Unpopular government in the United States

by Albert Martin Kales

Other proposals for changes in the plan of the federal government have been made with the avowed object of eliminating extra-legal government by politocrats. The influence of extra-legal government in national conventions is to be permanently overthrown by presidential primaries. If any change were to be made in respect to the judiciary it would be in the direction of making them elective, and perhaps subject to the recall. No doubt nominations through primary elections would be advocated for all elective officers. Newspapers recently gave space to the demand that the postmasters should be elected by the voters of the post-office district. Whatever temporary advantage over the extra-legal government there may be in any of these expedients, they represent the application of the very principle of government which in the long run produces, and must always produce, the disease from which we are suffering and desire to be cured. This is our process of curing the ills of democracy with more democracy. It is the case of more poison for one already overcome. Have the past thirty years not yet taught us that to increase the burden upon the voter is to reduce the most intelligent member of the electorate to the darkest political ignorance and thus to enable the professional adviser and director to the politically ignorant voter to cast his ballot for him? Every additional appeal to the electorate is a step toward that scheme of government which is most favorable to the growth and development of extra-legal government by politocrats. The federal government is suffering because in the village, the township, the city, the county, and the state, such political burdens have been placed upon the voter that he cannot perform his political functions intelligently. He is forced to delegate them to those who make it their profession to carry his political burdens for him. To them he turns over the privilege of casting his ballot for him. It would be amusing if it were not tragic that the increase of the cause should be selected as the cure.

The elimination of extra-legal government from our villages, townships, cities, counties, and states has become a national problem. The proper functioning of the national government is impossible while these sources contribute to the existence of extra-legal government. The reduction of governmental agencies to two—a local municipal government and a state government—the application of the principle of the commission form of government to both, so that the electorate casts its ballot for one officer only in each, and the consequent disruption of extra-legal government, are essential to the restoration of the federal government to political health. The plan of the federal government taken by itself and as an instrument of government in its appropriate sphere is still admirable. If it were the only governmental agency in the field, extra-legal government would never have had a chance to achieve power in the United States. If any improvements in the plan of the federal government are ever found necessary they should be in the direction, first, of uniting the executive power and the legislative power, and second, the elimination of the Senate veto upon executive appointments. The former may be accomplished by placing the control of the executive power in the hands of the president and his cabinet or in a so-called council of state composed of the president and his cabinet officers and also requiring that each cabinet officer must be a member of one of the houses of Congress. This would at once place the control of the executive power of the nation in the hands of the leaders of the majority in both branches of the legislature, or at least in the leaders of that branch which more effectively represented the electorate. The president would cease to carry his present load of responsibility for executive action and legislative progress. His office would be important, for he would be that human agency necessary to place the representatives of the victors at the polls in control of the executive power. His influence as a member of the council of state would be considerable. With a veto power over legislation he would still retain an enormous one-man power.

CHAPTER XIX
CONCLUSION

The conflict between extra-legal government and the popular demand for a true democracy is as irresistible as was the conflict between the South and the North over the institution of slavery. Extra-legal government, like the South, represents a vast property interest which, while at first seeking protection, soon became aggressive in its desire to extend its power and its institutions. As the North sought to live with the institution of slavery in the South, to compromise with it and to check it here and there, so we have been trying to live with extra-legal government, to compromise with it and to check it when we saw it in an especially obnoxious form. But as the fight for and against slavery was never settled till slavery was abolished, so the war on politocracy will never cease till some great national crisis has given birth to a new political philosophy and a sound practice under it, which will sweep extra-legal government from the field. That philosophy is summed up in three prosaic words: The Short Ballot. They are the emancipation proclamation for our government. The faithful and complete application of the principles underlying the short ballot in our local and state governments will be as important and perhaps as difficult a step for us to achieve as was the emancipation of the slaves.

Transcriber’s Notes

Errors in punctuation have been fixed.

[Page 142]: “proprietory interest” changed to “proprietary interest” to match the original source.