THE ROLL CALL
The Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES A Word to Wisconsin Voters— ELECTION DAT, November third, is an important day for you. It is YOUR day. This year there are several matters you must...
...Wherever representative government fails, it fails because the representative proves incompetent or false to his trust...
...Then it will always be possible for the people to demand a direct vote and to repeal a bad law which the legislature has enacted, or to enact by direct vote a good measure which the legislature has refused to consider...
...You will make it possible to put forward and to pass laws YOURSELF if you vote "YES" on the INITIATIVE amendment...
...Whenever and wherever they fail, they will be so changed as to make them effective to execute and express the well-considered judgment of the citizen...
...A Significant Vote A LL these amendments were adopted by both houses of the legislature at the sessions of 1911 and 1913 by large majorities, ranging from three to one to a unanimous vote...
...State insurance will not affect any insurance business done at reasonable cost...
...It now takes four years and a majority of two legislatures to make any needed changefin the state constitution...
...At the expiration of his service he may be replaced by another who will prove equally unworthy...
...Vote for the Short Method of amending the state constitution...
...You will then be able to "fire" as well as to hire in public as well as in private business Instruments of Popular Will CONCERNING these "three instruments of representative democracy"—the initiative, referendum and recall—Senator La Follette had this to say in a speech in the United States Senate: "Mr...
...Has there ever been an appropriation bill hurried through the legislature that has not met with your approval...
...Among those favoring the amendments were: Senators Blaine, Bosshaed, Browne, Donald, Gatloed, Hdber, Husting, Kleczka, Keumrey, H. C. Martin, Owen, Randolph, Sanborn, Scott, Skogmo, Snover, Tompkins, True, Zophy...
...Assemblymen Ballard, Bingham, Binner, Bowe, Brockhausen, Clark, Estabrook, Everett, Frye, Gettle, Gilboy, Gulickson, Hahn, Harper, Holmes, ^Hoversen, Hull, Ingram, Jennings, Jensen, Axel Johnson, J. R. Jones, Katzbahn, Kieper, Kneen, Lentz, Long, Ludlow, Metcalfe, Millar, Minkley, Monson, Mortensen, Nordman, Nye, O'Connor, Peavey, Perry, Raymond, Sommerfield, Stevenson, T. A. Stewart, Urquhart, Vint, Weber and Wells Vote Yourself Power...
...They are fighting these amendments...
...Intrenched in office for his full term, his constituency is powerless and must submit to misrepresentation...
...Vote for Home Rule...
...There is no way to correct his blunders or to protect against his betrayal...
...Get the pink ballot...
...These amendments are designed to give you greater power and control over your government...
...This is the people's Government...
...Securing Laws You Do Want HAVE you ever wanted a law which the legislature refused to pass...
...Vote for the Recall...
...Out of the thirty-three Senators, no more than six opposed any of these amendments...
...Firing" Undesirable Officials HAVE you ever elected a public official whom later you wished very much were no longer in office...
...Vote for the Initiative...
...If appropriations are too high you can cut them down...
...They are not working for YOU...
...If so you will vote "YES" on the RECALL amendment which will place the power of removal in your hands...
...Has it ever happened that the legislator you sent to Madison to represent you has voted as you wished him to vote on most measures but voted against your wishes on some measure in which you were greatly interested...
...By voting "YES" to these INSURANCE amendments you will be relieving yourself of much of the burden in dollars and cents that insurance imposes upon you and your families...
...This overcharge is added to the price of the goods bought by farmers and working men...
...They will restore and forever preserve it as a Government that shall be truly representative of the will of the people...
...The citizen is entitled to some check, some appeal, some relief, some method of halting and correcting the evils of misrepresentation and betrayal...
...Vote "YES" on all...
...but the power of the legislature to establish state insurance is a big club to get reasonable rates and right treatment from the big insurance companies...
...The stock companies and their insurance agents have been trying to kill the mutual companies and fraternal societies...
...President...
...Then no jack-pot politician can hold his office in defiance of the will of a constituency whose commission he has dishonored...
...How ? BY VOTING "YES" ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS...
...Insurance THE INSURANCE amendments will make it possible for you to have laws to relieve the people from overcharges in insurance...
...They will not destroy it...
...Vote yourself into power...
...Has a public servant ever been elevated to office whose deeds did not hold true to his campaign promises...
...For over and above constitutions and statutes, and greater than all, is the supreme sovereignty of the people...
...If you can't get, through your legislature, a law that you want, you can write it on the statute books for yourself...
...The referendum enables you to reject or approve a law just as you do when you vote now on constitutional amendments...
...And remember this: Ohio and Washington, under state insurance, spend only six to eight per cent, of the policy holders' payments...
...In both houses only three members voted against all these amendments...
...Have you ever chafed under the necessity of waiting, perhaps two whole years, in order to vote out of office a man who was harmfully misrepresenting your interests...
...The way will be opened for you to do just this thing in case you vote "YES" on the REFERENDUM amendment...
...Vote yourself into continued sovereignty over bosses, machines and self-seeking interests that would prosper upon stolen privileges...
...Out of the one hundred Assemblymen, no more than twenty opposed any of these amendments...
...THE amendments are necessary...
...Vote YOURSELF politically supreme...
...These Insurance amendments will not affect farmers' mutual companies or fraternal societies that are conducted to furnish insurance at the lowest cost...
...They will not permit organized privilege to destroy its vital principle...
...It will protect the state if they attempt to dictate...
...Vote for the Referendum...
...This year there are several matters you must decide—matters that are of exceeding importance to you and to the voters who will come after you...
...The HOME RULE amendment gives any city or village power to do what the people of that city or village want done...
...The farmers' mutuals collect less than $120 for each $100 paid in losses while the big insurance companies take from manufacturers and merchants $150 to $300 for every $100 returned...
...By voting "YES" on this amendment you will be giving yourself the power at all times to make the constitution keep abreast of changing conditions and newly-arising public needs...
...We need not fear, Mr...
...By the SHORT METHOD of amendment you may change the constitution directly, in two years...
...President, constitutions and statutes and all the complex details of government are but instruments created by the citizen for the orderly execution of his will...
...By voting "YES" on the HOME RULE amendment you will be placing the conduct of your own local affairs in YOUR OWN HANDS...
...Rejecting Laws You Don't Want HAVE you ever wanted to defeat a law that you considered bad...
...If so, wouldn't you like to have it arranged so that it would be possible for you, by your votes, to undo what the legislature has done and to kill the undesired law...
...That is why they are being opposed so desperately by the bosses, the machine politicians, the special interests, and the newspapers that serve these interests...
...This clay is your chance to provide yourselves with instruments of government that will make you absolutely supreme for all time in the state's affairs...
...Has the legislature ever enacted into law a measure that you yourself would have voted against if you had been sitting in the place of your representative...
...They know that the initiative and referendum will place in the hands of the people the power to protect themselves against the mistakes or indifference of their representatives in the legislature...
...If the legislature fails to wipe out an unnecessary expense or a useless office, you can do it for yourself...
...The recall will enable the people to dismiss from public service a representative whenever he shall cease to serve the public interest...
...Home Rule and "Short Method" "THERE are other amendments to the constitu-tion which will further increase your political power and protect your interests...
...It will make it unnecessary to submit any longer to the determination of your local affairs by men who come from other parts of the state...
Vol. 6 • October 1914 • No. 42
