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Show f if HOODING UTAH' ' WITH SPEECHES !: B ! i Great Campaign on to Mislead tho People as to the Intent and Pur- H ' 1 i pose of tho Progressives Ogden Man Resents the Abuse of B lli the Congressional Pranking Privileged-Invites Pub- p I Usher elf Standard to Make an Address. !- m. The following artlclo is from an H- ' ', Ogdon "Progressive Democrat," as bo ; ( '' styles himself, and Is a response to j the flood of non-progressive Utcra- H ' '"'" turo which Is bolng eont throughout H ' ' the state under the frank of Utah's H' delegation In congress. Tho author H writes tho publishers of The Stand B ard to address Ogdea'a Commercial H Club In rofutatlon of tho statements j bolng taado in opposition to the ro- form measures. Tho idea is a good 1 ) ono. but thlR paper Is not In a ftfr- H ' sitlon to make engagements for ho K publisher, who is now In southern H rutah, spreading the gospel of tho Ht t Progressives. ! Tho communication la-as follows: H ' A PROGRESSIVE H DEMOCRAT'S VIEWS. H ! Bythe Author of Utah's Initiative and H t Referendum Constitutional H I Amendment. H ' We -have "watched with keen inter- ( est the efforts of tho Evening Stand ard and Its publisher to persuado tho Republican party of this state to fall in lino with thoLa Follotte Progressives Progress-ives for popular government. Wo wish v)'ou nil tho success Imaginable, but, B ! i . , - so far as tho state at large is con. corned, your appeals will fall on deaf ears. The cards are stacked against you and tho deal has commenced. The writer was the author of the bill passed by the legislature In 1899, submitting tho question of tho Inltl atlve and referendum to tho people In the form of a constitutional amendment. amend-ment. This amendment was submitted submit-ted at the fall election in 1900, and was adopted by an almost three to ono vote, and Is now a part of out-state out-state constitution. There hnvo been six sessions of our state legislature since tho constitution constitu-tion was so amended, six opportunities opportuni-ties to pass a law putting that portion por-tion of our constitution In working order, and while the writer ha3 furnished furn-ished a bill and had It Introduced and printed In four of those sessions, It has each time failed to receive tho Toqulsito number of votes to pass. Having been thus so Intimately acquainted ac-quainted and connected with what has been done In this state along that line, wo thought it altogether proper prop-er that we should submit a few lines on the matter following: Tho past week wo received a pamphlet pam-phlet from Washington, D. C, under the franking privileges of Congressman Congress-man Howell (that means the govern, ment paid the postage). "Upon examination exam-ination we find it to bo a speech de-llored de-llored by one Prof Nicholas Murray Butler, a professor from New York state, beforo the St, Louis Commercial Commer-cial Club This speech was presented to the United States senato by Senator Sutherland Suth-erland with the request that It be printed in the Congressional Record as a public document, at public expense, ex-pense, and, tho samo is being circulated circu-lated by the thousands throughout the state of Utah under the slgnaturo of JoBeph Howell. M C Thus the printing Is at public expense, tho binding Is by government clorks at public expense, It Is carried In the malls at public expense, and must thoroforo be of great Importance. A perusal of the documont on-ltghtens on-ltghtens us. It Is a scholarly addross, dovotod to the opposition of popular government, a direct attack on tho ! Initiative and referendum. Just why this spooch, delivered down hi Missouri, Mis-souri, should receive so much ation-lou ation-lou from Utau s law makers, 1b n. query. Wo would suggest to Mr. lilanmann that ho deliver a speech On tho same subject before Ogdoa Cltj's Commorcial Club and send It to Congressman Howell or one of our senatois, with tho request that It bo Inserted In tho Record and then mailed broadcast thioughout tho Htate of Utah, at public expense, or the writer will agree to furnish the speech and will endeavor to answer Prof. Butler If our United States senator sen-ator will bo as good to us as ho was to the New Yorker. No, wo would got no hoarlng from that Bourco Tho faots arc tho Democratic Dem-ocratic party of Utah hns come out openly and fearlessly for tho initiative initia-tive and referendum, and within the past year many Republicans within the state, heado'd by tho publisher of The Standard, have Jolnod In tho agitation agi-tation and education for this popular popu-lar reform In government. This will bo tho Ishuo in. the coming state campaign, cam-paign, and our representatives in congress, con-gress, recognizing tho fact, have accepted ac-cepted tho challenge and aro this early flooding tho state with anti-reform anti-reform "stand-put" literature. It scorns peculiar that our very ablo representatives do not feel competent to moot the Issue themselves, and that they deem It necessary to Import Im-port thlsspeech from tho "down east erner to keep Utah from doing what our sister states have done, adopting this popular form of government It certainly means that tho first gun in the 1912 campaign has been fired, It has been fired by our representatives rep-resentatives In congress, at our espouse, es-pouse, and Is directed at the agitation for a popular form of government. Why aro our representatives so afraid of the Initiative and referendum and recall? Let them answer. In the raeantlmo let the Progressive Demo, crats perfect theh organization In every precinct and seo that our party takos no backward step. Let tho Progressive Republicans organize and present their demands at their state convention, and wo will put this state In lino with other progress!o