character which should be the common property of all parties. Four of the states have reëstablished the people's rule. Three of them are Republican states-Oregon, South Dakota and Montana, and one of them a Democratic state-Oklahoma. Maine and Missouri have submitted constitutional amendments, and in many of the other states this matter is marching to rapid triumph. When the eternal principles of justice shall rest as a brilliant diadem upon the brow of our great republic, then the brotherhood of man shall have been more nearly established and an equal opportunity for life, liberty and happiness be afforded to every human being that has the virtue and the industry essential to good citizenship. ROBERT L. OWEN. Washington, D. C. FEW THE DIRECT-LEGISLATION CAMPAIGN IN THE EMPIRE STATE. BY B. O. FLOWER. NEW PEOPLE fully realize that we are in the midst of one of the most momentous struggles that has been waged since the foundation of our Republic, yet such is the fact. True, as has been the case in several of the most vital moments in the long struggle of the people against the oppression of classes or privilege, no shock of arms accompanies the present contest, but nevertheless it carries with it the life and death of the democratic ideal, in so far as our government is concerned. To appreciate this it is only necessary to call to mind what differentiates a democratic republic or a government under the rule of the people from all forms of class-rule. In a democratic republic, or a popular government, the people are the sover eigns and the officials are merely their servants. This is true whether the people rule directly or whether for convenience they select representatives to carry out their wishes. The representatives are at all times merely the servants of their principals, the electors. This is the great point of differentiation between a republic or a government of the people, by the people and for the people, and every form of class-rule, whether it be under czar and bureaucracy, king and council of state, monarch and constitutional parliament, or an aristocracy or oligarchy, as has been present in different lands in various periods of history. In all despotic governments or lands under class-rule, the official class is recognized as the masters or as the agents of small |