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be replaced by another who will prove equally unworthy. The citizen is entitled to some check, some appeal, some relief, some method of halting and correcting the evils of misrepresentation and betrayal. The initiative, referendum, and recall will insure real representative government and will prove so e¤ective as a check that it will rarely be found necessary to invoke the powers conferred against unworthy representatives in any enlightened and progressive commonwealth. When Wnally invested through constitutional amendment with this supreme power, the electorate can always enact such laws as the ever-changing industrial and political conditions require for the common good. Election of National Delegates and the Nomination of President by Direct Vote Robert M. La Follette january 7, 1911 To Wisconsin belongs the honor of enacting the Wrst primary law for the election of delegates to a national convention by direct vote of the people. The Wisconsin delegates to the Republican National Convention of 1908 were elected under the law. They stood in that convention, a little band of fearless men Wghting to the last ditch for platform pledges vital to the public interest. Their contest in the Chicago convention Wxed the attention of the country and forced the candidate nominated for the President to broaden the platform by declarations in his speech of acceptance in favor of several of the important Wisconsin propositions which the convention had impatiently rejected. The lesson is obvious. Every state in the Union should adopt a primary law for providing for the election of delegates to the National Conventions of 1912 by direct vote of the people. With such a law in each state, the delegates will be chosen by the voters instead of by the machine managers, and the national platforms of both political parties will represent the interests of the people rather than the interests of the system. Wall Street has already selected the Presidential candidates of both political parties. There is just time to defeat the Wall Street plan. The Great Issue Robert M. La Follette february 17, 1912 The great issue before the American people today is the control of their own government . In the midst of political struggle, it is not easy to see the historical relation of 320 part 16 democratizing democracy the present progressive movement. But it represents a conXict as old as the history of man—the Wght to maintain human liberty, the rights of all of the people against the encroachment of a powerful few. A tremendous power has grown up in the country in recent years. Again and again it has proven strong enough to nominate the candidates of both political parties. It rules in the organization of legislative bodies, state and national, and of the committees which frame legislation. Its inXuence is felt in cabinets and in the policies of administrations. Its inXuence is seen in the appointment of prosecuting oªcers and the selection of judges upon the bench. In business it has crippled or destroyed the competition. It has stiXed individual initiative. It has Wxed limitations in the Weld of production. It makes prices and imposes its burdens upon the consuming public at will. In Wnance its power is unlimited. In large a¤airs it gives or withholds credit, and from time to time contracts or inXates the volume of the money required for the transaction of the business of the country, regardless of everything excepting its own proWts. It has acquired large control of the public domain, monopolized the natural resources : timber, iron, coal, and oil. And this mighty power has grown up in a country where, under the Constitution and the law, the citizen is sovereign! The oªcial in every department of government, executive, legislative, and judicial, is the servant of the people. And, yet, within the lifetime of this generation this power has come between the people and these servants. At any time within the last ten or Wfteen years whenever a voice has been raised in protest, it has been silenced or discredited as an attack upon business and prosperity . Honest, unselWsh, patriotic e¤ort to awaken the public to an appreciation of the dangers threatened by this great power has been denounced as the work of the demagogue and self-seeker. Whoever has been conspicuous in any movement, municipal, state, or national, that man has been marked and proclaimed dangerous, and wherever such a leader has been thorough-going and e¤ective in his work—through a controlled press, and upon the highest...

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