Excerpt from Government by All the People: Or the Initiative, the Referendum and the Recall as Instruments of Democracy
An irrepressible conflict of political ideas is going on in the United States to-day. The Republicans cannot compose their differences. Neither can the Democrats theirs. The split between plutocratic Democrats and democratic Democrats and between standpat Republicans and progressive Republicans yawns deeper and more unbridgeable than the ancient fissure between mere Democrats and mere Republicans. The earth has been quaking of late and new cracks are appearing on its surface. A realignment of political parties is presently inevitable. The quarrel is about the nature of government. Is it a private industry, or a public enterprise? All agree that government is of the people. Indeed, most of the disputants assert that it is for the people, but a subtle difference in the uses of the word "for" is perceptible. Some use "for" in the sense in which a skillful advertiser of merchandise announces that he is in business to "please" his customers, to work for them. Others use "for" in the sense that government is, in good faith, designed primarily for the benefit of all the people, made to order and sold at cost. But in regard to the central member of Lincoln's triad, government by the people, there is a great crunching of mighty words. Of course, all parties agree with Lincoln, but they are unable to agree among themselves as to his meaning or as to the attitude he would assume toward the divisive issues of to-day if he were alive among us. What is government by the people? The author of this book lays no claim to impartiality in the great national conflict now going on. The argument will have to speak for itself.
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