Those who oppose direct legislation hold that the people are not fitted to govern themselves, that the few are fitted by divine law to rule, that the many are condemned to be ruled for the benefit of the few by a law equally divine. This is the law of kings; it is not the law of democracy. He who holds it is false to our theory of government, is no better than a monarchist.
Give us direct legislation, such as the initiative and referendum would establish, and there will be an end to sale of franchises by representatives and no laws will be enacted to rob the people of their rights and property. The place to begin with direct voting is in nomination of all candidates for public office—a People’s Party must abolish all delegate conventions for making nominations and platforms; must adopt direct voting for candidates and for declarations of principles; must have voting precinct clubs for party management. The district and subdivision plan of organization adopted by the Cincinnati convention of 1900 is the best plan of organization heretofore proposed, and it should be put into immediate operation unless a better plan can be proposed without delay, for it will insure rule of the people in party management and destroy the power of the political boss who goes into politics for profit.
If the People’s Party will at once declare for a rank-and-file plan of organization and management we will see a rush to arms in all states, for in all the rule of the boss, serving the money oligarchy, is most offensive. The time has come for such a People’s Party; there is no place for a People’s Party run on the lines of the Republican and Democratic Parties.
The day of the hero-led party has passed. The great majority Mr. Roosevelt received is no evidence to the contrary, for more than three million citizens out of seventeen million abstained from voting at the last election. Organization and education of the body of the people must come through voting precinct organizers and educators—of course the printed matter must for economy be prepared and sent out from central offices, from national headquarters, but no proper, no effective distribution of it can be made except by the precinct organizers.
If the people are to win a national victory there must be from three to five honest, able, aggressive, patriotic men in each of the one hundred thousand voting districts of the country working by day and by night. These men must awaken their immediate neighbors to a lively appreciation of the wrongs they suffer and point out the way to re-establishment of their rights, the way to restoration of justice, liberty and equality of opportunity. When such an army is in the field the people will defeat the money oligarchy, but not before.
At the election of 1904, I repeat, three million citizens refused to vote because they would not stultify themselves by voting for either Roosevelt or Parker, both candidates of the plutocrats. At least two million citizens voted for Roosevelt because they wished to destroy the Democratic Party, a party for years without fixed principles. These five million citizens, together with the eight hundred thousand citizens who voted for Debs, Watson and Swallow, represented the reform and dissatisfied vote of the country—five months since. The action of the Beef Trust, of the Railroad Combination and of allied interests, all in control of twenty men, and the now openly declared purpose of President Roosevelt and Secretary Hay to establish in foreign affairs an American-British alliance, alarm many millions of our citizens as they have not been alarmed before.
A new epoch in our country opens now, for people and plutocrats are in a death struggle. The principle the People’s Party stands for is that man is the master, money the servant. The question—is the People’s Party equal to the duty of the time?—must be answered at once. If it goes into the campaign immediately with a voting precinct organization such as was declared for by the Cincinnati convention of 1900, the answer will be affirmative.
The cardinal tenets of the party of the people are:
1. Brotherhood of man, love, justice, liberty and equality of opportunity.
2. Government by the people—the recognition of the right of the people to rule themselves by establishment of direct legislation, the initiative and the referendum.