Chapter 10

We have demagogues enough now, heaven knows, when election to an office assures the tenure of it for two or four or six years. But if that tenure were only from hour to hour, if it were held at the whim of a powerful and unscrupulous newspaper, for example, or if it could be put in jeopardy by an affront which in the line of duty ought, we will say, to be given to some organization or faction or cabal, what could we expect? Is it not inevitable that such a system would drive out of our public life the men of real character and courage and leave us only cowards and trimmers and time servers? May we not well hesitate to introduce into our political system a device which, had it been in vogue in the past, would have made it possible for the Tories to have recalled Washington, the copperheads to have recalled Lincoln, and the jingoes to have recalled McKinley?

In all the literature of the age-long struggle for freedom and justice there is no phrase that occurs oftener than "the independence of the judiciary." Not one man could be found now among all our ninety millions to declare that our Constitution should be changed so as to permit the President in the White House or the Congress in the Capitol to dictate to our judges what their decisions should be. And yet it is seriously proposed that this power of dictation shall be given to the crowd on the street. That is what the recall means if applied to the judiciary; and it means the destruction of its independence as completely as if in set terms it were made subject to the President or the Congress.

Do you answer, "Oh, the recall will never be invoked except in an extreme case of obvious and flagrant injustice"? I reply, "How do you know?" It is the theory of the initiative that it will never be invoked except to pass a good law, and of the referendum that it will never be resorted to except to defeat a bad law; but we have already seen how easily a bad law might be initiated and a good law referred. And so it is the theory that the recall will be invoked only for the protection of the people from a bad judge. What guaranty can you give that it will not be called into being to harrass and intimidate a good judge? There never yet was a two-edged sword that would not cut both ways.

Mr. Chairman, I should be the last to assert that our present system of government has always brought ideally perfect results. Now and then the people have made mistakes in the selection of their representatives. Corrupt men have been put into places of trust, small men have been sent where large men were needed, ignorant men have been charged with duties which only men of learning could fitly perform. But does it follow that because the people make mistakes in so simple a matter as the selection of their agents, they would be infallible in the incomparably more complex and difficult task of the enactment and interpretation of laws? There was never a more glaring non sequitur, and yet it is the very cornerstone upon which rests the whole structure of the new philosophy. "The people cannot be trusted with few things," runs this singular logic, "therefore let us put all things into their hands."

With one breath we are asked to renounce the old system because the people make mistakes, and with the next breath we are solemnly assured that if we adopt the new system the people will not make mistakes. I confess I am not mentally alert enough to follow that sort of logic. It is too much like the road which was so crooked that the traveler who entered upon it had only proceeded a few steps when he met himself coming back. You cannot change the nature of men, Mr. Chairman, by changing their system of government. The limitations of human judgment and knowledge and conscience which render perfection in representative government unattainable will still abide even after that form of government is swept away, and the ideal will still be far distant.

Let it not be said or imagined, Mr. Speaker, that because I protest against converting this Republic into a democracy therefore I lack confidence in the people. No man has greater faith, sir, than I have in the intelligence, the integrity, the patriotism, and the fundamental common sense of the average American citizen. But I am for representative rather than for direct government, because I have greater confidence in the second thought of the people than I have in their first thought. And that, in the last analysis, is the difference, and the only difference, so far as results are concerned between the new system and that which it seeks to supplant; it is the fundamental difference between a democracy and a republic. In either form of government the people have their way. The difference is that in a democracy the people have their way in the beginning, whereas in a republic the people have their way in the end--and the end is usually enough wiser than the beginning to be worth waiting for.

We count ourselves the fittest people in the world for self-government, and we probably are. But fit as we are we sometimes make mistakes. We sometimes form the most violent and erroneous opinions upon impulse, without full information or thoughtful consideration. With complete information and longer study, we swing around to the right side, but it is our second thought and not our first that brings us there. Our intentions are always right, and we usually get right in the end; but it often happens that we are not right in the beginning. It behooves us to consider long and well before we pluck out of the delicately adjusted mechanism by which we govern ourselves the checks and brakes and balance wheels which our forefathers placed there, and the wisdom of which our history attests innumerable times.

