THE FARMER AND THE REFERENDUM. 419 



in which we must trust others. By far the greater part of the 

 commercial business of the world is necessarily transacted by 

 trusted men for others. The greater part of the political busi- 

 ness must be transacted in the same manner. On certain 

 important occasions it is, I believe, extremely desirable that 

 even national questions should be submitted to the direct 

 vote of the people. They must, however, necessarily be such 

 questions as will admit of long discussion, enabling all infor- 

 mation upon which representatives could act, to permeate the 

 entire mass of the people. The educational result of such a 

 discussion would well repa}'' its enormous cost. In matters of 

 state policy suitable occasions would arise more frequently, as 

 people are better informed as to conditions affecting their 

 own state than they can be of conditions affecting the whole 

 nation. 



It will, for a long time, however, be essential to limit the 

 number of questions to be submitted at the same time to one, 

 or at most two. Nobody who has ever noted the voting on 

 several constitutional amendments at one time, will believe 

 that tiie public has yet acquired the intellectual vigor to ade- 

 quately consider more than one question of state policy at one 

 time. There is never time to do so, in addition to earning a 

 living, during the period for which such subjects are usually 

 before the people. Neither can the mass of the people be in- 

 duced not to subordinate questions of principle to the election 

 of candidates in whom they have become interested. I have 

 seen honest fiirmers spend days in canvassing, without reward, 

 for the success of an officer having power to vote on the taxa- 

 tion of a county, who would not spend an hour in the study 

 of a constitutional amendment modifying the policy of the 

 entire state, and to be voted u[)on at the same election. 

 Obviously, then, the exercise of direct legislation should be 

 restricted to really important subjects, and submitted at elec- 

 tions when no other question is pending. AVlieu the people 

 really take bold of a subject and master it, they will decide it 

 rightly. They can not be got to do this very often because 

 they have to live, and feel that they can best afford to get on 

 with such legislation as is given them by the representatives 

 of their choice. 



