Underneath the existing political and legislative evils in this country there is found a common cause—the rule of the few through machine politics. The powers of sovereignty are exercised by the few. Proof of this is the fact that the evils complained of are banished, or are in process of disappearing, wherever the people have established their sovereignty—have established the right to a direct vote on public questions. This system is the initiative and referendum. It is exercised in combination with representatives, and the system as a whole is termed Guarded Representative Government—the people’s sovereignty is guarded. This improved system of representative government is an evolutionary product, and being such it will gradually extend throughout the world. A practical question is: How best can its spread be promoted? To arrive at an answer, one must study the methods whereby the improved systems came into being. We find that the forerunners were third parties and non-partisan organizations. The first declaration by a political party in this country was the Socialist Labor Party in 1889. Next came a declaration by the Knights of Labor in 1891. The same year there appeared “The Referendum in America,” by Ellis Paxton Oberholtzer, Ph.D. The next year J. W. Sullivan published his book, “Direct Legislation.” During the year the National Direct Legislation League was organized. There was also published, during 1892, “Direct Legislation by the People,” by Nathan Cree of Chicago. On July 4th of the same year, 1892, the newly organized People’s Party commended “to the favorable consideration of the people and the reform press the legislative system known as the initiative and referendum.” And state conventions of the People’s Party and the allied parties also paid considerable attention to the initiative and referendum. During the Autumn the American Federation of Labor gave its emphatic endorsement to the initiative and referendum by commending “to affiliated bodies the careful consideration of this principle and the inauguration of an agitation for its incorporation into the laws of the respective states.” The same year the National Grange adopted a resolution recommending to the state and subordinate granges the Swiss legislation method known as the referendum and the initiative. The following year the People’s Party, wherever it was in power, endeavored to submit to the people a constitutional amendment for the initiative and referendum, but as a two-thirds vote was required there was a temporary failure. In 1896 the People’s Party at its national convention came out strongly for the initiative and referendum, as also did the National Party convention, composed of 299 delegates who seceded from the Prohibition convention. The Socialist Labor Party also reaffirmed its people’s sovereignty plank of 1892.