The simple and primitive life of civilization's frontier has given way to the most stupendous and complex industrial and commercial structure the world has ever known. Incredible expansion, social, political, industrial, commercial--but representative government all the way. At not one step in the long and shining pathway of the Nation's progress has representative government failed to respond to the Nation's need. Every emergency that 130 years of momentous history has developed--the terrible strain of war, the harrassing problems of peace--representative government has been equal to them all. Not once has it broken down. Not one issue has it failed to solve. And long after the shallow substitutes that are now proposed for it shall have been forgotten, representative government "will be doing business at the old stand," will be solving the problems of the future as it met the issues of the past, with courage and wisdom and justice, giving to the great Republic that government "of the people, for the people, and by the people" which is the assurance that it "shall not perish from the earth."

APPENDIX V

QUESTIONS WITH SUGGESTED ISSUES AND

BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY

Below are several questions with issues suggested which should bring about a "head on" debate. They should be useful at the beginning of debating work or when time for preparation is somewhat limited. A brief bibliography is in each case appended.

"THE RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE SHOULD BE GRANTED TO WOMAN"

_Affirmative_

I. Woman wants the ballot.

II. Woman is capable of using the ballot wisely.

III. Where woman has had the ballot, the results have been beneficial to the state.

_Negative_

I. A majority of women do not want the ballot.

II. Woman is incapable of using the ballot wisely.

III. A benefit has not resulted in those states which have given woman the right to vote.

BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY

"Success of Woman's Suffrage," _Independent_, LXXIII, 334-35 (August 8, 1912).

"Suffrage Danger," _Living Age_, CCLXXIV, 330-35 (August 10, 1912).

"Teaching Violence to Women," _Century_, LXXXIV, 151-53 (May, 1912).

"Violence in Woman's Suffrage Movement: A Disapproval of the Militant Policy," _Century_, LXXXV, 148-49 (November, 1912).

"Violence and Votes," _Independent_, LXXII, 1416-19 (June 27 1912).

"Votes for Women," _Harper's Weekly_, LVI, 6 (September 21, 1912).

"Votes for Women," _Harper's Bazaar_ XLVI, 47, 148 (January, March, 1912).

"Votes for Women and Other Votes," _Survey_, XXVIII, 367-78 (June 1, 10.12).

"What Is the Truth about Woman's Suffrage?" _Ladies' Home Journal_, XXIX, 24 (October, 1912).

"Why I Want Woman's Suffrage," _Collier's,_ XLVIII, 18 (March 16, 1912).

"Why I Went into Suffrage Work," _Harper's Bazaar_, XLVI, 440 (September, 1912).

"Woman and the State," _Forum_, XLVIII, 394-408 (October 1912).

"Woman and the Suffrage," _Harper's Weekly_, LVI, 6 (August 17, 1912).

"Woman's Rights," _Outlook_, _C_, 262-66 (February 3, 1912).

"Woman's Rights," _Outlook_, _C_, 302-4 (February 10, 1912).

"Concerning Some of the Anti-Suffrage Leaders," _Good House-keeping_, LV, 80-82 (July, 1912).

"Expansion of Equality," _Independent_, LXXIII, 1143-45 (November 14, 1912).

"Marching for Equal Suffrage," _Hearst's Magazine_, XXI, 2497-501 (June, 1912).

"Woman and the California Primaries," _Independent_, LXXII, 1316-18 (June 13, 1912).

"Woman Suffrage Victory," _Literary Digest_, XLV, 841-43 (November 23, 1912).

"Woman's Demonstration; How They Won and Used the Votes in California," _Collier's_, XLVIII, 17-18 (January 6, 1912).

"Recent Strides of Woman's Suffrage," _World's Work_, XXII, 14733-45 (August, 1911).

"Woman's Suffrage in Six States," _Independent_, LXXI, 967-20 (November 2, 1911).

"Women Did It in Colorado," _Hampton's Magazine_, XXVI, 426.

"Woman's Victory in Washington" (state), _Collier's,_ XLVI, 25.

"Are Women Ready for the Franchise?" _Westminster_, CLXII, 255-61 (September, 1904).

"Argument against Woman's Suffrage," _Outlook_, LXIV, 573-74 (March 10, 1900).

"Check to Woman's Suffrage in the United States," _Nineteenth Century_, LVI, 833-41 (November, 1904).

"Female Suffrage in the United States," _Harper's Weekly_, XLIV, 949-50 (October 6, 1900).

