democracy of his union or assembly may be transferred to the State. The
"local optionist" will have recognized, working in broader and more
varied fields, a well tried and satisfactory instrument. The college man
will have recalled the fact that wherever has gone the Greek letter
fraternity, there, in each society as a whole, and in each chapter with
respect to every special act, have gone the Initiative and the
Referendum. And every member of any body of equal associates must
perceive that the first, natural circumstance to the continued existence
of that body in its integrity must be that each individual may propose a
measure and that the majority may accept or reject it; and this is the
simple principle of direct legislation. Moreover, any mature man, east
or west, in any locality, may recall how within his experience a
community's vote has satisfactorily put vexatious questions at rest.
With the recognition of every such fact, hope will rise and faith in the
proposed methods be made more firm.


_Abolition of the Lawmaking Monopoly._

To radical reformers further encouragement must come with continued
reflection on the importance to them of direct legislation. In general,
such reformers have failed to recognize that, before any project of
social reconstruction can be followed out to the end, there stands a
question antecedent to every other. It is the abolition of the lawmaking
monopoly. Until that monopoly is ended, no law favorable to the masses
can be secure. Direct legislation would destroy this parent of
monopolies. It gone, then would follow the chiefer evils of governmental
mechanism--class rule, ring rule, extravagance, jobbery, nepotism, the
spoils system, every jot of the professional trading politician's
influence. To effect these ends, all schools of political reformers