Page:Back to the Republic.djvu/93



HE only way to secure the short ballot is to make the ballot short. The Constitution provided for a short ballot. The republic itself is the short–ballot plan.

The short ballot necessitates divesting the form of government of all elective officials other than the executive and members of the legislative body and abandoning all forms of the initiative, referendum and recall.

Nearly all of the short–ballot proclaimers are rabid advocates of all manner of propaganda that makes the ballot long. At a so–called national convention held recently at the Sherman House in Chicago for the ostensible purpose of organizing a new political party, the self–appointed delegates of that convention resolved in favor of the short ballot and in the next breath declared in favor of the initiative, referendum and recall. Their conduct was about as consistent as it would be for delegates to a prohibition convention to shout for temperance and then guzzle whiskey between shouts. Rh