GIVE PEOPLE RIGHT TO RULE
Blaine, Gov. John J.
Give People Right to Rule Initiative, Referendum and Recall Have Been Adopted by a Number of States; Plan Works Well By GOV. JOHN J. BLAINE (In Message to Wisconsin Legislature) IN A REPUBLIC,...
...Fourteen states have adopted the initiative and referendum for the purpose of amending their constitutions, and among those states we find Ohio, California, Michigan and Massachusetts...
...I urge upon the legislature the adoption of a constitutional amendment providing for the initiative and referendum on legislation and for the same method in amending the constitution...
...All election machinery, including the ballot, constitutes the tools with which we work in building the foundation and superstructure of our state and nation...
...That sovereign power gives expression through the ballot box...
...South Dakota, Utah, Oregon, Nevada, Montana, Oklahoma, Maine, Missouri, Michigan, Arkansas, Colorado, California, Arizona, Idaho, Nebraska, Ohio, Washington, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Massachusetts, all have the initiative and referendum on legislation...
...JOHN J. BLAINE (In Message to Wisconsin Legislature) IN A REPUBLIC, democratically operated, there are two matters of the highest importance which directly affect the people most...
...Where the terms of office are very short, the law should properly guard against the use of the recall for the purpose only of harassing an official...
...I believe in those instruments necessary to bring about a consideration of governmental policies and on open discussion of public demands and popular action upon legislation that affects the lives of our people in their social, economic and industrial relations...
...The initiative and referendum is a means of popular expression on legislation...
...Therefore, if we can lay the proper foundation to support the superstructure of government, we shall make it possible to build thereon a structure which will weather every storm...
...In connection with this proposed amendment to our constitution, the recall should not be available until there has been an opportunity for the people to judge of the...
...I approve of the recall in principle...
...Twenty states have adopted the initiative and referendum for state-wide measures or have provided for the application of the principles of the initiative and referendum, and twenty-two states have adopted the referendum alone...
...I call to your attention the resolutions on these questions submitted to the people in 1914 as furnishing a basis for your action...
...The other is taxation, because the power to tax carries with it the power to destroy...
...Certainly when Massachusetts and Ohio have adopted the initiative and referendum in recent years, Wisconsin ought not to lag behind...
...There is scarcely a state in the Union which does not explicitly provide for the use of the initiative and referendum in some form...
...One of those matters is with respect to the instruments of democracy or the use of the ballot by a sovereign people...
...WHEN THE PEOPLE HAVE THOSE INSTRUMENTS NECESSARY TO PERMIT OF THE FREE USE OF THE BALLOT FOR THE PURPOSE OF RIGHTING WRONGS AND CORRECTING EVILS, GIVING THEM THE RIGHT TO EXPRESS THEIR WILL, WE NEED NEVER FEAR FOR THE SAFETY OF THIS REPUBLIC...
...In all of the states where the initiative and referendum has been adopted, except Utah and Idaho, and, perhaps, South Dakota, the constitutional amendments with respect to the initiative and referendum are self-executing...
...If the people cannot be trusted with the ballot, then our republican institutions are in danger...
...official acts of an elected officer, so that the vote, when taken under the recall, will be on the merits of the incumbent's administration rather than to enable a defeated group to force a new election on the basis of rival candidates at a time when the incumbent has had no opportunity to justify his election in the first instance...
...A republican form of government, such as we have, where the sovereignty lies with the people, is most securely protected by an awakened public conscience...
...The states of Oregon, California, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Washington, Michigan, Kansas, and Louisiana have adopted the recall, applicable at least to every elective public officer, but four of those states have excepted judges from the recall...
Vol. 13 • January 1921 • No. 1
