UNITED STATES HISTORY 747 



Oregon has shown that the radicals are really bent on rehabilitating the legislature. 1 

 But the distinction between constitutional and statutory law, which is a unique feature 

 of the American system, is bound to break down. Already state constitutions have 

 lost in substance, in many states, the character of constitutional law; they have become 

 little more than bundles of statutes distinguished from other statutes only in name. 

 The distinction in method of adoption is also breaking down; under the Initiative and 

 Referendum in several states precisely the same method may be followed in amending 

 the constitution or in passing ordinary laws. Will the judges care to say, especially 

 with the Recall looming ahead, that a statute adopted directly by the people yesterday 

 must give way to some vague provisions of the so-called fundamental law adopted a 

 generation ago? 



The effect of the popular propaganda was abundantly seen in the primary campaign 

 for the presidential nomination. As delegates to the convention were to be chosen by 

 Th re- direct vote in a considerable number of states, and as a presidential pref- 

 coaventlon erence primary had been established in twelve of them, the various aspirants 

 campaign O f both parties showed a deference to public opinion quite unusual at such 

 an early stage in the campaign. To an unprecedented extent they travelled 

 about the country making speeches; enormous quantities of literature were circulated; 

 money was spent with as much profusion as in the regular election campaigns. This was 

 mainly due to the contest for control of the parties by conservatives and progressives. 

 Senator LaFollette had come forward in December, 1911, as the progressive candidate 

 against President Taf t ; but following his temporary collapse in February, the governors 

 of seven states united successfully in urging Mr. Roosevelt to accept the progres- 

 sive leadership. It was felt that he alone could have good prospect of defeating the 

 President for the nomination and of saving the party from disaster in the election. 

 By the Democrats and by the conservative Republicans he was assailed for ignoring 

 the tradition that the presidency should not be held by any man for more than two 

 terms and he was charged with ignoring a specific pledge (differently interpreted by 

 Mr. Roosevelt and his opponents), made by Mr. Roosevelt in 1904, upon being 

 elected to the presidency, that he would under no circumstances accept a renomination 

 meaning, according to his followers, that he would not accept a nomination in 1908. 

 That these attacks carried little weight with the people was evident from the fact 

 that Roosevelt secured the great majority of those delegates who were elected directly, 

 and completely outdistanced Taft in the preference vote. The latter denounced the 

 progressives as " emotionalists and neurotics," who would " hurry us into a condition 

 which would find no parallel except in the French Revolution." With Mr. Roosevelt he 

 had a bitter exchange of personalities; and some thought that his participation in the 

 campaign had impaired the dignity of the presidential office. Within the Democratic 

 party the prominent candidates were Oscar W. Underwood, leader of his party in the 

 House of Representatives; Speaker Chamo Clark, 2 a man of great popularity rather 

 than of intellectual distinction; Governor Judson Harmon 3 of Ohio; and Governor 



1 But see OREGON for the proposed (but defeated) constitutional amendment for a one- 

 chamber legislature. 



2 Champ Clark was born in Anderson county, Kentucky, March 7, 1850; studied at 

 Kentucky University, Bethany College, and Cincinnati Law School; was president of Mar- 

 shall College, West Virginia, in 1873-74; an d was admitted to the bar in 1875, practising 

 after 1880 in Bowling Green, Missouri. He was a Democratic representative in Congress 

 in 1889-91, 1893-95 an d since 1897-, being minority leader in 1907-11 and becoming speaker 

 in 1911. In 1904 he was permanent chairman of the Democratic National Convention. 



3 Harmon was born near Cincinnati on February 3, 1846, the son of a Baptist minister 

 of New England descent. He graduated at Denison University, Granville, in 1866, and at 

 the Cincinnati Law School in 1869. He was judge of the superior court of Cincinnati in 

 1878-88, attorney-general in Cleveland's cabinet from June 8, 1895, to March 5, 1897, and 

 governor of Ohio since 1909. In October 1896 he argued the first great anti-trust case, the 

 Trans-Missouri freight case (see E. B. xiv, 7i3d), and secured a reversal by the U. S. Supreme 

 Court of a decision for the railway in the lower courts. Attorney-General Moody retained 

 him as special counsel in the Santa Fe case. 