"Ought Women to Vote?" _Outlook_, LVIII, 353-55 (June 8, 1901).

"Outlook for Woman's Suffrage," _Cosmopolitan_, XXVIII, 621-23 (April, 1900).

"Woman's Suffrage in the West," _Outlook_, LXV, 430-31 (June 23, 1900).

"Movement for Woman's Suffrage," _Outlook_, XCIII, 265-67 (October 2, 1909).

"Why?" _Everybody's_, XXI, 723-38.

"Woman's Rights," _Twentieth-Century Encyclopedia_.

"THE AMERICAN NAVY SHOULD BE ENLARGED SO AS TO COMPARE IN FIGHTING STRENGTH WITH ANY IN THE WORLD"

_Affirmative_

I. The scattered possessions of the United States demand the protection of a large navy.

II. The expense of the proposed navy would be a judicious investment.

III. The proposed enlargement of the navy would be a step toward universal peace.

_Negative_

I. The geographical situation of the United States makes a large navy unnecessary.

II. The expense entailed, if the proposed plan were put into practice, would embarrass the United States.

III. To carry out the proposed plan would be to increase the chances of war.

BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY

"Relative Sea Strength of the United States," _Scientific American_ CVII, 174 (August 31, 1912).

"For an Adequate Navy in the United States," _Scientific American_, CV, 512 (December 9, 1911).

"Humble Opinions of a Flat-Foot; Frank Criticism and Intimate Picture of Our Navy, by a Blue-Jacketed Gob," _Collier's_ L, 14-15; P., XIX, 22-23 (December 7, 1912).

"Importance of the Command of the Sea," _Scientific American,_ CV, 512 (December 9, 1911).

"The United States Fleet and Its Readiness for Service," _Scientific American,_ CV, 514 (December 9, 1911).

"Battle-ship Fleet in Each Ocean," _Scientific American_, CII, 354 (April 30, 1910).

"Naval Madness," _Independent_, LXVIII, 489 (March 3, 1910).

"Our Naval Waste," _Nation_, XCI, 158 (August 25, 1910).

"Our Navy As a National Insurance," _Scientific American_, CII, 414 (May 21, 1910).

"American Naval Policy," _Forum_, XLV, 529 (May, 1911).

"If We Had to Fight," _Cottier's_, XLVIII, 18 (November 18 1911).

"Panama Canal and the Sea Power in the Pacific," _Century,_ LXXXII, 240 (January, 1911).

"LOCAL OPTION IS THE BEST METHOD OR DEALING WITH THE LIQUOR PROBLEM"

_Affirmative_

I. Other methods of dealing with the liquor problem have failed.

II. Local option is consistent with American ideas of government.

III. Local option is a proved success.

_Negative_

I. Local option is undesirable in theory.

II. Local option has not succeeded where tried.

III. There is a better method of dealing with this problem.

BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY

"Local Option; A Study of Massachusetts," _Atlantic_, XC, 433-40.

"Principle of Local Option," _Independent_, LIII, 3032-33 (December 19, 1901).

"When Prohibition Fails and Why," _Outlook_, CI, 639-43 (July 20, 1912).

"To Dam the Interstate Flow of Drink," _Literary Digest_, XLIV, 106-7 (January 20, 1912).

"Psychology of Drink," _American Journal of Sociology_, XVIII, 21-32 (July, 1912).

"World-Wide Fight against Alcohol," _Review of Reviews_, XLV, 374.

"Drink and the Joy of Life," _Westminster_, CLXXVI, 620-24 (December, 1911).

"Drink Traffic," _Missionary Review_, XXXII, 337-39 (May, 1909).

"Efforts to Promote Temperance since 1883," in L. B. Paton, _Recent Christian Progress_, 446-71.

"Fight against Alcohol," _Cosmopolitan_, XLIV, 492-96, 549-54 (April, May, 1908); _Harper's Weekly_, LII, 6-7 (April 25, 1908).

"Foreign Anti-Liquor Movements," _Nation_, LXXXVI, 230 (March 12, 1908).

"March of Temperance," _Arena_, XL, 325-30 (October, 1908).

"Social Conditions and the Liquor Problem," _Arena_, XXVI, 275-77 (September, 1006).

"Temperance Question," _Canadian M._, XXXII, 282-84 (January, 1909).

