CHAPTER VII. 



THE FARMER AND THE REFERENDUM. 



DIRECT legislation by the people was the ordinary 

 method of government in the ancient republics. Rep- 

 resentative government is a comparatively modern 

 invention, made necessary, in nations desiring to maintain a 

 free government, by the increasing territorial areas of states, 

 and consequent impossibility of assembling the entire body of 

 voters. Direct legislation in local affairs, however, has always 

 been a feature of local government in New England, where 

 "town meetings" regulate many of the details of local govern- 

 ment. Traces of direct legislation in local affairs continue to 

 exist in many places among the Germanic races. 



At the present time there is a strong feeling among a large 

 class in this country, in favor of direct legislation, not only to 

 a much larger extent in local affairs, but in regard to many 

 matters of state and even national legislation. The movement 

 is based on the allegation that the people are better able to 

 judge what they wish than to select men who will perform 

 their will. Of those elected to legislative positions it is found 

 that a certain number will betray their trust, frequently in 

 sufficient number to defeat the will of the majority. The 

 remedy, of course, is direct legislation on such subjects as the 

 people desire to retain fully in their own control. It is 

 claimed that the general intelligence of the people, and the 

 facilities for the rapid diffusion of information, are now such 

 that people can act intelligently and wisely on many subjects, 

 which formerly their own interests would compel them to 

 intrust to the decision of representatives who would be able 

 to act in the light of information which would never reach 

 the people. 



The obstacle to the progress of the movement for direct 

 legislation has been the fact that it has been most loudly 



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