direct legislation could solve the more pressing immediate phases of the
labor question and create the local conditions favorable to remodeling,
and as far as possible abolishing, the superstructure of government.


_Wider Applications of These Principles and Methods._

The political and economic arrangements extending beyond the control of
the municipalities would now, if they had not done so before, challenge
attention. In taking up with reform in this wider field, the industrial
wage-workers would come in contact with those farmers who are demanding
radical reforms in state and nation. As the sure instrument for the
citizenship of a state, direct legislation could again with confidence
be employed. No serious opposition, in fact or reason, could be brought
against it. That the mass of voters might prove too unwieldy for the
method would be an assertion to be instantly refuted by Swiss
statistics. In Zurich, the most radically democratic canton of
Switzerland, the people number 339,000; the voters, 80,000. In Berne,
which has the obligatory Referendum, the population is 539,000. And it
must not be overlooked that the entire Swiss Confederation, with 600,000
voters, now has both Initiative and Referendum. Hence, in any state of
the Union, direct legislation on general affairs may be regarded as
immediately practicable, while in many of the smaller states the
obligatory Referendum may be applied to particulars. And even in the
most populous states, when special legislation should be cast aside, and
local legislation left to the localities affected, complete direct
legislation need be no more unmanageable than in the smallest.

United farmers, wage-workers, and other classes of citizens, in the
light of these facts, might naturally demand direct legislation.