"Local Option Movement," _Annals of the American Academy_, XXXII, 471-5 (November, 1908).

"Results of a Dry Year in Worcester, Mass.," _Map Survey_, XXII, 301-2 (May 29, 1909).

"Local Option and After," _North American_, CXC, 628-41 (November, 1909).

"CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SHOULD BE ABOLISHED"

_Affirmative_

I. Capital punishment does not accomplish the purpose for which it is intended.

II. Capital punishment is inconsistent with the teachings of modern criminology.

III. There are other methods of punishment far more beneficial than the death penalty.

_Negative_

I. Capital punishment decreases crime.

II. The cruelty of capital punishment has been greatly exaggerated.

III. Society has found no crime deterrent so powerful as the death penalty.

BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY

"Does Capital Punishment Prevent Convictions?" _Review of Reviews_, XL, 219-20 (August, 1909).

"Does Capital Punishment Tend to Diminish Capital Crime?" _Harper's Weekly_, L, 1028-29; _Review of Reviews_, XXXIV, 368-69 (1909).

"Meaning of Capital Punishment," _Harper's Weekly_, L, 1289 (September 8, 1906).

"Plato on Capital Punishment," _Harper's Weekly_, L, 1903 (December 29, 1906).

"Should Capital Punishment Be Abolished?" _Harper's Weekly_, LIII, 8 (July 3, 1909).

"Whitely Case and Death Penalty," _Nation_, LXXXIV, 376-77 (April 25, 1907).

"Death Penalty and Homicide," _American Journal of Sociology_, XVI, 88-116 (July, 1910); _Nation_, VIII, 166; _North American_, CXVI, 138; _ibid._, LXII, 40; _ibid._, CXXXIII, 534; _Forum_, III, 503; _Arena_, II, 513.

"Capital Punishment and Imprisonment for Life," _Nation_, XVI, 193.

"Capital Punishment Anecdotes from Blue Book," _Ecl. M._, LXVI, 677.

"Capital Punishment Arguments Against," _Nation_, XVI, 213.

"Capital Punishment by Electricity," _North American_, CXLVI, 219.

"Capital Punishment: Case Against," _Fortnightly Review_, LII, 322; same article in _Eclectic Magazine_, CXIII, 518.

"The Crime of Capital Punishment," _Arena_, I, 175.

"Failure of Capital Punishment," _Arena_, XXI, 469.

"Why Have a Hangman?" _Fortnightly Review_, XL, 581.

"Punishment of Crimes," _North American_, X, 235.

APPENDIX VI

A LIST OF DEBATABLE PROPOSITIONS

SCHOOL QUESTIONS

Many of these, because of their local application, will be found useful for class practice where time for preparation is necessarily limited.

1. Coeducation in colleges is more desirable than segregation.

2. Textbooks should be furnished at public expense to students in public schools.

3. The adoption of the honor system in examinations would be desirable in American colleges.

4. Final examinations as a test of knowledge should be discontinued in X---- High School (or college).

5. All American universities and colleges should admit men and women on equal terms.

6. The national government should establish a university near the center of population.

7. The X---- College (or High School) should adopt courses which more definitely fit students for practical careers.

8. Intercollegiate football does not promote the best interests of competing schools.

9. Intracollegiate athletic contests would be a desirable substitute for intercollegiate athletics.

10. Secret societies should be prohibited in public high schools.

11. National fraternities do not promote the best interests of American-colleges and universities.

12. A college commons would be a desirable addition to X---- College.

13. A lunchroom should be established in the X---- High School.

14. Athletic regulations should not debar a student from playing summer baseball.

15. No student in an American college should be eligible to compete in intercollegiate athletics until he has begun his second year's work.

16. All studies in the X--- College (or High School) above those of the Freshman should be entirely elective.

17. In all public high schools training in military tactics should be required.

18. Public high schools should be under state supervision.

19. Admission to American colleges should be allowed only upon examination.

20. Academic degrees should be given only upon state examinations.

21. The library of X--- College (or High School, or city) should be open on Sunday.

22. A plan of self-government should be adopted for the X--- College (or High School).

23. The terms "successful" and "failed" as the only indication of grade work should be adopted by the X--- School in place of the present plan or working.

