A MILLIONAIRE WITH A MISSION
A Millionaire With a Mission ALITTLE MAN with a Big Mission and a big pile of money—it is estimated at $8,000,000—with which to carry it out, went through Chicago Sunday, says the Tribune. He is...
...What do you suppose I paid for it in London...
...Representatives of the monopolistic interests have usurped the prerogatives of the people...
...Massachuetts has always been the leader at every great turning point in the policy of the nation, and she must lead to-day in restoring the government into the hands of the people...
...for government does not exist for special interests or their agents,—it exists for the people...
...All candidates for public office without exception must be chosen by the people through the direct primary...
...To duplicate it here, it would cost me $35, and I do not consider that the average wages of the common people in America are much if any higher than in Great Britain, cost of living considered...
...It belongs to the people...
...I am for single tax and low tariff...
...Why look at this suit of clothes...
...The tariff is about as insidious a crime against the prosperity of a common people as could be conceived by a fathead government, which allows itself to be controlled by 'big business.' "A box of forty matches is sold in an average grocery store in America for 1 cent...
...Just $20...
...Here is what the headline said: CONFESSED ROBBER...
...Fels said: "I am not in politics...
...We shall have something like single tax in Oregon in 1912...
...Only by this means can they be held accountable...
...Government of the people is coming to be only a name...
...On being assured that honesty was the chief aim in life of his visitor Mr...
...Establish the direct primary, choose your own public servants without reference to any machine or faction, make them accountable only to yourselves, and popular government will be established...
...Give Massachusetts Popular Government From the Progressive and Stirring Message to the Legislature By GOVERNOR EUGENE N. FOSS WE HAVE reached a crisis in the affairs of this Commonwealth...
...I urge upon you a resolve for a constitutional amendment to provide for the initiative and the referendum...
...Public servants who deem that they represent themselves and not their constituents naturally object to these measures...
...I am working to push along the economic philosophy of Henry George...
...The initiative provides that the people themeslves may prepare and pass a constitutional amendment or an important law if the Legislature persistently refuses to enact it...
...Under the conditions which exist to-day, as f see them, these are the only true safeguards of representative government...
...And that's a serious, worthy, happy occupation for a man of executive ability...
...This crisis is all the more marked in our state because Massachusetts is the birthplace of popular government...
...This usurpation of power can only be ended by the people taking into their own hands the direction and control of their government...
...This will tell you all about the Fels fund," said he, handing cut some printed literature...
...Eggs in England, 28 cents a dozen...
...If the people are competent to exercise the power of the franchise, then they are competent to advise their public servants and recall them if they are not true to their trust...
...the caucus, the nominating convention and all political machinery which intervenes between the people and their government...
...Joseph Felt, Millionaire, Tells How He Got It...
...Asked concerning his interest in politics, Mr...
...The dictatorship by political bosses and by representatives of special interests is hotly resented, for these men desire to control public servants and to direct legislation to their own ends...
...Fels is "giving in England $25,000 a year...
...There can be no valid objection to these measures if we believe in the capacity, and therefore the right, of the people to govern themselves...
...No public servant must have any other master than the people...
...Fels displayed a newspaper clipping and said, "Read that...
...He is Joseph Fels of Philadelphia, soap maker and single tax apostle...
...in Canada, $5,000," and so on—altogether $100,000 a year...
...That, gentlemen, is the ideal...
...Both these measures have great influence for good, not so much in the actual exercise of the power by the people as in the potentiality of that power...
...They were cold storage eggs, too...
...Fels was assured that the report was shocking...
...so that any public servant who proves recreant to his trust may be immediately dismissed...
...So are all millionaires...
...And he is offering to give $25,-000 (or more) a year for five years (or mors) in the United States on condition that Americans who see the "land cat" will match him dollar for dollar...
...One of the pamphlets said Mr...
...and yet a measure which is contrary to the will of the majority has no justification...
...I have heard you intend to dispose of your fortune in benefiting humanity," was suggested...
...Now, what are the conditions to-day...
...The referendum provides that an important legislative measure shall be submitted to the people upon their request before it becomes a law...
...She must tolerate no public servant who arrogates to himself the prerogatives of government or who turns his back to the people at the beck of special interests...
...Pels as he looked up at his visitor...
...For the Direct Primary and the Recall THE first step is to abolish the boss and all his agencies...
...That is my purpose in traveling to the Pacific coast now...
...She must banish every power and every influence which is hostile to the rule of the people...
...Swollen fortunes for the few and prohibitive prices for the many are the direct result of special privileges...
...in Denmark, $5,000...
...If you're an honest reporter I'm glad to meet you," said Mr...
...Read that carefully...
...The money is to go into a fund which will be spent in finance movements which seem to be making most directly toward the cures of poverty...
...Favors Initiative and Referendum IMPORTANT as these steps are, it is of far greater importance that the people keep their power over legislation through the initiative and the referendum...
...Cost of living...
...The people, in all sections of the country, have lost confidence in many of their public servants...
...Six boxes of forty matches in a box are sold on the streets of London for a penny...
...It is a crisis which our form of government is facing to-day not only in Massachusetts but in every state of the Union...
...But it's true," he said...
...The day I landed in New York eggs were 45 cents a dozen there...
...I haven't so much fault with the way Rockefeller and Carnegie are giving away their money as I have with the system that permitted them to get it...
...They have acquired too great a control, and have too largely shaped the policy of Federal and State affairs...
...To the direct primary must be joined the power of recall...
...They do not desire the enactment of laws guaranteeing justice to all and privilege to none...
...Its very existence, and the realization that it may be exercised, renders useless the lobbyist, and nullifies the great resources which the special interests have employed for improperly affecting legislation...
...I want to spend my fortune to make such fortunes as mine impossible," he said...
Vol. 3 • January 1911 • No. 3
