judge says h -ontributed to he eampaign fund ind advi8eij liis frimis to vote Por Bryan and ixv propöièa to i'iirít ;n c'oing si) although he does not class himself as a 16 to 1 man.