presidential preference primaries, independent nominations, all relate
to forms of voluntary action outside the proper field of governmental
institutions. All these new political methods are the result of efforts of
the rank and file of voluntary parties to avoid being controlled by the
agents of their own party organization, and to get away from real evils
in the form of undue control by organized minorities with the support of
organized capital. None of these expedients is an end in itself. They are
tentative, experimental. They are movements not towards something definite
but away from something definite. They may be inconvenient or distasteful
to some of us, but no one need be seriously disturbed by the idea that
they threaten our system of government. If they work well they will be
an advantage. If they work badly they will be abandoned and some other
expedient will be tried, and the ultimate outcome will doubtless be an
improvement upon the old methods.

There is another class of new methods which do relate to the structure of
government and which call for more serious consideration here. Chief in
this class are:

The Initiative; that is to say, direct legislation by vote of the people
upon laws proposed by a specified number or proportion of the electors.

The Compulsory Referendum; that is to say, a requirement that under certain
conditions laws that have been agreed upon by a legislative body shall
be referred to a popular vote and become operative only upon receiving a
majority vote.

The Recall of Officers before the expiration of the terms for which they
have been elected by a vote of the electors to be had upon the demand of a
specified number or proportion of them.