states Oregon, Oklahoma, California, South Dakota and Now Jersey Nicholas Murray Butler's speech has been sent out by Senator Sutherland Suth-erland and Congressman Howell as a campaign document. We must assume as-sume that they give It their endorsement; endorse-ment; hence In replying to It we will ' address our sonator and representative representa-tive in the third person, as wc assuiuo that not Mr Butler but the gentlemen named are most Interested In tho effect ef-fect of the documont in this state. The tltlo of tho pamphlet Is "Why Should Wo Chango Our Form of Government''" Gov-ernment''" From the spaco given to tho praiso of our republican form of government they would seom to bo terribly worked up m fear wo will change our government trom u republic re-public to a ' rioclnl Democracy." Wo doslro to aissuro them that tnere ib no disposition whatever on tho part of those advocating tho Initiative, referendum ref-erendum and recall to change the principles' of our government Oui govern'mtenj, Is a republic, and our constitution so guarantees It. It shall romaJn a republic, but It Is our pur-poso pur-poso to make that republic a little more dembcratlc. We do not attack our representative form of government, govern-ment, but wo propose to strengthen our representative bodlos by putting the veto In the hands of tho people and also ty making It necessary for our representatives to give cpnsld-cratlon cpnsld-cratlon to our petitions. They seem extremely solicitous for fear the legislation Initiated by a lawful law-ful per cent of tho voters would not bo subject to discussion in committee commit-tee or of amendment, in this thoy show their utter lack of knowlodgo of tho subject thoy attempt to discuss. Tho initiative Is addressed to the legislature, leg-islature, ortho law-making body of tho municipality affected, and that body would put it through the regular regu-lar course, tho samo as any other bill, and, 4thon 't finally became a law, It wouHl bo peculiar at least If It had not been amended and possibly pos-sibly entirely re-wrltten by the lawmakers. law-makers. In no case would the petition for the initiative be the samo as the petition pe-tition for th referendum Henco, If the law-making bodv should not pasj the bill at all, petitioned for, but should pasayinc of their own drafting, draft-ing, which Covered the matter In effect ef-fect the same, thoro would be no oc. caslon for ahe referendum But, should this body Ignore the lnltlatoiy potltlon. or should dofy tholr constituents, consti-tuents, as "bur present representatives representa-tives In congress are doing, by opposing op-posing what tho people voted for, thcr. a petition for the reference of tho original bill to the people for their verdict would, and should, be the supreme su-preme law - Thoy beg the question, by referring to the old Now England town meetings, meet-ings, and ak: "What would we do with a town" meeting In Chicago'" They may answer that question themselves them-selves It ia their own asking We are not advocating "New England town meetings " The principles wo advocate are no longor experiments. A numbor of our states have adopted thorn, and In not ono of them would 1 twenty-five per cent of the people voto to go back to their old form. They arosuro that the best men of a community would not accept office of-fice If their acts were subject to review re-view and voto by their constituents. Well, possibly we would have some changes In our law-making bodlos, somo of us would fool that wo were protty well represented with a Chamberlain Cham-berlain or Bourne of Oregon or by an Iwon or Gnro of Oklahoma, and yet thoy seem to accept office. How any honest representative could oh. jeet to the people who clocted him having- the power to ratify or reject his legislation wo dannot -understand. "Wo would degrade our legislative bodies," thoy say. Tho very opposite. oppo-site. Our legislative bodies would bo honest for the very potont reason, If for no other, that any dishonest act would bo subject to tho veto of tho people. The best men of our community com-munity would aspire to a soat In a legislative body where rascals and dishonest men could have no vocation voca-tion Another objoctlon noted Is that a very small percentage of tho voters would pass upon legislation. Experience Experi-ence has proven that to be a mistake. In Oregon eighty per cent of the voters vot-ers voted on tho measure presented, and, In many cases, tho questions were local, bo that the people were not all Interested Quoting again from aheir campaign document, they say. "It means thnt the majority will take direct and responsible re-sponsible control of your life, your liberty and your property" And then they aek 'Should not" the majority rule7" And answor themBelves: "No! A thousand times no' ' All right, gentlemen, maybe you aro right, but wc have been taught that the majority should rule, and not a minority, as many of our representatives' representa-tives' are elected by when thoro aro threo or more parties In the field. We will continue to advocato majority rulo You apsuro us that the recall "will keep high-minded and independent men from accepting nominations to public office." Well, we do not sco why it should, but of one thing we aro certain- It will make It useless for low-minded, vicious and designing men to seek office. We will close with almost your own words "Let us not chango our form of government; let us develop it; let us perfect It " Let us make our ro-publlc ro-publlc moro democratic and less aristocratic. aris-tocratic. "For In so doing we aro only responding to the noble appeal of Abraham Lincoln, so to dedicate ourselves to the cause of liberty that 'A government of the people, for the people, and by the people shall not perish from the earth.' " (Signed) SHERMAN S SMITH. |