24. Gymnasium work should be required in X--- School.

25. Training in domestic science should be required of all girls at X--- School.

26. Manual training should be a requirement of all boys at X--- School.

SOCIAL QUESTIONS

27. The influence of the five-cent theater is beneficial.

28. A state board with power to forbid public exhibition should exercise stage censorship.

29. Children under sixteen years of age should be prohibited from working in confining industries.

30. Children under fourteen years of age should be prohibited from appearing on the stage.

31. A minimum wage for women employees of department stores should be enacted by the state of X---.

32. Public ownership of saloons would be a desirable method of dealing with the liquor problem.

33. The English system of old-age pensions should be adopted by the United States government.

34. Vivisection should be prohibited by law.

35. The publication of court proceedings in criminal and divorce cases should be subject to a board of censorship.

36. Education under the direction of a state board, should be required in the state prisons of X---.

37. The laws of marriage and divorce should be uniform throughout the United States (constitutionality conceded).

38. Local option is the best method of dealing with the liquor question.

39. The army canteen is desirable.

40. A system of compulsory industrial insurance should be adopted by the state of X---.

41. An eight-hour law for all women workers should be enacted by the state of X---.

42. Immigration should be restricted according to the provisions of the Dillingham-Burnett bill.

43. Free employment bureaus should be established by the city of X---.

44. Free employment bureaus should be established by the state of X---.

POLITICAL QUESTIONS

45. A permanent national tariff commission should be established.

46. The constitution should be so amended as to make more easy the passing of amendments.

47. The restrictions on Mongolian immigration should be removed.

48. The President of the United States should serve one term of six years.

49. Complete public reports of all contributions to political campaign funds should be required by law.

50. The Monroe Doctrine as a part of American foreign policy should be discontinued.

51. The interests of labor can best be represented by a separate political party.

52. The naturalization laws of the United States should be made more stringent.

53. Aliens should be forbidden the ballot in every state.

54. The state of California is justified in her stand against land ownership by aliens.

55. Permanent retention of the Philippine Islands by the United States is not advisable.

56. The United States navy should be maintained at a fighting strength equal to any in the world.

57. Direct presidential primaries should be a substitute for the present method of presidential nomination.

58. Corporations engaged in interstate business should be compelled to operate under a national charter.

59. The Panama Canal should be fortified.

60. The initiative and referendum in matters of state legislation would be desirable in the state of X----.

61. From the standpoint of the United States the annexation of Cuba would be desirable.

62. The fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States should be repealed.

63. The President should be elected by the direct vote of the people of the United States.

64. Proportional representation should be adopted in the state of X----.

65. The plan of proportional representation in present vogue in the state of X---- should be abolished.

66. The use of voting machines should be required in all elections in cities having a population of more than 10,000.

67. Public interest is best served when national party lines are discarded in municipal elections.

68. Suffrage should be limited to persons who can read and write.

69. Ex-Presidents of the United States should become senators-at-large for life.

70. Ex-Presidents of the United States should be pensioned for life at full salary.

71. The United States should adopt a plan of compulsory voting.

72. The national government should purchase and operate the express systems in connection with the parcel post.

73. Federal judges should be elected by direct vote of the people.

74. Two-thirds of a jury should be competent to render a verdict in jury trials in the state of X---.

75. The state of X--- should adopt a plan for recall of state judges.

76. The state of X--- should adopt a plan allowing a referendum of judicial decisions.

77. The appointment of United States consuls should be under the merit system.

78. American vessels engaged in coastwise trade should be permitted the use of the Panama Canal without the payment of tolls.

79. All postmasters should be elected by popular vote.

80. The bill requiring ----, which is at present before the X--- city council (X--- state legislature, or Congress) should be defeated.

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL QUESTIONS

81. The Underwood tariff bill of 1913 would be a desirable law.

82. The federal government should undertake at once the construction of an inland waterway from the Great Lakes to the Gulf (or from X to Y).

83. All raw materials should be admitted to the United States free of duty.

84. A state law should prohibit prison contract labor in the state of X---.

85. Federal government control of all natural resources would be desirable.

86. Municipal ownership of street railways would be an advantage to cities.

87. The Henry George system of single tax would be practicable in the United States.

88. A graduated income tax would be a desirable addition to the federal taxing system.

89. The boycott is a justifiable weapon in labor strikes.

90. The federal government should enact a progressive inheritance tax.