Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 12.djvu/273

OREGON HISTORY FOR OREGON SYSTEM 265 the private citizen attain the insight and poise that will insure action for the public good ? The Oregon system stands for the ne plus ultra in popular government. It represents a farthest extreme, and the shift to it came as the sequel to most trying experience with represent- ative government. The selected few, or the controlling ele- ments among them, into whose hands the interests of the masses had been intrusted had regularly played false or were duped. The strong were getting undue privileges, and were escaping their share of the public burdens. No return to normal condi- tions of social justice seemed possible under the old dispensa- tion. Such proficiency in political manipulation, in machine methods and in the arts of demagoguery had been developed by the designing few that in one way or another the people were too frequently served the crusts while the loaf went to the special interests. Under such circumstances the only thing to do was done the people took the management of their collec- tive affairs directly into their own hands. But however fully justified the people were in making this venture, the almost complete renunciation of parliamentary procedure and repre- sentative government by them imposes certain conditions that must be fulfilled if hopes are to be realized. Suppose the rank and file of an army were to presume to march abreast of their captains and to be heard in the councils of their commanders. Would not that be preposterous if the common soldier were not as fully versed in the art of war as his general and had not as large a part in the elaborating of the plan of campaign ? By as much as the art of statesmanship is of a higher order than that of war so much higher order of proficiency does the Oregon system imply to be the possession of the private citizen. Furthermore, the exchange of the system of representative government for pure democracy is made just when the state is sweeping forward into a new era. Its development is becom- ing intense; a more complex economic organization is being assumed and so many constructive readjustments are urgently called for. Vision is needed if the rapidly increasing density of