No method of appointment will secure the best results, however, unless it is accompanied by a fair system of promotions. This has not yet been arranged for on any large scale. Appointments are to a large extent based upon merit, but promotions are still determined, in many cases, by personal or party favoritism. Rarely is there any examination or other test to decide who will be promoted when a vacancy occurs higher up. It is desirable, therefore, that the merit system of appointment should be supplemented by a merit system of promotions. Many capable young men and women will not enter the public service today because there is no certain chance of promotion on the basis of ability and industry. A merit plan of promotion would help to attract better candidates. The public treasury, moreover, ought to provide pensions for those who retire by reason of old age after many years of faithful service. Some large private institutions are now doing this. The nation, state, and city ought to adopt the same practice, not only because it is the humane way of treating aged employees but because it would make the public service more attractive as a career. Footnote 30: In a sense, however, the terms initiative and referendum are merely new names for very old institutions. The right of petition, which is the foundation of the initiative, has always existed in the United States. The referendum, in other words the submission of questions directly to the people, is as old as the New England town meeting; indeed it goes back to the time of ancient Athens. All early democracy, in fact, was direct democracy; the people decided things without legislatures. But as communities grew in size this system of direct democracy became impractical; hence they resorted to representative government. Now, when representative government fails to satisfy, we go back again in a roundabout way to the old method. Footnote 31: Only five of these states, however, lie east of the Mississippi River. Why is it that so many of these new movements, political and economic, originate somewhere in the West? Direct legislation, the recall, woman suffrage, popular election of senators, free silver, the single tax, Populism, the Non-partisan League,—the list would be a considerable one if given in full. It is often said that the growth of industrial communities, with large bodies of propertyless workers, tends to promote radicalism; but the West is still predominantly agricultural. What new political or economic movements have had their origin in industrial states like Massachusetts, Connecticut, or Pennsylvania during the past twenty-five years? Footnote 32: