Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/910



to give away, all might go well ; but that as soon as the land was gone, and popula- tion began to press upon production for ease and comfort, then the trouble would come.

We are prone to think the ancients knew but little of value. !We throw aside the experience of older communities as worthless. The bible is voted a useless book. And proud of all the achievements of science put on all steam and sail, and breast the future with unconcern. But one thing — one unalterable unchanging truth, we forget — human nature does not change.

"Their climes they change, and not their minds, who sail across the sea." The conspiracies, fights and factions of ancient Greece and Rome are re- enacted in every modern nation.

"In yon field below, A thousand years of silenced factions sleep — The Forum, where the immortal accents glow. And still the eloquent air breathes — burns with Cicero."

The pendulum swings. From the Areopagus of Greece and the Forum of Rome to King John at Runnymede, was a thousand years. By slow and painful marches through every phase and graduation of power in the hands of the people, and to the hands of the King, Greece and Rome had fallen to rise no more ; and England had risen to the dignity of a nation that administered laws and justice through parliaments and courts.

The pendulum swings. From Runnymede to Philadelphia in 1776 was 560 years. By the invention of the magnetic compass, the art of printing, and the dis- covery of America, kings had been shorn of absolute power, parliaments had taken the place of mass meetings to make laws, and a new nation had been founded on the principle of representative government.

The pendulum swings. From the declaration of American independence to the settlement of the North American continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and the adoption of the principles of direct legislation by the people of Oregon, is 130 years ; and, the pendulum swings again — swings back 600 years to Gessler, Tell and the Swiss mountains ; back 2,000 years to the Caesars, to Pericles and law making, law executing by the decrees of the people in public mass meeting. No! not by the people in popular assemblies ; but by the people in divided, separated independent units and a secret ballot. Is this reform? Is this progress? Has all the experience of two thousand years, the statesmanship of Pericles, the wisdom of Cato, the learning of Bacon, the patriotism of Washington and the great heart of Lincoln — all, all gone for nothing? Is there no wisdom in counsel; no strength in combination? Is it now to be a factional scramble for place and power by antagonistic and diverse interests ; great capitalists, great corporations, multi-mil- lionaires, deft political schemers, all appealing to the ignorance, prejudices or self- interest of rival and incoherent bodies of unorganized voters?

Civil government is now on trial in Oregon, as never before, and the end is not yet.