defeat an act on an initiative or referendum as it is to place men loyal to it in the offices of the legal government. The initiative and the referendum, then, while they may at times give the righteous a desirable advantage, will in normal conditions place in the hands of the extra-legal government the opportunity to secure the passage of undesirable laws or to defeat good ones and to insist for a time at least that this is “the judgment of the people”; just as for years they have declared that when the system of frequent elections for many offices produced undesirable officeholders, it was the result of the will of the people. FOOTNOTES: [7] George Kibbe Turner, “The Thing above the Law,” _McClure’s Magazine_, XXXVIII, 575. CHAPTER IX THE RECALL What has been said of the initiative and the referendum is almost precisely applicable to the recall. The movement for the recall began just as soon as it was generally perceived that our system of frequent elections to fill a large number of offices did not prevent the extra-legal government from placing in office men loyal to it. The movement for the recall is the frankest admission that this system of elections has been a failure. The real cause for this failure was the fact that too much voting had overloaded the voter and his resulting political ignorance had delivered him into the hands of an organization which in effect cast his ballot for him. Again, however, this was entirely neglected, and the superficial and obvious remedy was put forward of having a new election whenever it was discovered that an officeholder was objectionable because of his subservience to an extra-legal government. The statutes, however, do not undertake to submit to the electorate the question whether the officers subject to the recall elections have been too subservient to the extra-legal government and that alone. Instead, the voters may cast their votes for the recall of an officer on any ground they please. If there is an organized and effectively led revolt against extra-legal government, then obviously the weapon of the recall may be of great service. It will enable the attacking party to sweep out of office adherents of the extra-legal government who would otherwise have held until the next election, when the tide of popular sentiment in favor of the attack might have begun to ebb. But revolts are not at all frequent. There has always been an opportunity at regular elections for such movements through independent nominations by petition. A revolt of any consequence would have undertaken to use this method. In spite, however, of the opportunity thus afforded, the general revolt against extra-legal government in local districts is the occurrence of a decade, if not of a generation.