Of the many revolutionary schemes in the Progressive platform, both national and state, one of the most dangerous and far-reaching is the proposal to destroy the representative character of our government by substituting direct action by the people in place of action by legislatures and officers elected by the people. This is to be accomplished through the initiative and the referendum. The movement is doubly important at the present time because, as is well known, the Democratic candidate for the presidency, after teaching directly the contrary for many years, has become a recent convert to these ideas. Although such a scheme might be beneficial or harmless in the little town meetings of New England, in small municipalities, or in agricultural states having a homogeneous population less in number than some of the counties of the state of New York, the initiative and the referendum would be wholly unsuited to an empire such as ours with a population of nearly 100,000,000, or to a state such as New York with a population of nearly 10,000,000. Would it not be absurd and preposterous to have the thousands of bills annually introduced in Congress passed upon by the people at large, and would it not be equally absurd and preposterous for a state like New York, passing hundreds of bills every year, to give a small minority the right to compel the submission of every statute to the vote of the people? Would it not be little short of calamitous to have those least qualified to understand and appreciate the changes they were making pass upon and control legislation? The result would be chaos. The great men who founded our system of constitutional government were thoroughly familiar with the theory and operation of pure democracy or direct action by the people, as distinguished from representative government. They saw the past failures of pure democracy and the danger of any such system, and they deliberately declined to adopt it. In speaking of "the equal rights of man," Jefferson declared that "modern times have the signal advantage, too, of having discovered the only device by which these rights can be secured, to wit,--government by the people, acting not in person, but by representatives chosen by themselves." The plain truth is that the trouble with our legislatures and with Congress is the character of many of the men whom the people elect. The remedy is in the hands of the voters. If they will elect capable and honest men to legislative, executive and judicial office, we shall have a cure at once. We need a remedy, not a poison.